Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/61

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Forging a Great Gun

���One of the tremendously powerful "mechanical blacksmiths" or hydraulic presses which work down to smaller sizes the white hot large steel blocks or ingots. Gradually they are thus converted into long cylindrical pieces, the embryo or starting point of the gun itself. These immense presses are worked by levers which cause the ram in the center to obey the will of the operator. Cranes and mechanical apparatus, as shown, can turn this red hot block over'and over at will

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