1st Session.

NINTH REPORT

OF THE

No. 23.

BOARD OF ORDNANCE AND FORTIFICATION.

OCTOBER 31, 1898, TO OCTOBER 31, 1899.

DECEMBER 11, 1899.-Referred to the Committee on Military Affairs
and ordered to be printed.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, December 8, 1899.

SIR: Pursuant to the provisions of the act approved February 24, 1891, I have the honor to transinit herewith the annual report of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification for the year ended October 31, 1899.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF ORDNANCE AND

FORTIFICATION.

The SECRETARY OF WAR.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., October 31, 1899.

SIR: In compliance with the provisions of the act approved February 24, 1891, the Board of Ordnance and Fortification has the honor to submit, for transmission to Congress, its annual report for the year ended October 31, 1899.

CHANGES IN THE PERSONNEL.

Two changes in the membership of the Board have occurred during the year. On May 15; 1899, Col. Frank H. Phipps, the ordnance member, was relieved and Capt. C. B. Wheeler, Ordnance Department, was detailed in his stead, and on August 12, 1899, Col. P. C. Hains, the engineer member, was relieved and Capt. J. E. Kuhn, Corps of Engineers, detailed to succeed him.

NEW LEGISLATION.

The only new legislation affecting the Board was that contained in the fortification act, approved March 3, 1899, making an appropriation for the work of the Board during the year ending June 30, 1900, as follows:

Board of Ordnance and Fortification.—To enable the Board to make all needful and proper purchases, experiments, and tests to ascertain, with a view to their utilization by the Government, the most effective guns, small arms, cartridges, projectiles, fuses, explosives, torpedoes, armor plates, and other implements and engines of war, and to purchase or cause to be manufactured, under authority of the Secretary of War, snch guns, carriages, armor plates, and other war material as may, in the judgment of the Board, be necessary in the proper discharge of the duty devolved upon it by the act approved September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eightyeight; to pay the salary of the civilian member of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification provided by the act of February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and for the necessary traveling expenses of said member when traveling on duty as contemplated in said act; for the payment of the necessary expenses of the Board, including a per diem allowance to each officer detailed to serve thereon, when employed on duty away from his permanent station, of two dollars and fifty cents a day, and for the test of experimental guns, carriages, and other devices procured in accordance with the recommendation of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification, one hundred thousand dollars: Provided, That before any money shall be expended in the construction or test of any gun, gun carriage, ammunition, or implements under the supervision of the said Board, the Board shall be satisfied, after due inquiry, that the Government of the United States has a lawful right to use the inventions involved in the construction of such gun, gun carriage, ammunition, or implements, or that the construction or test is made at the request of a person either having such lawful right or authorized to convey the same to the Government.

That all material purchased under the foregoing provisions of this act shall be of American manufacture, except in cases when, in the judgment of the Secretary of War, it is to the manifest interest of the United States to make purchases in limited quantities abroad, which material shall be admitted free of duty.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

In compliance with the act of February 24, 1891, which requires "a detailed statement of all contracts, allotments, and expenditures made by the Board," an exhibit, marked Appendix A, accompanies this report, giving this detailed statement for the period from October 31, 1898, the date of the last report, to October 31, 1899.

No contracts are entered into by the Board, since under the terms of the original act creating the Board these must be made under the direction of the Secretary of War, by the several bureaus of the War Department having jurisdiction of the same under existing law.

The following table gives a summary of the balances of appropriations at the date of the last report, the appropriations and allotments made during the year, and the balances remaining on hand October 31, 1899:

A great variety of subjects has been considered by the Board during the past year. In the accompanying Appendix B will be found a complete list of these subjects, with a brief statement of the action taken in each case. It will be noted that there has been a marked increase in the number of flying machines, ærodromes, and other similar devices designed for air navigation. This is no doubt due to the unauthorized publication in the daily press, some months ago, of the fact that the Board had made an allotment of funds to enable Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to personally conduct a series of practical experiments in this line of military investigation. Excellent progress has been made during the year in the development of a satisfactory high explosive for general service use and in the perfection of an apparently safe method of throwing large charges of such sensitive high explosives as nitro-gelatin from service guns. With thorite and the Ishamn high-explosive shell it is the opinion of the Board that we are now distinctly in advance of the best experimental progress in this direction abroad. The type artillery fire command at Fort Wadsworth, New York Harbor, has been completed and turned over to the artillery garrison at that post, and it is hoped that the daily practical drills conducted there will serve to point out for correction whatever defects or deficiencies may at present exist in the recently adopted drill regulations for the coast artillery.

Notwithstanding the number and diversity of subjects presented to the Board, it is believed that no meritorious invention has failed to receive due recognition and encouragement, either by allotment or other