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HIGH ranking naval officer at the war college at Newport, R. I., recently made the significant statement that, in a heavy two hour naval engagement, our battleships would about exhaust all their supply of shells and powder. This will perhaps lend a timely interest to an inside glimpse in the navy's great ammunition plant, and just how the problem of assembling and rushing out munitions of war aboard the battleships is speedily accomplished. The most important ammunition base for the whole Atlantic coast now in operation is the great naval magazine at Iona Island, forty miles up the Hudson from New York, where thousands of shells are constantly being loaded with tons of smokeless powder for the Atlantic fleet. Owing to its isolated location and strict rules against visitation, the outside world rarely gets more than a distant glimpse of it from the passing river steamers. Through the courtesy of the commandant, the writer was

tendered exceptional privileges for obtaining data and a series of typical photos. The reservation covers 116 acres, and was purchased by the government in 1900 for $160,000. The place, which was formerly used as an excursion and picnic resort, and the grounds, from a wild, rocky and neglected condition, by skillful engineering work, has been regraded and leveled, and it now contains dozens of imposing edifices consisting of magazines, shell houses, a large power house, a handsome stone administration building and dwelling for the commandant, railroads, electric, compressed air plant, waterworks, fire system and magnetic clock watch service, and a modern telephone system with underground conduits with fiftyfive stations. About one million dollars has been expended in perfecting and equipping the Iona magazine.

Some 150 are employed in the various departments; these are paid from. $2 to $4 per day, and they are a corps

of unusually careful and skillful workmen. The vast quantity of war material and ordnance supplies, about three million pounds of smokeless powder and over one million of black, together with many thousands of shells, are housed in large brick and stone powder magazines, shell houses and several general storehouses. The powder magazines all have four separate fireproof walls and compartments in order to prevent a conflagration or explosion from reaching or destroying the entire contents. The loaded shells are kept separately from the empty ones, and are stored in the two fixed ammunition magazines. A piled-up section of 6-inch loaded shells is here shown in one of the accompanying photographs. Each shell is put on a pair of scales and weighed and numbered. The weight is recorded in chalk on the shell. The shell houses are of special fireproof construction. Magazine attendants, having their living quarters on the ground, inspect these as well as the powder magazines many times during the day and night.

At night, each visit is recorded on the disk of the magnetic clock in the administration building. The temperature in the shell houses and powder magazines is kept at 85 and 90 degrees. The temperature readings are taken at regular stated intervals. Flood cocks with automatic revolving sprinklers for drenching the loaded shells have been installed in the shell houses. By opening these from outside the building, the contents can be wetted thoroughly. A water standpipe, 80 feet high by 20 in diameter, with a capacity of 188,000 gallons filled from a reservoir on the west side of the reservation, furnishes an adequate water supply for fire-fighting, the pressure being over 60 pounds per square inch. There are ten fire alarm stations, and fire drills are held every Saturday afternoon.

The reservoir is a natural depression in the rock, walled in, and it holds about 250,000 gallons. Owing to the rapid increase of the navy, the station is taxed to its capacity to keep abreast with the demand to furnish

new war vessels and old ones with their quota of ammunition for target practice, and a reserve supply. To be prepared for any emergency, each ship is required, on returning to the New York Navy Yard, to restock as soon as possible her empty magazines. Also, in many many instances, the powder charges have been altered; if so, the bags are sent up to Iona Island, opened again, and the powder re-weighed, diminished or increased. For this work

the ammunition barges go alongside the vessels and take off the hundreds or more cans of powder to be changed, and also take on new unloaded shells from the New York Navy Yard. These are packed on lighters flying a red flag, and towed up to Iona Island. On reaching the landing the material is transferred to railroad cars on the wharf, and taken to one of the storehouses or magazines. The train is pulled by a little sparkless, compressed air locomotive. The engineer, when he wants more power, steps down from his cab at three different

points, and connects the storage tank of the engine with an air pipe running from the power house. Seven hundred pounds pressure is taken on, which is allowed to run down to 50 pounds before recharging. These compressed air locomotives cost in the neighborhood of $5,000. The several miles of railroad are so arranged that all the magazines, shell houses, filling and store houses are reached and unloaded at the doors on wide platforms. Just how many shells the battleships have stored down out of sight is not generally known, nor the cost of these death dealing missiles. The huge 13inch, weighing over 1,000 pounds, with a 220 pound powder charge, comes to nearly $500; the 12-inch, with 126 pounds for a powder charge, amounts to over $300. The capped, armor piercing shells cost considerably more than the common shell. One of the principal activities of the Iona magazine is the manipulation of smokeless powder into charges for the large and small size guns of the navy,

and the black for bursting charges for the shells. Some of the more important places, therefore, are the powder filling houses, four of which are in operation, situated at widely different points. These are all small, one-story wooden structures, designed to be unpretentious and isolated, owing to the possibility of an explosion. One of the accompanying pictures shows the interior of the main filling house, which presents about one of the most animated and interesting sights to be seen on the island. The men are required to wear long white serge suits and moccasins; no metal or other articles are allowed in the pockets which might in any way cause friction. All the tools, funnels, measures, cups, scales and other appliances used are made of copper. Here the delicate and somewhat dangerous business of weighing out the various kinds of smokeless powder is done. Even one or two grammes difference in weight is carefully observed. At the Indian Head, Md., proving grounds the naval ordnance experts, by test, determine the powder charge best adapted for

the various guns. Also at the annual target practice similar results as to range and velocities are recorded. With the advent of new guns and the slight chemical change in the powder, the charges are subject to constant revision. This keeps the filling house men constantly employed. Each morning the day's supply of powder is brought from the magazine in the lead colored wooden boxes. These are zinc lined, air tight and hold 100 pounds. The government pays seventy-five cents per pound for powder, and furnishes the alcohol to the manufacturers. The boxes of powder are emptied into a long wooden trough, and with a copper scoop it is dipped out, accurately weighed, and tied up in quarter, half and full charges, in white bags of muslin. These bags have several wide streamers for fastening, and each is tagged with the date of filling and the amount of powder it contains. A small ignition charge of quick-burning black powder, to set off the smokeless, is stowed in the bottom of each bag. They are then placed in large copper cans and returned to the

magazines, where they are held in readiness to go aboard the ships. The big charges of 220 pounds for the 13inch guns are arranged in four quarter charges of 55 pounds each. The bags when piled on top of one another reach to the top of a man's head, and present a formidable sight of bottled-up destruction. As the smokeless powder, owing to various atmospheric pressures and different temperatures, absorbs moisture and undergoes a slight chemical change, all the smokeless powder is sent to the naval storage depot at Dover, N. J. Here has been established a redrying house; the smokeless powder is placed in a series of bins or drawers, where, at a steady temperature, it is kept for a regular time. Three hundred thousand pounds of smokeless powder were redried here last year. No ammunition is put up at this point: it being reserved entirely for the storage of powder and high explosives. Nearly all the powder consumed at Iona Island is sent direct from this depot. To furnish the great number of bags for the powder charges, an extensive sewing plant is constantly kept going. Here, with an electric cutter, fifty to one hundred thicknesses of muslin are cut up at a time into various sized patterns, while a new press fitted with a series of steel dies, at a single operation cuts out great numbers of the round bottoms for the bags. Thirty different sizes are made for the bursting, ignition and propelling charges, ranging from the 3-pounder to the 13-inch gun. The sewing is all done by skilled men operators, a motor being attached to each machine. The making of the large 12 and 13-inch bags, with a half-dozen

wide streamers, requires an extraordinary amount of intricate sewing and manipulation. Each is deftly turned and twisted several hundred times before completion. Besides the regular bottom, each bag has an additional compartment made for the ignition charge, having a perforated center. One man turns out on an average fifteen to twenty 12 and 13 inch bags a day, and about thirty-five of the 6inch. The longest bag made is for holding the entire 6-inch charge, about a yard long. One of the important operations performed in the filling houses is loading the 13 and 12-inch projectiles with their bursting charge. For the former, fifty pounds of black powder is used, and about thirty pounds. for 12-inch. To hold the shells steady and to get at the base of these huge steel missiles, weighing over 1,000 pounds each, they are roped in a sling and hoisted clear of the floor by a pulley and chain. The point is then lowered a foot or so into a stout wooden frame with an opening a trifle larger than the shell. Then a long, narrow bag is inserted in the shell cavity, and the measured amount of black powder is poured through a funnel into the shell. Some fifty of these huge projectiles can be loaded in a day. Several of the smaller filling houses are used to assemble the cartridge cases and the bursting charges of the 3-inch rapid-fire shells used to repel torpedo attacks. With the new big superdreadnought like the U. S. New York, soon to go in commission to equip, and the regular routing work of the fleet to look after, the Iona Magazine is just now one of the busiest ordnance places of the government.