Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 25, 2025
"This is the place where we make the stuff to blow the world to pieces," he proudly boasted. "If our enemies could only see that the war would be over." I suggested that Essen was not the only arsenal. There were, for instance, Woolwich, Glasgow, Newcastle, Creusot, and in my own strictly neutral country Bethlehem, Bridgeport, and one or two other humble hamlets.
We all abused "Long Tom" at first because of his unprovoked attack on a defenceless town, but by contrast with what is known among Devon men as the "Bulwaan Sneak," and among bluejackets as "Silent Susan," the big Creusot gun with its loud report, the low velocity of its projectiles, and the puff of white smoke giving timely warning when a shot is on its way, is regarded as quite a gentlemanly monster.
The matter was in this state when the Transvaal sent its ultimatum. Up to the firing of the first shot the British Government still offered the only form of arbitration which was possible without giving away the question at issue. It was the Transvaal which, after agreeing to such a Court, turned suddenly to the arbitrament of the Mauser and the Creusot. That the war was to avenge Majuba.
Again, in the remarkable basin of the Saône-et-Loire, although there are but ten beds of coal, two of them run from 30 to 60 feet each, whilst at Creusot the main seam actually runs locally to a thickness varying between 40 and 130 feet. The Belgian coal-field stretches in the form of a narrow strip from 7 to 9 miles wide by about 100 miles long, and is divided into three principal basins.
It was then that the necessity of forging large pieces gave the idea of a steam hammer. By a coincidence that can only be explained by the needs of the epoch, the English came upon the same discovery almost at the same time, and the Creusot patent antedated the English one by only two months.
At Le Creusot, however, this idea was not approved, and it was determined to construct the block in six horizontal courses, each bedded upon plane surfaces. Each course is formed of two castings, except the upper one, a single block, which weighs 120 tons and supports the anvil. Thus formed in 11 pieces, it is 5.6 meters high, 33 square meters at the base, and 7 square meters at the top.
Buller's guns are hammering at these positions, but apparently with little effect, for to every salvo from them the big Creusot makes reply. Nor is there any sign now of a Boer movement towards the rear. On the contrary, they have a new camp, possibly of hospital tents, where Long Valley merges into Doom Kloof, and almost within range of our naval guns if we had them mounted on Waggon Hill.
His calibre appears to be six inches. From the plunging nature of his fire, some have conjectured him a sort of howitzer, but it is next to certain he is one of the sixteen 15-cm. Creusot guns bought for the forts of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Anyhow, he conducted his enforced task with all possible humanity.
Its keel was forged by Creusot in France, its propeller shaft by Pen & Co. in London, the sheet-iron plates for its hull by Laird's in Liverpool, its propeller by Scott's in Glasgow.
The Natal artillery had done similar service at an earlier stage against another body, and though under heavy rifle fire they still stuck to their guns manfully. Our naval 12-pounder mounted near this battery, but having double the range, played upon Middle Hill, trying by rapid and accurate fire to silence the big Creusot gun there, or baffle its aim.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking