Chapter 251. 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
2,148 words·~10 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-35/chapter-251-3059536·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 251.— 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. March 3, 1909.[[[H. R. 27054](/us/bill/70/hr/27054).][[[Public, No. 304](/us/pl/70/304).] *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 money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be available until expended, namely:
FORTIFICATIONS AND OTHER WORKS OF DEFENSE. under the engineer department.Engineer Department. For construction of gun and mortar batteries, five thousand andGun and mortar batteries. sixty-four dollars. For modernizing older emplacements, one hundred thousand dollars.Modernizing older emplacements. For construction of fire-control stations and accessories, includingFire-control stations, etc. purchase of lands and rights of way, and for the purchase and installation of necessary lines and means of electrical communication, including telephones, dial and other telegraphs, wiring and all special instruments, apparatus, and materials, coast signal apparatus, and salaries of electrical experts, engineers, and other necessary employees connected with the use of coast artillery; for the purchase, manufacture,Range finders, etc. and test of range finders and other instruments for fire control at the fortifications, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, two hundred and forty-seven thousand and fifty-five dollars.
For supplying current for power and lighting at seacoast fortifications,Electric current supply. one hundred thousand dollars. For purchase and installation of searchlights for the defenses ofSearchlights. our most important harbors, two hundred and ten thousand dollars. For the procurement or reclamation of land, or right pertainingSites. thereto, needed for site, location, construction, or prosecution of 729 works for fortifications and coast defenses, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
For the protection, preservation, and repair of fortifications forPreservation, etc. which there may be no special appropriation available, two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. For completing sea walls for the protection of the sites of thePenacola, Fla., seawlls. fortifications and of the necessary post buildings at Forts Pickens and McRee, Pensacola Harbor, Florida, five hundred and seven thousand one hundred dollars. For preparation of plans for fortifications, five thousand dollars.Plans.Electric plants.
For tools, electrical and engine supplies and appliances, to be furnished by the Engineer Department, for the use of the troops for maintaining and operating electric light and power plants in gun and mortar batteries, forty thousand dollars. For reserve lights, ten thousand dollars.Reserve lights.Sea walls. For construction of sea walls and embankments, fifty thousand dollars. For construction of sea wall anil fill for the protection of theFort Travis. Galveston, Tex.Sea wall. military reservation at Fort Travis, Galveston, Texas, four hundred and forty thousand dollars.
For preservation and repair of structures erected for the torpedoTorpedo structurea. defense of the United States, twenty thousand dollars. For the construction of mining casemates, cable galleries, torpedoSubmarine mines. storehouses, cable tanks, and other structures necessary for the operation, preservation, and care of submarine mines and their accessories, one hundred thousand dollars, to be expended by the Engineer Department. under the chief signal officer.Signal Service.
For operation and maintenance of fire-control installations at seacoastFire-control installations. defenses, one hundred and forty-five thousand five hundred dollars. armament of fortifications.Armament. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of mountain, field, andMountain, Held and siege cannon. siege cannon, including their carriages, sights, implements, equipments, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, six hundred thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition forAmmunition. machine and automatic guns, and for mountain, field, and siege cannon, including the necessary experiments in connection therewith and the machinery necessary for its manufacture at the arsenals, one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition for seacoastAmmunition for seacoast cannon. cannon, including the necessary experiments in connection therewith, and the machinery necessary for its manufacture at the arsenals, three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition, subcaliberAmmunition, etc., seacoast artillery practice. guns, and other accessories for seacoast artillery practice, including the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
For the alteration and maintenance of the mobile artillery, includingAltering mobile artillery. the purchase and manufacture of machinery, tools, and materials necessary for the work and the expenses of the mechanics engaged thereon, sixty thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition, subcaliberAmmunition, etc., for Held artillery practice. guns, and other accessories for mountain, field, and siege artillery practice, including the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. 730 Hereafter ammunition of older model than current may be issuedIssue to institutions. for the instruction in target practice of students at the institutions to which the issue of artillery is authorized to the value of not more than five thousand dollars of original cost in any one year.
For the alteration of three and two-tenths inch batteries to rapidfireAltering to rapidfire batteries, etc. field batteries, including sights, implements, equipments, and the materials and machinery necessary for alteration and manufacture at the arsenals, two hundred thousand dollars. For the alteration and maintenance of the seacoast artillery, includingAltering, etc., seacoast artillery. the purchase and manufacture of machinery, tools, materials necessary for the work, and expenses of the civilian mechanics and extra-duty pay of enlisted men engaged thereon, four hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.
PROVING GROUND, SANDY HOOK, NEW JERSEY.Sandy Hook proving ground. For current expenses of the ordnance proving ground, Sandy Hook,Expenses, etc. New Jersey, comprising the maintenance of rail and water transportation, repairs, alterations, accessories, and service of employees incidental to testing and proving ordnance material, hire or assistants for the Ordnance Board, purchase of instillments and articles required for testing and experimental work, building and repairing butts and targets, clearing and grading ranges, fifty-six thousand two hundred dollars.
For the necessary expenses of officers while temporarily employedTemporary employment.Per diem. on ordnance duties at the proving ground and absent from their proper station, 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. SUBMARINE MINES.Submarine mines. For the purchase of submarine mines and necessary appliances toPurchases, etc. operate them for closing the channels leading to our principal seaports, and continuing torpedo experiments; for the purchase of the necessaryFort Totten, N.
Y.Repair shop, torpedo depot. machinery, tools, and implements for the repair shop of the torpedo depot at Fort Totten, New York, and for extra-duty pay to soldiers necessarily employed for periods not less than ten days on work in connection with the issue, receipt, and care of submarine mining material at the torpedo depot, three hundred and ten thousand dollars. FORTIFICATIONS IN INSULAR POSSESSIONS.Insular possessions. engineer department.Engineer Department. For construction of seacoast batteries, as follows:Seacoast batteries.
In the Hawaiian Islands, three hundred and thirty-seven thousandHawaiian Islands two hundred dollars; In the Philippine Islands, one million dollars: *Provided*, That contractsPhilippine Islands.*Proviso.*Contracts authorized. may be entered into, under the direction of the Secretary of War, for materials and work for construction of seacoast batteries in the Philippine Islands, to be paid for as appropriations may from time to time be made by law, for an additional sura not to exceed six hundred thousand dollars;
In all, one million three hundred and thirty-seven thousand two hundred dollars. 731 For installation of light and power plants at the defenses of theElectric plants. following localities: In the Hawaiian Islands, fourteen thousand four hundred andHawaiian Islands. sixty-nine dollars; In the Philippine Islands, eighty-eight thousand eight hundred andPhi lippine Islands. twenty-three dollars; In all, one hundred and three thousand two hundred and ninety- two dollars. OFFICE OF CHIEF OF ARTILLERY.Chief of Artillery.
For construction of fire-control stations and accessories, includingFire control stations, etc. purchase of lands and rights of way, and for the purchase and installation of necessary lines and means of electrical communications, including telephones, dial and other telegraphs, wiring and all special instruments, apparatus and materials, coast signal apparatus, and salaries of electrical experts, engineers, and other necessary employees connected with the use of coast artillery; for the purchase, manufacture,Range finders. and test of range finders and other instruments for fire control at the fortifications, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
For purchase and installation of searchlights for the defenses ofSearchlights. most important harbors, as follows:Hawaiian Islands. In the Hawaiian Islands, sixty-six thousand dollars.Sites, Philippines. For procurement or reclamation of land, or right pertaining thereto, needed for the site, location, construction, or prosecution of works for fortifications and coast defenses in the Philippine Islands, twelve thousand dollars. ordnance department.Ordnance Department. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of seacoast cannon forSeacoast cannon. coast defense, including their carriages, sights, implements, equipments, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, to cost ultimately not more than eight hundred and fiftyseven thousand dollars, five hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars.
The action of the Secretary of War in heretofore mounting eightTransfer of mortars, etc., to Hawaii. twelve-inch mortars from the stock on hand for use in continental United States at Diamond Head in the Hawaiian Islands is ratified and legalized, and the Secretary of War is further authorized to transfer to the insular possessions for reserve purposes one ten-inch gun and two six-inch guns out of the stock now on hand in the United States. For purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition for seacoastAmmunition forsea- coast cannon. cannon, including the necessary experiments in connection therewith, and the machinery necessary for its manufacture at the arsenals, five hundred thousand dollars.
For the alteration and maintenance of the seacoast artillery, andAltering artillery, etc. the mechanical supervision of its installation, including the purchase and manufacture of machinery, tools, and materials necessary for the work, and expenses of the civilian mechanics and extra-duty pay of enlisted men engaged thereon, twenty-five thousand dollars. Not to exceed thirty-five thousand dollars of the funds appropriatedDraftsmen. for fortifications in the insular possessions may be used prior to July first, nineteen hundred and ten, in the War Department for services of draftsmen, such sum to be in addition to other amounts authorized for similar work: *Provided.* That the Secretary of War shall report*Proviso.*Rrport. in his annual estimates to Congress the number of persons employed, their duties, and the amount paid to each. 732 BOARD OF ORDNANCE AND FORTIFICATION.Bonrđ of Ordnance and Fortification.
To enable the board to make all needful and proper purchases,Purchases, etc. 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 uponVol. 25. p. 489. it by the Act approved September twenty-second, eighteen hundredCivilian member.Salary.Vol. 26. p. 769. and eighty-eight; to pay the salary of the civilian member of the Board of Ordnanceand Fortification provided by the Act of February twentyfourth, 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,Per diem; tests, etc. 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, the expenditure of which shall be made by the several bureaus of the War Department heretofore having jurisdiction of the same, or by the board itself, as the Secretary of War may direct:*Proviso*.Right to use invention. *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.
No money appropriated by this Act shall be expended except forMaterials to be of American manufacture. goods of American manufacture, save 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. Approved, March 3, 1909.