Excerpt from Gun Making: In the United States As a preface to that which follows, it is proper to state that the conclusions and opinions expressed, except when otherwise stated, represent the opinions of the writer and have no official sanction. The subject - matter aims to be a history of the progress of gun making and gun trials in the United States, especially with reference to the part taken therein by the War Department, in the past fifteen years or from the date of the Heavy Gun Board of 1872; and prior to that of such matters as appear to have a bearing on current questions of gun construction. The prominent part taken by the Navy Depart ment in being the pioneer of built-up forged steel guns - thanks to its energetic efforts backed up by liberal and progressive Naval Com mittees of Congress - deserves the fullest recognition, and if a com paratively brief mention is made of the operations of that Depart ment in general it will be understood as due to the force of circum stances which render even a somewhat detailed account of matters with which the writer is most familiar a matter requiring all the time and attention at his disposal. The data given have been collected from official reports or otherwise, with every regard for correctness. The chronological order adopted for this description of events has led to a much more extended treatise than was at first intended and perhaps also to repetitions which may appear unnecessary but this order having an advantage in respect to the time necessary to devote to the preparation of the paper has been adhered to. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.