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STRICTLY SANITARY BATHS ATTRACTIVE LOBBY
COONEY HOTEL
DOG KENNELS NF.NANA, ALASKA
TOMA LAUNCH
LEFT YESTERDAY;
FEW PASSENGERS
The Carl White launch Brooks,
on her way from Fairbanks to the
logjam on the Tolovana river, ar
rived in port at 4 o’clock Sunday
morning, and sailed for her des
tination about 9 o’clock. Her prog
ress downriver was delayed consid
erably by engine trouble, but no
further delay is anticipated, as a
r
few necessary adjustments were
made during her brief stay in port.
The White Pass mail launch Si
billa met the launch Brooks near
“Eat-’Em-Up” Frank’s, and the
through mail from Fairbanks was
transferred from the latter to the
former vessel. She also took on
the passengers from the Brooks and
brought them on to Nenana.
The Brooks brought a little
freight for Nenana. She took on
the passengers brought here on
the Sibilla ere sailing. Among the
passengers were Theodore Johnson,
Dave Cascaden, Harold Jestland,
and Harry Avakotf.
Genuine Buhach at Fowler &
Morris.
Electrical Goods
Stoves and Ranges
Water Pipes and
Fittings
Bath Fixtures
Sheet Metal Work of All Kinds
Tanana Sheet Metal Works
— ■ fc
Nothing Succeeds
Like Success
Our Goods are Right. Our Prices are
Right
Watch and Jewelry Repairing, Engraving
Wm. TAYLOR
f
Report of Director of
Munitions Tells of Great
Weapons Prepared By U. S.
WASHINGTON, D. C.—Behind
the armies in France which smashed
a road to victory through the Ger
man defenses last fall, the United
States was forging, before the
armistice was signed, weapons gi
gantic and powerful, counted upon
10 make ultimate victory certain.
In the American artillery program
alone, the full fruition of which
could not have been reached before
1920, there was in creation an
agency belived by army men here
to be of itself able to bring victory.
An official and detailed account
of that program is contained in the
chapters just made public of “Amer
ica’s Munitions,” the historical re
port prepared under the direction
of Assistant Secretary Crowell, who
was director of munitions during th ■
war.
The whole story of guns, from
the 37mm “infantry cannon” with
its inch-and-one-half bore, designed
for use in the front lines of com
bat, to the 16-inch mortor on a rai1
way mount, which was to work
havoc on the enemy from points
miles behind the fighting front th'
story of the extraordinary efforts
of American industry to equip an
army with artillery on a scale never
before attempted is graphically pic
tured. Through it all runs the same
spirit of parnership in the war en
terprise between industry and the
government that made possible such
an undertaking.
The chapters devoted to the guns
are so extensive as to make up a
cosiderable volume in themselves.
They contain the names and the
statistical records of achivement of
all the firms that worked on guns
or ammunition and this official co s
mentary will have a place in ‘he
records of those firms in the year;
lu i. winv;.
Among the many interesting
things in the report is the account
now officially given of the reasons
that impelled the war department
to cast aside, except for training
purposes, all of the 3-inch field
artillery with which the American
I army was equipped when the United
States entered the war, and to sub
stitute for these weapons three
types of guns fitted to taler ammu
nition of the 75mm employed by the
French l;ght pieces,
i There has been much controversy
because of the alleged failure to
(adopt at the outset of the war the
French 75, famous for its perform
ances in the war, as the standard
American piece of this tip-.-. 'ihe
report shows that the gun was
adopted for combat purposes, but
that its production in quantity :n
the Unitd States proved to be even
more of a problem than the gov
ernment’s experts had anticipated.
I For that reason the American d-inch
^gun, redesiged for 75 ammunition,
iand the British 3.3-inch field gun,
similarly rechambered were both
put into production in order to
■ make use of every facility for manu
facture. The American and British
| type were intended primarily for
! training work and were so employed,
i But ihe wisdom of putting these
guns in o j roduction on a quantify
, scale :s emphasized in the following
I paragraph:
“In the year and one-half of "ur
war experience the manufacturing
(production problems were tilt jiac
itically ar.cl complet lj solved With
i one exception—that of building
French hydropneumat’- recuperators
for the ••5mm guns This, perhaps
the hard-iii manufacturing job in
the whole range of war ’ industrial
(enterprises and naturally the last
[ one to come through, had not been
!solved when the armistice was signed.
| However, it is only fair to state that
jthe solution of this recuperator
| problem was imminent on Novembei
11, 1918.
i The recuperator is the recoil de
| vice which makes these French guns
1 what they are. Their construction
(was a French secret and to build
! them there is required a degree
I of precision comparable only, the re
! port states, to that necessary in
j building as delicate an instrument as
I a sextant. It was with difficulty
that any American manufacturer was
pursuaded to undertake it, yet on
April 25, 1919, 07 of these recuper
ators had been completed and 53 of
these passed by French experts and
accepted by the government. They
were the first of these devices built
out of France or by other than
skilled French workmen.
Construction of the guns them
selves and their carriages went for
ward swiftly. Under the agreements
the French and British were to sup
ply the first American armies with
all their field artillery and inter
mediate batteries, with the exception
of the powerful American 4.7 rifle
and howitzer, which was taken over
by the troops, and which proved
highly effective against German fieid
guns. The American Expeditionary
Force received from the French be-!
for the armistice was signed 1,823
75-mm guns and 772 155-mm how
itzers. They had also received from
the French 21 <5 155-mm rifles and
from the British 123 8-inch howitz
ers with 40 9.2-inch howitzers com
pleted and ready for delivery. Ad
ditional contracts were made with
the British for 302 howitzers of
(i-inch calibre for delivery by April,
1919.
To fill their own factories with |
forgings for guns, both French and !
British were drawing heavily oni
American industry when the United i
States entered the war. Thees or-1
ders were not interfered with, but I
on the contrary were stimulated and J
expanded in order that the United:
States might furnish forgings in'
trade for completed guns and at the J
same time create a wholly new
source of supply for the bulk of its
own artillery program. The report
shows that between April, 1917, and
the conclusion of hostilities there i
were supplied to the Allies forgings!
for 1,102 guns of calibers ranging
from 3-inch to 9.5-inch; additional
gun tube forgings to the extent of J
14,623, and shell forgings totalling!
5,018,461.
There were only four gun makers
in the United States when the coun
try entered the contest, but by Oc-;
tober, 11)18, there were 1!) factories
engaged in this work. During the
month, with three of the 1!) factories
Mill lacking their complete equip
ment, there were produced 2,OS! gun
forgings of calibers up to 9.5-inch,
or at a rate of 24,000 guns a year,
as compared to the capacity for 55
finished weapons a year in the spring
of 1917.
The actual production of com
pleted guns up to December, 1919,
was 4,0.‘?9, including 1,183 of 75
mm caliber; 230 of the 3-inch anti
aircraft type; 218 of the 4.7-inch
type; 1,456 of the 155-mm how
itzers; 129 of the 155-mm rifles;
191 8-inch howitzers and 2 of the
monster French 240-mm howitzers;
which would have supplanted the
smaller British guns of this type
in 1919. Over the same period
the number of gun forgings pro
duced totaled 8,440.
The report points out that the
gun program in reality depended
upon the ability tq produce the re
coil mechanisms. This picture of
what such mechanisms are called
upon to do is drawn:
“Not long ago a touring car,
weighting two tons, traveled at a
rate of 120 miles an hour along
a Florida beach, conceive of such
a car going 337 miles an hour,
which is much faster than any man
ever traveled; then conceive of a.
mechanism which would stop this
car, goins nearly six miles a minute,
stop it in 45 inches of space and
half a second of time, without the
slightest injury to the automobile.
That is precisely the equivalent of
the feat performed by a recuperatoi
by a 240-mm howitzer after a shot.’’
Summarizing the production of
guns by the United States as com
pared with France and Great Brit
ain, the port says that between
April, 1917, and November, 1918.
the United States produced 2,008
complete artillery units, as against
11,056 by France and 8,065 by
Great Britain and during those 10
months turned out 4,275 gun bodies,
as against 19,492 by France and
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ICE CREAM
AND
IflWWfe
I
SOFT DRINKS
(INCLUDING THE WAR TAX)
THE PORTLAND
JACKSON & EKELAND, Prop..
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r.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiii
11,852 by Great Britain.
“And our artillery capacity,” it,
adds, “was then, in the autumn of!
1918, only getting under way.”
Big guns are dealt with separ
ately. A survey of the country im
mediatly after the war declaration j
located 404 weapons ranging from!
7-inch to 14-inch caliber, which
could be spared from coast defenses I
or by the navy to be placed on |
railway mounts for use in France. |
There was also available one giant!
16-inch howitzer built by the army
before 1917. From the seacoast
defenses were taken 90 8-inch; 129
10-inch; 49 12-inch rifles and 150
12-inch mortars, while the navy
supplied 12 7-inch rifles and 21 j
14-inch, and 0 high power 12-inch;
rifles building for the Chilean gov-!
ernment were commandeered. Prac
tically all of these were intended
for railway mounts of various types'
and the great majority of them, to- ]
gether with new guns of these j
sizes, would have reached France in
time for the campaign of 1919 and
1920 had the war continued.
In all there were in process pro
jects to support the American army
with 300 of these tremendous guns,
all of which were well advanced |
when the fighting ended. In addi
tion to the navy’s contribution of
14-inch rifles on railway mounts, I
three army 8-inch units went over
seas. By the end of 1918, 24 units;
had been completed and the guns
and mounts fully demonstrated. An
interesting feature • of the mount
was that it had trucks which would
permit it to operate over either i
standard railroads or the narrow,
gauge lines at the front.
Railway mounts for 36 10-inc'a j
rifles from the coast defenses also
were ordered in co-operation with j
the French, machine work and as
sembly to be done in France. They |
were to be delivered at General
Pershing's request by March, 1919.
One of the projects embarked
upon was the mounting of 40 of
the 12-inch mortars for use in the
HH1' campaign. This proved to be
the largest job of the whole ar
tillery program and required the
construction by the government of
a wholly new plant, which was com
pleted on June 1, 1918. The first
mount was finished in August of
that year and passed all tests, and
when the armistice was signed the
castings, forgings and structural
parts for 91 mounts were on hand.
In April of this year 45 complete
units had been delivered, and the
whole 91 guns could have been
mounted by June.
The department ordered sixteen
mounts for the 14-inch rifles, de
liveries to begin in February, 1919.
These were in addition to the five
guns of the size manned in France
by the navy. The armistice served
to cancel the contract. <
The 10-inch howitzer, largest of
the whole gun family, was success
fully mounted upon a railway car
riage, and following its passage of
severe tests, General Pershing called
for 12 of these weapons as soon
as they could be produced. Orders
were placed for 01 additional guns
of this size, but none had been
turned out by the time the armis
tice was signed and the work of
mounting them was never under
taken.
The chapters of the report given
out deal also with artillery ammu
nition, with the powder production,
and with the plans that were be
yond the experiment stage for
mounting heavy guns on caterpillar
tractors, which was an American
development of the war. It prom
ises now to revolutionize the hand
ling of artillery for the entire
world. While numerou experiment
al types were produced and suc
cessfully tried out, however, this
motorization had not reached the
point of production before the ar
mistice ended hostilities.
SHOTGUNS and Shotgun Ammu
nition—new stock just opened, at
Anderson Bros & Nerland.
COLISEUM
EXCEPTIONALLY STRONG TRIANGLE FEATURE AND
HEARST-PATHE NEWS FOR PROGRAM TONIGHT.
Late Hearst-Pathe News - - Pictorial
THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR EYES
Showing the Late War News and Current Events of the World.
Note.—In this Pathe News there is a splendid picture of the
ice going out and the flood at Fairbanks. A number of fa
miliar faces are seen in this picture. Maryline Russell is plain
ly recognized in the flood scene.
Triangle Fine A.-ts Presents
THE DAINTY, DEMURE LITTLE TRIANGLE STAR, BESSIE
LOVE, WITH FRANK BENNETT AND RALPH LEWIS,
INCLUDING AN ALL-STAR CHILD CAST, IN
“SISTER OF SIX”
A Story Taken from the History of Early California,
IN FIVE ABSORBING ACTS.
MUSIC-VIOLIN, PIANO AND DRUMS
ADMISSION 25c RESERVED SEATS 50c
THE SHOW STARTS AT EIGHT O’CLOCK
Owing to the splendid child cast in this feature, the manage
ment extends a cordial invitation to all the children to be admit
ted to the show free of charge. This is a show every child in
Nenana should see.
\| —■III .HI. ■ I ..
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