Chapter 552. Making appropriations for fortifications and other works of defense, for the armament thereof, for the procurement of heavy ordnance for trial and service, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 552.— An Act Making appropriations for fortifications and other works of defense, for the armament thereof, for the procurement of heavy ordnance for trial and service, and for other purposes. May 25, 1900. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the sums of money Fortifications appropriations. herein provided for be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of 184 any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be available until expended, namely:
Fortifications. fortifications and other works of defense. Gun and mortar batteries. For construction of gun and mortar batteries, two million dollars. Pneumatic dynamite batteries. For pneumatic dynamite batteries, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Range, etc., finders. For installation of range and position finders, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Sites. For the procurement of land, or right pertaining thereto, needed for the site, location, construction, or prosecution of works, for fortifications and coast defenses, two hundred thousand dollars.
Sullivans Island, S. C. For the purchase of suitable building sites, and improvements and leases thereon, necessary to properly provide for the garrison at Sullivans Island, Charleston, South Carolina, one hundred and thirty-five *Proviso*. thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary: *Provided*, —legal title. That no part of this sum shall be expended until valid title to all the land, and improvements and leases thereon, necessary for this purpose shall have been acquired by the United States.
Repairs. 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. Electric light, etc., plants. For tools, electrical and engine supplies, for use of the troops for maintaining and operating electric light and power plants in gun and mortar batteries, twenty-five thousand dollars. Sea walls, etc. For construction of sea walls and embankments, fifty thousand dollars.
Fort Caswell, N. C. For construction of a sea wall and for necessary filling in at the reservation at Fort Caswell, North Carolina, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mines, etc. 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, and continuing torpedo experiments, fifty thousand dollars.
Armament. armament of fortifications. Army Gun Factory. Twelve-inch, etc., guns. For finishing and assembling eight-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch guns at the Army Gun Factory, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Steel. For oil-tempered and annealed steel for eight-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch seacoast guns, five hundred and thirty thousand dollars: *Provisos*. Maximum price per pound. *Provided*, That no contract for oil-tempered and annealed steel for high-power coast-defense guns and mortars shall be made at a price Steel-wire seacoast guns. exceeding twenty-two cents per pound: *Provided*, That in the discretion of the Secretary of War a portion of this money may be used for the purchase of material for steel-wire seacoast guns.
Carriages. For carriages for eight, ten, and twelve-inch seacoast guns, including one carriage for sixteen-inch type gun, four hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars. Mortars. For twelve-inch steel breech-loading mortars, three hundred thousand dollars. —carriages. For carriages for twelve-inch steel breech-loading mortars, one hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars. Reserve supply powder, etc. For powders, projectiles, and explosives for reserve supply for cannon, six hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars.
Rapid-fire guns. For rapid-fire guns, including their mounts and ammunition, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 185 For eight, ten, and twelve-inch guns manufactured by contract under Contract guns. the provisions of the fortification Acts approved August eighteenth, Vol. 26, pp. 319, 770. eighteen hundred and ninety, and February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, three hundred and sixty-one thousand four hundred and eighty-eight dollars. For test of one sixteen-inch type of breech-loading gun, sixty thousand Sixteen-inch gun test. dollars.
For proof of eight-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch guns, thirty-three Proof of eight-inch, etc., guns. thousand dollars. For powder and projectiles for the proof of twelve-inch breech-loading Ammunition for proof, twelve-inch mortars. seacoast mortars, four thousand dollars. For armor plates and deck plates for testing armor and deck piercing Armor plates, etc. projectiles, twenty-three thousand five hundred dollars. For powders and projectiles for artillery instruction and practice, Ammunition for practice, etc. eighty-eight thousand dollars.
For armament chests for siege and seacoast guns and mortars, nine Armament chests. thousand eight hundred dollars. For machine guns of caliber thirty, army model, including metallic Machine guns. carriages, with limbers and protective shields complete for same, fifty thousand dollars. For range finders for coast defense, thirty-five thousand dollars. Coast defense range finders. Equipments, etc. For implements and equipments for service, and also for mounting, = repairs, care and preservation of armament, including range finders, twenty-five thousand dollars.
To enable the Secretary of War, in his discretion, to purchase for Purchase of patent of Gregory Gerdom, etc. the United States the patent of Gregory Gerdom for a gas check for breech-loading guns, fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary: *Provided*, That before payment is made to said Gerdom *Proviso*. —release of claims to be filed. for said patent he shall tile with the Secretary of War a release of all claims against the United States for accrued royalties for the use of said patent or for any other claim in connection therewith.
For steel field guns, one hundred and five thousand dollars. Steel field guns. For carriages for steel field guns, three hundred and ninety-eight —carriages. thousand dollars. For mountain guns, with their carriages and ammunition, seventy Mountain guns, etc. thousand dollars. For steel field mortars of three and six-tenths inch caliber, eight Steel field mortars. thousand dollars. For carriages and platforms for steel field mortars of three and six-tenths —carriages, etc. inch caliber, including implements and equipments, three thousand eight hundred dollars.
For sights for cannon, twenty-five thousand dollars. Sights for cannon. For fuses and primers for cannon, nineteen thousand dollars. Fuses and primers. For inspecting instruments, gauges, and templets for the manufacture Inspecting instruments. of cannon and projectiles, five thousand dollars. For completing the equipment of field and siege batteries now in Equipping field and siege batteries. service, and for fully equipping four additional siege batteries according to the requirements of general orders of the War Department under date of February twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred, one hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and forty dollars. proving ground, sandy hook, new jersey.
Sandy Hook proving ground. For current expenses and maintenance of the ordnance proving Maintenance. ground, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, including expenses incident to the transportation of men and material therefor, 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, thirty-seven thousand dollars. 186 Expenses of officers.
For the necessary expenses of officers while temporarily employed on 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 on ordnance construction, eighteen thousand seven hundred dollars. Railroad sidings. For sidings on the Government reservation adjoining the Highland Beach Station of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, three thousand four hundred dollars.
Repairs of tracks. For repairs of railroad tracks connecting the proving ground with the Central Railroad of New Jersey, three thousand dollars. watervliet arsenal, west troy, new york. Watervliet Arsenal. For replacing portion of metal roof of main storehouse and shops, for general repairs on roof and cornice of gun shop, including interior gutters, and so forth, repairing metal roof of blacksmith shop, and inclosing wall and bridges, eighteen thousand eight hundred dollars.
Board of Ordnance and Fortification. board of ordnance and fortification. Purchases. To enable the board to make all needfid 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 discharge of the duty devolved upon it by Vol. 25, p. 489.
Civilian member. the Act approved September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; to pay the salary of the civilian member of the Board Vol. 26, p. 769. 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 Expenses. 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 *Proviso*.
Right to use inventions. 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.
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 in limited quantities abroad, which material shall be admitted free of duty. Emery carriage. emery carriage. Increase of contract price authorized. To enable A. H. Emery to complete and erect the twelve-inch elevating carriage he is building for the Government, the Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to increase the contract price of said carriage and its foundations from one hundred and ten thousand dollars to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and 187 to enable the Secretary of War to make this increase in the price of this work and to make payment therefor, the sum of forty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated: *Provided*, That of the one *Proviso*.
Amount available for foundations. hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be paid for the carriage and its foundations, ten thousand dollars shall be paid towards the construction of the foundations, of which sum one-half shall be paid to the said Emery as soon as needed by him to pay bills for materials used and labor performed in its construction and erection and the other half of this ten thousand dollars shall be paid to him when the foundations are erected ready for the carriage and all bills for the whole cost thereof entirely satisfied.
Of the one hundred Advances for material, etc. and forty thousand dollars balance of this money to be paid for the carriage and its foundations, advances shall be made as heretofore for material and finishing the same as provided in the contract, until such advances shall reach, for materials and finishing and erecting the same, not exceeding ninety per centum of this sum. Of the balance of the said one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, fourteen thousand shall be advanced to the said Emery, after the passage of this Act, as fast as it is needed to pay bills made and to be made in connection with the work of this contract.
The ten thousand dollars authorized Payment on supplemental contract. to be paid A. H. Emery on the supplemental contract provided for in the Fortification appropriation Act approved June sixth, eighteen Vol. 29, p. 260. hundred and ninety-six, shall be due and paid as soon as the carriage and loading apparatus provided for in said supplemental contract are completed according to contract and ready for erection. After the Right of Government to build carriages carriage herein provided for is completed and tested and all moneys due the said A.
H. Emery thereon have been paid, the Government shall have the right to build any and all such other disappearing carriages as it may choose under any or all United States patents obtained at any time by the said Emery on his inventions embodied in this carriage. The royalty to be due and paid him or his legal representatives Royalty. on all carriages built by or for the Government or carriages which they build, excepting the type carriage now under construction, embodying any of the said specified inventions, shall not exceed six per centum of the cost of the erected carriage in which such inventions are used; payment of the royalty on-any such carriage to be due when such carriage is completed.
Sec. 2. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to Pneumatic dynamite guns. Partial payments for purchase, etc., authorized. make partial payments under the contracts now existing with the War Department for the purchase and erection of pneumatic dynamite guns, carriages, and so forth, and ammunition for same, the said payments to be proportioned to the amount of work done and material furnished to date under said contracts: *Provided*, That the contractors furnish a *Provisos*.
Contractors’ bond. satisfactory bond, equal to the amount of all payments to be made, indemnifying the Government against loss in case the said dynamite guns, fittings, and so forth, shall not fulfill the contract requirements: *Provided further*, That the aggregate amount of partial payments Limit of payments. made under the contract shall not exceed eighty per centum of the work done and material furnished to date of payment. Approved, May 25, 1900.