Grantville Gazette, Volume 71

by Bjorn Hasseler

  Pat Johnson had offered Hatfield a job. So far, Hatfield was resisting; he didn't want an office job. He mentioned starting a small trucking company for the city and training drivers for the National Guard. Frank Jackson was sending some small trucks, too small to be used as APCs, for that purpose. Finally, he told Archie about his fiancé, Leonore von Wilke. She was still in the Army and she was another reason why Hatfield wouldn't make any long-term commitments. Whither goest Leonore, so would Anse Hatfield, Archie observed.

  Archie was about to grab his hat, cane and head home when Pat Johnson walked in. "Hi, Archie."

  "Hi, Pat. Pull up a chair. What brings you here?"

  Pat walked over to Archie's desk, moved one of the side chairs in front of Archie's desk and sat. "Have a question. Do any of your manuals describe how cartridge brass is formed?"

  Pat had been spending time taking notes from Archie's reloading manuals. His question stirred Archie's curiosity. "Hmmm, I'll have to look. I know that cartridge brass is a 70/30 mix of copper and zinc and that primer brass is softer, about ninety percent copper to ten percent, or less, of zinc."

  "I didn't know that. I hadn't thought about primer brass yet. I've been focused on making cartridge brass."

  One of Archie's junior deputies walked into Archie's office, saw that he had a visitor, and left, closing the office door behind him. It must have been a minor matter. The deputies knew it was unwise to interrupt Archie when he had a visitor unless the interruption was warranted. "Why do you ask?"

  Pat scooted his chair closer to Archie's desk. "We need to mechanize the process if we are to produce the number of cartridge brass that we will need."

  Archie paused, searching his memory. "As best that I recall, the brass is made in three steps on three machines. You start with a small brass cup, less than an inch in diameter, and run it through three passes on each of the three presses. Each pass forms the copper cup into a closed cylinder until it's at the required length and thickness after the last pass on the second machine." Archie stopped, opened a desk drawer and retrieved a piece of paper.

  He took a pencil and began to draw a block diagram of the process as he remembered it. "You have to do it in stages, you see." He drew three squares on the paper. "Or the brass will split or crumple."

  Next, he drew arrows from the first square to the second, and another arrow from the second to the third. "The brass is cleaned and lubed before it is passed to the next machine." He wrote C&L on each arrow and Extrude/3Passes in the first two boxes.

  "The third stage, the final stage, actually, is where the base is formed, headstamp imprinted, the primer pocket made, and an ejector groove is cut. The last step includes cutting the brass to length and trimming the mouth. Once the tooling is set up you can make a bunch of brass in a few minutes." He drew a bubble next to the third square, drew an arrow from the bubble to the third square and wrote inside the bubble, HS-PP-TRIM.

  "You know more than I expected, Archie," Pat said. One of the court's staff knocked on Archie's office door, entered, and lit the two brass lamps in sconces on the wall. Archie pulled some matches from his drawer and lit the lamp on his desk before returning to his conversation. "You're lucky, Pat. I visited the Lake City Arsenal when I was a sergeant major at the Army's Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. That was just before I retired in '83," he said. "Lake City was only a short drive away in Independence, Missouri. The school ran a tour for every class. I went along a few times. Here. Take this." He gave Pat the paper with the diagram on it. Pat glanced at it, folded it, and put it in his jacket pocket.

  Pat returned Archie's smile. "That's good info. Gary and Osker Geyer went to Grantville to consult the library. Osker Geyer returned a couple of days ago, and Gary went on to find an alchemist," he said with a smile.

  "Alchemist?" Archie chuckled. He could imagine Gary saying something like that. For all his type-A personality, Gary had a wicked sense of humor.

  "That's what Osker said. I think Gary really meant a chemist."

  "More than likely," Archie agreed. "Where'd he go?"

  "Not sure. Osker said Gary didn't want anyone connected with the government. He said Gary didn't want the camel's nose in our affairs."

  "I can understand that."

  "I'm surprised you'd say that. You're part of the government here."

  "Yes, and I'm keeping as low a profile as I can. I don't want the city and county becoming dependent on the Constabulary or me. They're already loading Judge Fross with stuff they should be handling themselves."

  "So they can blame Judge Fross instead of themselves." Pat made the question a statement. He was familiar with up-time politics and knew down-time politics was not any different.

  "That's one reason. Do you know when Gary's getting back?"

  "Don't know," Pat answered. "Couple of weeks, maybe. I know he planned to go to Magdeburg to talk to some money people. I think he was going to see if some of the Abrabanel clan would be interested in investing or know some potential investors who would."

  While they talked, darkness had fallen. "Well, if you think you can get the project running in a year, you better get moving. Winter's coming on."

  "I've been busy, too. I've talked to the Wettins about buying a couple or three sections of land outside Suhl. We'll need to make the primer compound some distance away from everyone, maybe have multiple sites depending on how the plant is designed."

  Archie nodded, "Yeah, I remember Lake City had bunkers and production buildings scattered all over."

  "The plot of land I've picked is two sides of a ridge. I figured we could put the chemical plant on the far side of the ridge away from people and the production side . . . just in case."

  "It goes boom," Archie said, finishing Pat's sentence.

  "Yeah. The Wettins said they'd approve the deal pending proof of our ability to pay."

  "Proof?" Archie was surprised. That was not the way the aristocracy operated, or so he had been told. It was more like, cash on the barrelhead.

  "A letter from our financiers," Pat explained. "We now have enough funds on hand to buy the land but I want to save that for a reserve, as much as I can, in case we hit some unexpected expenses. Osker made a deal with Schmidt Steam. He bought some smaller engines in addition to the primary ones and still stayed within budget. Our finances are better than I'd estimated for this stage."

  Pat's plans seemed to be coming to fruition . . . at least his part of them. Archie hoped Gary would be as successful. That thought brought forth a question. "When are we going to see this master plan of yours?"

  "As soon as Gary gets back. I'll call a meeting of the board."

  Archie watched the other courthouse employees leave through his office window, each one parading past his office. It was time to cut this conversation short. "Okay, I'll go through my books when I get home. I think one of my manuals has a piece about making cartridge brass. I remember reading about Hornady's plant but I don't remember where, exactly, I read about it."

  "Fine. Thanks, Archie." They both stood. Something had been nibbling in Archie's mind. Something overlooked . . . and then he realized what it was. "Uh, Pat."

  Pat stopped just at the doorway, waiting for Archie to gather his coat, hat, and cane. "Yeah?"

  "Don't forget to add a brassworks to your project plan," Archie said walking up to Pat. "You'll have to make your own brass."

  "Crap! I hadn't considered that. I just assumed Geyer would make the brass." They walked down the hallway to the court's side door. The outside street was lit by a three-candle lamp next to the doorway. As was his long habit, Archie swept the street with his eyes before he stepped completely outside. Seeing nothing to draw his further attention, he accompanied Pat down the street toward the center of town. As they walked, Archie continued explaining his thoughts about the brassworks.

  "Geyer might operate it, but I think this consortium of yours should own it."

  Pat thought that over. Geyer had the experience to operate the
brassworks. With minor differences, it was much like operating an iron foundry. But, did they—the consortium—want to give their investment over to Geyer? "Yeah, you're right. Thanks again, Archie."

  "Any time, Pat." At the front of the courthouse, they separated, each heading home. Pat's questions gave Archie food for thought. He'd look through his reloading manuals after supper. And, he reminded himself, write down everything I can remember about Lake City Arsenal.

  ****

  In part 3, I talked about deck, cabin, and hold illumination. But there's also a need for lighting by which the ship sees what lies around it, and is seen in turn. Lighting may also be used for communication, ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore.

  Running lights

  Stern Lanterns. When ships were traveling in formation at night, there needed to be a way for the helmsman on one ship to see the ship in front of him (rear-end collisions and meandering off both being frowned upon). Hence, sailing ships carried stern lanterns (Laughton 159). This practice was not limited to warships as, in the seventeenth century, European trading ships often sailed with escorts.

  In Edward III's navy, the number of stern lanterns indicated the status of the commander; three or more for the King, two for the admiral, and one for the vice-admiral (Traill 186). On sixteenth-century Venetian galleys, those commanded by a squadron commander had a single stern lantern, and the flagship of the Capitano Generale da Mar or the Provveditore Generale da Mar had three. Indeed, the flagship was sometimes referred to as a lanterna (Motture).

  The 68-gun warship La Couronne (1626) had three lanterns above the taffrail; the center one was 12 feet high and 24 feet in circumference illuminated by twelve pounds of candles. (Sephton). On the Sovereign of the Seas (1637) there were five lanterns on the stern (Sephton 57, 61) , two apiece on the port and starboard quarter galleries, and the fifth and largest on the aft end of the poop above the taffrail. It was six or seven feet high, and four to four and a half feet wide. In 1661, Samuel Pepys, then clerk of the Naval Board, gave a tour of the Sovereign to his patron's wife, Lady Sandwich, the Lady Jemimah, and their seven companions and servants, and persuaded this tour group to join him in squeezing inside the stern lantern (Dill 12)—plainly the seventeenth-century equivalent of squeezing into a phone booth.

  While a single stern lantern reveals the position of the ship, it says nothing about its heading. But if you were looking at the stern of Sovereign, you would see three lights in circumflex (^) arrangement, whereas broadside you would see a rotated "L". Nonetheless, this does not seem to have initiated a general trend toward use of multiple lights to show orientation.

  In the early eighteenth century, all British first-, second-, and third-rates carried three lights, and this privilege was extended to fourth-rates in 1722. In 1804 it was decided that only a flagship would carry two lights, and all others just one (Willis 56). However, I believe that the second light in question was a top-lantern (see next section).

  At least some early lanterns had panes of green-tinted mica, but these were displaced by glass, which rendered the light easier to see. Hexagonal and octagonal designs were the most common, but the lantern on the Merhonour (1622) was seven-sided (Howard 114). It cost over eleven pounds, not even counting the glass plate, but almost half of that was attributable to gilding (Laughton 142).

  ****

  Top-Lantern. When William, Duke of Normandy, sailed across the English Channel, he "had a lantern placed at the top of his ship's mast, so that the other ships could see it and hold their course behind him" (Musset, 196). On the 1564 Legazpi Pacific expedition, a ship in need of assistance at night would place a lantern in the main mast and fire a shot, and if it were an emergency, it also hung a lantern in the foremast and fired two more shots (Licuanan 64). In 1595, Drake ordered his fleet that if they had to unexpectedly make sail on a night that it had previously shortened sail, it would show "a single lantern with a light at the bow, and another at the fore-top" (Maynarde 64).

  Later, it became customary that a British navy flagship leading a squadron would display a lantern at the aft edge of a masthead: the main top (full admiral), fore top (vice admiral), or mizzen top (rear admiral) (Lavery 255). It was supported on each side by iron braces (Falconer 294).

  In 1762, Admiral Howe ordered that a ship tacking at night was to hoist a light and keep it visible until the maneuver was completed (Willis 56).

  Lightships of course also displayed lanterns on high, but early lightships suspended small lanterns from a yardarm or dedicated crossarm. Robert Stevenson proposed a lantern that surrounded the mast of the vessel, and could be lowered to the deck to be trimmed and then raised back. (Stevenson 39). Presumably, the vertical traversal of that lantern would be limited by the yardarm above. It is conceivable that the lantern had a dedicated mast; i.e., one that did not ever carry sail.

  In 1838, the US Congress enacted legislation providing that between sunset and sunrise every steamboat must carry one or more signal lights that can be seen by other boats navigating the same water. A three-light system was privately adopted by the Liverpool steam packets. In 1847, a different system—red on the port bow, green on the starboard bow, and a bright white light on the foremast head—was adopted for the mail steamers on the west coast of England. Finally, in 1848, a similar system was applied to all British steam vessels between sunset and sunrise. (Grosvenor).

  By the 1870s, it was proposed that the masthead light be electric (Trowbridge 723). This was met with numerous objections—the ships met would be blinded by the light, the carrying ship's side lights would be rendered inconspicuous by comparison, the ship would be mistaken for a lightship, etc. (Thomson 190).

  The Titanic carried a single electric masthead light on her foremast, 145 feet above the water. It was 32 candlepower, and its Fresnel lens concentrated the light into a horizontal arc with a vertical amplification factor of 25. It thus would have been as bright as a first magnitude star at a distance of 17 miles(Halperin).

  ****

  There is an obvious downside to the use of any lights on shipboard, let alone lights intended to reveal one's presence to other vessels.. Drake ordered, "you shall keep no light in any of the ships, but only the light in the binnacle, and this with the greatest care that it be not seen, excepting the admiral's ship . . . ." (Maynarde 64). And even today, there are waters where small boat captains don't switch on their mast lights (Liss 62).

  On the other hand, in 1800, Thomas Cochrane in the brig sloop Speedy was able to evade a frigate at night by placing a lantern on a barrel and letting it float away (Wikipedia).

  ****

  Lighting the Waters: Star Shells

  Sometimes it is desirable to illuminate the surrounding waters at night, in order to spot navigational hazards or enemy craft.

  The star shell ("light ball") is fired by a mortar (high trajectory gun) and contains a small explosive charge and a time fuse. The charge in turn ignites the illuminating composition. Early compositions included mixtures of sulfur, saltpeter (potassium nitrate), and realgar (arsenic tetrasulfide), orpiment (arsenic trisulfide), or antimony (Griffiths 91)

  Appier's La Pyrotechnie (1630) gives a formula for "fire balls . . . so white that one can scarcely look at them without being dazzled," that comprises saltpeter, orpiment, gum arabic, and, strangely enough, ground glass and brandy (Skylighter).

  In its original form it was not very useful at sea as the "stars" would fall into the water, and be extinguished within a few seconds. And even in land warfare, the enemy could be expected to throw water or sand over it.

  Edward Boxer (1819-1898) proposed modifying this shell to be composed of two hemispheres, one containing the illuminant ("stars") and the other a calico parachute connected to the first by ropes or chains. The explosion of the charge not only ignites the illuminant, it separates the hemispheres, but only insofar as the connector permits. The parachute slows the descent of the illuminant (Ibid.). Boxer was probably unaware that there had been experimentation during the time
of Louis XIV with rockets equipped with parachute flares (Faber 181). For that matter, Congreve had a rocket light ball with a parachute (Sterling 401).

  I have documented use of magnesium flares in photography of the Comstock Lode mine (1868) and the Great Pyramid (1865). I wasn't able to determine when magnesium, aluminum, or magnalium ribbons were first used in star shells, but the first reference I found was from just before World War I (US Army, 2-11). The parachutes were also minimized, so that six or eight parachute-illuminant combinations could be fit inside a single shell.

  ****

  Lighting the Waters: Searchlights

  Searchlights are essentially a military development of the spotlight—that is, they combine a highly luminous source, a light concentration system, and a pivotable and tiltable mount.

  In the new time line, there isn't yet a military need for a searchlight: engagements are mostly as short range (a few hundred yards) and during the daytime. Flint and Gannon, 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies, chapter 48 is the first step toward changing that; the Resolve begins firing at a range of 1800 yards, and actually scores a hit after it closes to 1100 yards.

  Still, the Resolve attacked in the daytime. The biggest reason for equipping naval warships, especially capital ships, with searchlights was the introduction of the motor torpedo boat, which could launch a night attack either stealthily or at high speed.

  No foe of the USE has yet (1636) built powerboats or self-propelled torpedoes. But the USE navy did have to face a smoke-screened spar torpedo attack by Prince Ulrik's galleys during the Baltic War in 1634. Moreover, the ironclads and timberclads are intended for riparian and coastal warfare, and they could encounter mines or massed rockets.