rogers@stpaul.ncr.com (Bob Rogers) (04/27/89)
From: rogers@stpaul.ncr.com (Bob Rogers) In article <5858@cbnews.ATT.COM> military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) writes: >From: sun!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm >My friend who told me the guns on warships are real old says his dad >was on the USS Massachusetts, and he said the gun barrels had dates on >them, dates from 1916 to 1922. I've been told that big gun barrels, after they were made, were set aside for years so the metal could change (crystalize? harden?). Anybody know any details? [mod.note: Could be that they left them that long to naturally stress relieve. That reduces localized stresses which result from the manufacturing processes. Just a guess... - Bill ] I also recall hearing that the machinery to make such large guns has long been scrapped, and that only the fact that a number of barrels (liners?) had been left lying at some ordinance depot made reactivation of the BBs practical. In the past, big guns were controlled by large, elaborate, mechanical computers. Is this equipment still in use? I'd like to hear some info on these (presumably analog) computers and their disposition (likewise the optical rangefinders on the BBs -- are they still maintained in these days of radar?). -- [mod.note: I'm sure they are; they'd be an important backup system. They're also quite accurate; I seem to recall reading that at some 40,000 yards, the optical rangefinder agreed to within 100 yards of the radar measurement. - Bill ] Bob Rogers rogers@stpaul.ncr.com or rogers@pnet51.cts.com NCR Comten, St. Paul, MN GEnie: R.C.ROGERS