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San Antonio Daily Light
San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
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Chicago inventor Louis Gathmann secures U.S. War Department contract for his 18-inch torpedo gun, tested secretly at Sandy Hook. The powder-fired weapon launches 2,000-pound explosive shells capable of sinking armored battleships at up to 10 miles, surpassing combined power of existing U.S. naval guns.
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Possibilities of the Eighteen-Inch Destroyer Recently Invented.
Will Fire High Power Explosive Shells Which Will Be Able to Sink the Most Powerful Battleships.
Louis Gathmann, of Chicago, has returned from Washington with a war department contract for his new 18-inch torpedo gun, with which he has been experimenting at the government proving grounds at Sandy Hook. The gun and the shells were patented two years ago. During the experiments great precautions have been taken to keep the working of the new gun a profound secret, none but the chiefs of the ordnance department being present at the tests. The naval attaches at Washington made strenuous efforts to be allowed to witness the experiments, but they were barred out by order of the secretary of war.
Mr. Gathmann said the destructive force of the projectile is equal to that of all the 12-inch guns in the United States at a range shorter than 3,000 yards, and if the range is beyond 5,000 yards the destructive force of one of those guns would be equivalent to that of the entire number of 12-inch. 13-inch and 10-inch guns in the country.
The Gathmann gun is the first 18-inch gun on record. The nearest to it is the Zalinski dynamite gun of 15-inch bore. The Gathmann gun is fired with powder and the other with compressed air. The new destroyer has a range of about ten miles and is the first gun in the world to fire high explosives with powder. One shot does the work. Even armored battleships are not expected to be proof against a single projectile.
The gun is 45 feet in length and weighs about 100,000 pounds. The shells, or torpedoes, weigh 2,000 pounds. First-class battleships such as the Iowa, Texas, Massachusetts and Indiana could carry four of these guns. The gun is practically for coast defense as well as for use on board ship.
"The guns will be manufactured in the navy yard at Washington and the contract will be given either to the Bethlehem iron works or the Midvale works of Philadelphia."
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Sandy Hook, Washington
Event Date
Recently, Patented Two Years Ago
Story Details
Louis Gathmann returns from Washington with a war department contract for his patented 18-inch torpedo gun, tested secretly at Sandy Hook. The gun fires high-explosive shells capable of sinking battleships, with destructive power equivalent to multiple existing guns at various ranges. It is the first 18-inch gun, 45 feet long, weighing 100,000 pounds, with 2,000-pound shells, suitable for coast defense and ships like the Iowa.