Chapter 384. Making appropriations for fortifications and other works of defense, for the armament thereof, tor the procurement of heavy ordnance for trial and service, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 384.— An Act Making appropriations for fortifications and other works of defense, for the armament thereof, tor the procurement of heavy ordnance for trial and service, and for other purposes. March 3, 1897. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the sums of money hereinFortifications appropriations. provided for be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be available until expended, namely:
Gun and mortar batteries: For construction of gun and mortarGun and mortar batteries. batteries, one million three hundred and forty-one thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars. For materials and work for construction of fortifications, to meet contractsWork under contracts.*Ante*, p. 257. authorized by the fortification appropriation Act approved June sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, two million five hundred thousand dollars. That prior to any expenditure of money for the construction of necessaryPlans for care, etc., to be submitted. buildings connected with the new fortifications, except that already authorized, the Secretary of War shall report to Congress on or before December sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, the most practicable and economical plan for the care and preservation of the fortifications and their armament, said plans to be based upon the authorized strength of the artillery force of the Army.
Sites for fortifications and seacoast defenses: For the procurementSites, etc. of land, or right pertaining thereto, needed for the site, location, construction, or prosecution of works for fortifications and coast defenses, three hundred thousand dollars. 642FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 384. 1897. Preservation and repair of fortifications: Preservation, etc.For the protection, preservation, and repair of fortifications for which there may be no special appropriation available, one hundred thousand dollars.
Plans.For preparation of plans for fortifications, five thousand dollars. Sea walls and embankments: Sea walls.For construction of sea trails and embankments, thirty-three thousand dollars. Sandy Hook, N. J.For construction of a riprap wall for protection of the eastern beach of United States lands at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, seventy-five thousand dollars. Torpedoes for harbor defense: Torpedoes for harbor defense.For the purchase of submarine mines and necessary appliances to operate them for closing the channels leading to our principal seaports, needful casemates, cable galleries, and so forth, to render it possible to operate submarine mines, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Armament of fortifications: Armament. For oil-tempered and annealed Steel for guns.steel for high-power coast-defense guns of eight-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch caliber, five hundred and fifty-eight thousand six hundred and sixty-three dollars. Carriages.For purchase or manufacture of carriages for coast-defense guns of eight, ten, and twelve inch calibers, four hundred and forty-six thousand dollars. Mortars.For purchase or manufacture of steel breech-loading mortars of twelve-inch caliber, seven hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars.
Carriages.For purchase or manufacture of carriages for steel breech-loading coast-defense mortars of twelve-inch caliber, three hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-four dollars. Payments under contracts.To provide for payments that may become due in the purchase or manufacture of oil-tempered and annealed steel, for high-power coast defense guns of eight, ten, and twelve inch caliber, and forgings for one type sixteen-inch gun; carriages for mounting seacoast guns of eight, ten, and twelve inch caliber: steel breech-loading mortars of twelve-inch caliber: carriages for mounting steel mortars of twelve inch caliber; steel deck-piercing shell for twelve-inch breech-loading mortars; and steel armor-piercing shot for seacoast breech-loading guns, contracted *Ante*, p. 257.for under the provisions of the fortifications Act approved June sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, said payments being in excess of the money therein appropriated for these objects, as follows:
Steel for guns.Oil-tempered and annealed steel for high-power coast-defense guns of eight, ten, and twelve inch caliber, and forgings for one type sixteen-inch gun, five hundred and fifty-five thousand and thirty-eight dollars: *Proviso*.Limit of price.*Provided*, That no contract for oil-tempered and annealed steel for high-power coast-defense guns and mortars shall be made at a price exceeding twenty-three cents per pound: Carriages.Carriages for mounting seacoast guns of eight, ten, and twelve inch caliber, three hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred dollars;
Mortars.Steel breech-loading mortars of twelve-inch caliber, five hundred and ten thousand dollars; Carriages.Carriages for steel mortars of twelve-inch caliber, one hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars; Steel shells.Steel deck-piercing and other shells for twelve-inch breech-loading mortars, fifty-four thousand six hundred dollars; Steel shot.Steel armor-piercing shot for seacoast breech-loading guns, thirty-two thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight dollars: in all, one million six hundred and ninety-five thousand and seventy-six dollars.
Powder and projectiles, reserve supply.For powders and projectiles tor a reserve supply for armament of fortifications, one hundred and sixty-nine thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight dollars; and twelve-inch armor-piercing shot, for which Acceptance of shot from Carpenter Steel Company.contracts have been made with the Carpenter Steel Company, which shot have failed to pass the prescribed ballistic tests and which are deemed by the Chief of Ordnance to possess sufficient strength and excellence for service against armor of medium thickness, may be643 accepted and purchased at one-half the contract prices, from fundsReduction in price. applicable for payments under the contracts mentioned.
For finishing and assembling coast-defense guns of eight-inch, ten-inch,Seacoast guns at Army Gun Factory. and twelve-inch caliber, and one type sixteen inch gun, at the Army Gun Factory, two hundred and four thousand and ninety-two dollars. For coast-defense guns of eight, ten, and twelve-inch caliber manufacturedContract guns.Vol. 26, pp. 319, 770. by contract under the provisions of the fortifications acts approved August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, and February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, four hundred thousand dollars.
For sights for cannon, ten thousand three hundred dollars.Sights and fuses. For fuses and primers for cannon, five thousand dollars. For inspecting instruments, gauges, and templets for the manufactureInspecting instruments, etc. of cannon and projectiles, one thousand five hundred dollars. For powder for issue to service, including metallic-cartridge cases forPowder and projectiles. cannon, sixteen thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars. For projectiles, including shrapnel, for issue to the service, twenty-four thousand dollars.
For powders and projectiles for the proof of coast defense guns of eight-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch caliber, six thousand six hundred and fifty dollars. For powder and projectiles for the proof of twelve-inch breech-loading mortars, twenty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-five dollars. For armor plates and deck plates for the test of armor-piercing andPlates for tests. deck-piercing projectiles, twenty-six thousand dollars. For armament chests, including tools for coast-defense guns andArmament chests. mortars, twenty-seven thousand four hundred and twenty dollars.
For the purchase of machine guns of approved musket caliber, ofMachine guns. American manufacture, twenty thousand dollars. For the services of a chemist in investigating properties of smokelessInvestigating smokeless powders, etc. powders and high explosives, with a view to improving same tor adoption in service, one thousand five hundred dollars. Proving Ground, Sandy Hook, New Jersey.— For current expensesSandy Hook proving ground.Maintenance. and maintenance of the ordnance proving ground, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, including general repairs and alterations, and accessories incidental to testing and proving ordnance, including hire of assistants for the Ordnance Board, skilled mechanical labor, purchase of instruments and other supplies, building and repairing butts and targets, clearing and grading ranges, twenty-seven thousand dollars.
For the necessary expenses of officers while temporarily employed onExpenses of officers. ordnance duties at the proving ground and absent from their proper stations, at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per diem while so employed, and the compensation of draftsmen while employed in the Army Ordnance Bureau of ordnance construction, sixteen thousand dollars. For repairs of railroad tracks connecting the proving ground with theRepairs to track. Central Railroad of New Jersey, three thousand dollars.
Watertown Arsenal, Watertown, Massachusetts: ForWatertown Arsenal.Gun-carriage plant. enlargement and improvement of gun-carriage plant, including the purchase of such machine tools as may be necessary, fifteen thousand dollars. For extension of brick foundry shed and storehouse, two thousandShed. dollars. Watervliet arsenal, West Troy, New York: For new machinery,Watervliet Arsenal.Machinery, etc. tools, fixtures, and alteration and improvement of same, forty-six thousand five hundred dollars.
For filling and grading grounds, construction of necessary roads andGrounds. covering the same and some old roads with granite paving, three thousand dollars. 644 FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Chs. 384, 385. 1897. Sea wall.For repairs of sea wall on the Hudson River and a culvert at junction of Dry River and Hudson River, two thousand six hundred dollars. Board of Ordnance and Fortification: Board of Ordnance and Fortification.Purchases, tests, etc.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, such guns, carriages, armor plates, and other war material as may, in the judgment of the Board, be necessary in the proper Vol. 25, p. 489.Civilian member.Vol. 26, p. 709.discharge of the duty devolved upon it by the Act approved September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight: 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 Expenses.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 Tests.day; and for the test of experimental guns, carriages, and other devices procured in accordance with the recommendation of the Board of Ordnance *Proviso*.Right to use inventions.and Fortification, one hundred and fifty 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.
Purchases to be of American manufacture.Exception.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 abroad, which material shall be admitted free of duty. Approved, March 3, 1897.