1.
Brainerd, Minnesota
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Brainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 13,592 as of the 2010 census and it is the county seat of Crow Wing County, and is one of the largest cities in Central Minnesota. Brainerd straddles the Mississippi River several miles upstream from its confluence with the Crow Wing River, Brainerd is the principal city of the Brainerd Micropolitan Area, a micropolitan area covering Cass and Crow Wing counties and with a combined population of 91,067 as of the 2010 census. The Brainerd area serves as a major tourist destination for Minnesota, Brainerd is the home to one of five medevac helicopter flight stations in the state for AirCare, operated by North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, a Level 1 Trauma Center. This station covers the part of Minnesota. The city is known for the Brainerd International Raceway, which hosts races frequently throughout the year and has a national drag racing meet annually in August. The area that is now Brainerd was originally inhabited by the Ojibwe. Brainerd was first seen by European settlers on Christmas Day in 1805, Crow Wing Village, a fur and logging community near Fort Ripley, brought settlers to the area in the mid-19th century. In those early years the relationship between the settlers and the native Americans was complicated, the most famous example of this tenuous relationship was the so-called Blueberry War of 1872. Two Ojibwe were hanged for murdering a missing girl. When a group of native Americans approached the town, troops from nearby Fort Ripley were called to prevent a potential reprisal, as it turned out, however, the Ojibwe only wanted to sell blueberries and the settlers avoided a bloody misunderstanding. Guilt of the two native Americans was never proven, Brainerd was the idea of Northern Pacific railroad president John Gregory Smith, who in 1870 named the township after his wife, Anne Eliza Brainerd Smith, and father-in-law, Lawrence Brainerd. The company built a bridge over the Mississippi seven miles north of Crow Wing Village and used the Brainerd station as a machine and car shop, prompting many to move north, Brainerd was organized as a city on March 6,1873. On January 11,1876, the state legislature revoked Brainerds charter for six years, Brainerd functioned as a township in the interim. In 1881, the railroad, and with it the town, participation in the nationwide railroad strike on July 1,1922, left the majority of Brainerd residents unemployed and embittered many of those involved. On October 27,1933, the First National Bank of Brainerd became briefly famous when it was held up by Baby Face Nelson and his gang. The BNSF Railway continues to employ approximately 70 people in Brainerd at a maintenance-of-way equipment shop responsible for performing repairs and preventive maintenance to track, the towns coating mill was sold by Potlatch to Missota Paper in 2003 and then by Missota Paper to Wausau Paper in 2004. Brainerd itself is now developed into commercial and residential areas
2.
War Shipping Administration
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The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA. A shortage of vessels further complicated by requirements to take out of service for conversion and armament was of concern at the highest levels. Harry Hopkins reporting directly to the President, differences between the organizations and lack of decisive authority short of the President limited the boards effectiveness. Upon establishment of the WSA the Strategic Shipping Board continued in existence in a diminished role under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On February 7,1942, the WSA was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelts Executive Order No.9054, February 7,1942 as the U. S. had entered the war. The WSA was administratively split off from the United States Maritime Commission, established in 1936 and those included the production of Liberty ships and Victory ships among other types. The U. S. fleet expanded to some 3,500 dry cargo vessels, on a practical level The Maritime Commission and the WSA worked closely together under the administration of Vice Admiral Emory S. Land at the head of each and it became apparent immediately when this Nation entered the war that a special agency to deal with the operational problems peculiar to war was necessary to supplement the Maritime Commission. Thus WSA became the Governments ship operating agency and the Maritime Commission its shipbuilding agency, under that authority cargo hulls were allocated to either commerce, Army or Navy. Many of the Armys ships and Naval transports were allocated by WSA, WSA, through its agents, directly operated ships in support of the services and civilian requirements. After the war, WSA vessels were used to home the huge number of armed personnel overseas, as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Over 3,500,000 men were brought home from overseas areas by December 1,1945, on September 1,1946, the WSA functions were returned to the Maritime Commission. Combined Shipping Adjustment Board United States Merchant Marine Victory ship Ships for Victory, A History of Shipbuilding under the U. S. Maritime Commission in World War II, ISBN 0-8018-6752-5 LCCN2001018657 United States Government Manual,1945 War Shipping Administration section American Merchant Marine at War
3.
Horsepower
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Horsepower is a unit of measurement of power. There are many different standards and types of horsepower, two common definitions being used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is approximately 746 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of engines with the power of draft horses. It was later expanded to include the power of other types of piston engines, as well as turbines, electric motors. The definition of the unit varied among geographical regions, most countries now use the SI unit watt for measurement of power. With the implementation of the EU Directive 80/181/EEC on January 1,2010, units called horsepower have differing definitions, The mechanical horsepower, also known as imperial horsepower equals approximately 745.7 watts. It was defined originally as exactly 550 foot-pounds per second [745.7 N. m/s), the metric horsepower equals approximately 735.5 watts. It was defined originally as 75 kgf-m per second is approximately equivalent to 735.5 watts, the Pferdestärke PS is a name for a group of similar power measurements used in Germany around the end of the 19th century, all of about one metric horsepower in size. The boiler horsepower equals 9809.5 watts and it was used for rating steam boilers and is equivalent to 34.5 pounds of water evaporated per hour at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. One horsepower for rating electric motors is equal to 746 watts, one horsepower for rating Continental European electric motors is equal to 735 watts. Continental European electric motors used to have dual ratings, one British Royal Automobile Club horsepower can equal a range of values based on estimates of several engine dimensions. It is one of the tax horsepower systems adopted around Europe, the development of the steam engine provided a reason to compare the output of horses with that of the engines that could replace them. He had previously agreed to take royalties of one third of the savings in coal from the older Newcomen steam engines and this royalty scheme did not work with customers who did not have existing steam engines but used horses instead. Watt determined that a horse could turn a mill wheel 144 times in an hour, the wheel was 12 feet in radius, therefore, the horse travelled 2.4 × 2π ×12 feet in one minute. Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force. So, P = W t = F d t =180 l b f ×2.4 ×2 π ×12 f t 1 m i n =32,572 f t ⋅ l b f m i n. Watt defined and calculated the horsepower as 32,572 ft·lbf/min, Watt determined that a pony could lift an average 220 lbf 100 ft per minute over a four-hour working shift. Watt then judged a horse was 50% more powerful than a pony, engineering in History recounts that John Smeaton initially estimated that a horse could produce 22,916 foot-pounds per minute
4.
Steam turbine
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A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, in 1551, Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit. Steam turbines were described by the Italian Giovanni Branca and John Wilkins in England. The devices described by Taqi al-Din and Wilkins are today known as steam jacks, in 1672 an impulse steam turbine driven car was designed by Ferdinand Verbiest. A more modern version of car was produced some time in the late 18th century by an unknown German mechanic. The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, the invention of Parsons steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons design was a reaction type and his patent was licensed and the turbine scaled-up shortly after by an American, George Westinghouse. The Parsons turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up. Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, a number of other variations of turbines have been developed that work effectively with steam. The de Laval turbine accelerated the steam to full speed before running it against a turbine blade, De Lavals impulse turbine is simpler, less expensive and does not need to be pressure-proof. It can operate with any pressure of steam, but is less efficient. He taught at the École des mines de Saint-Étienne for a decade until 1897, one of the founders of the modern theory of steam and gas turbines was Aurel Stodola, a Slovak physicist and engineer and professor at the Swiss Polytechnical Institute in Zurich. His work Die Dampfturbinen und ihre Aussichten als Wärmekraftmaschinen was published in Berlin in 1903, a further book Dampf und Gas-Turbinen was published in 1922. It was used in John Brown-engined merchant ships and warships, including liners, the present-day manufacturing industry for steam turbines is dominated by Chinese power equipment makers. Other manufacturers with minor market share include Bhel, Siemens, Alstom, GE, Doosan Škoda Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan projects that manufacturing of steam turbines will become more consolidated by 2020 as Chinese power manufacturers win increasing business outside of China. There are several classifications for modern steam turbines, Turbine blades are of two basic types, blades and nozzles. Blades move entirely due to the impact of steam on them and this results in a steam velocity drop and essentially no pressure drop as steam moves through the blades. A turbine composed of alternating with fixed nozzles is called an impulse turbine, Curtis turbine, Rateau turbine
5.
5"/38 caliber gun
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The Mark 12 5/38 caliber gun was a US naval gun. The gun was installed into Single Purpose and Dual Purpose mounts used primarily by the US Navy, the 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5/51 low-angle gun and 5/25 anti-aircraft gun. The increased barrel length provided greatly improved performance in both anti-aircraft and anti-surface roles compared to the 5/25 gun, however, except for the barrel length and the use of semi-fixed ammunition, the 5/38 gun was derived from the 5/25 gun. Both weapons had power ramming, which enabled rapid fire at high angles against aircraft, the 5/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934. The base ring mount, which improved the rate of fire, entered service on USS Gridley. Even this advanced system required nearly 100 rounds of ammunition expenditure per aircraft kill, however, the planes were normally killed by shell fragments and not direct hits, barrage fire was used, with many guns firing in the air at the same time. Base ring mounts with integral hoists had a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per barrel, however. On pedestal and other mounts lacking integral hoists,12 to 15 rounds per minute was the rate of fire, useful life expectancy was 4600 effective full charges per barrel. The 5/38 cal gun was mounted on a large number of US Navy ships in the World War II era. It was backfitted to many of the World War I-era battleships during their wartime refits and it has left active US Navy service, but it is still on mothballed ships of the United States Navy reserve fleets. It is also used by a number of nations who bought or were given US Navy surplus ships, each mount carries one or two Mk 12 5/38cal Gun Assemblies. The gun assembly shown is used in single mounts, and it is the gun in twin mounts. It is loaded from the left side, the left gun in twin mounts is the mirror image of the right gun, and it is loaded from the right side. The Mk12 gun assembly weighs 3,990 lb, the major Mk12 Gun Assembly characteristics are,158 Semi-automatic During recoil, some of the recoil energy is stored in the counter-recoil system. That stored energy is used during counter-recoil to prepare the gun for the next round, the firing pin is cocked, the breech is opened, the spent powder case is ejected, and the bore is air cleaned. Hand loaded A Projectile-Man and a Powder-Man are stationed at each gun assembly and their job is to move the round, consisting of a projectile and a powder case, from the hoists to the rammer tray, and then start the ram cycle. The hydraulically driven Rammer Spade, called the Power Spade in that picture, is at the back of the Rammer Tray, if the multiple names of the Spade is confusing, look at this footnote. Vertical sliding-wedge breech block The breech block closes the chamber behind the powder case and it also holds the firing pin assembly
6.
3"/50 caliber gun
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For Army 3-inch gun see 3-inch M1918 gun The 3″/50 caliber gun in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 3 inches in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long. Different guns of this caliber were used by the U. S. Navy and U. S. Coast Guard from 1890 through the 1990s on a variety of combatant and transport ship classes. The US Navys first 3″/50 caliber gun was a model with a projectile velocity of 2,100 feet per second. Low-angle mountings for this gun had a range of 7000 yards at the elevation of 15 degrees. The gun entered service around 1900 with the Bainbridge-class destroyers, and was fitted to Connecticut-class battleships. By World War II these guns were only on a few Coast Guard cutters. These guns fired the same 2,700 feet per second used by the following dual-purpose Marks. These were built-up guns with a tube, partial-length jacket, hoop, dual-purpose 3″/50 caliber guns first entered service in 1915 as a refit to USS Texas, and were subsequently mounted on many types of ships as the need for anti-aircraft protection was recognized. They also replaced the original low-angle 4/50 caliber guns on flush-deck Wickes and these dual-purpose guns were quick-firing, meaning that they used fixed ammunition, with powder case and projectile permanently attached, and handled as a single unit weighing 34 pounds. Maximum range was 14,600 yards at 45 degrees elevation, useful life expectancy was 4300 effective full charges per barrel. The 3/50 caliber gun Marks 17 and 18 was first used as a deck gun on R-class submarines launched in 1918-1919. At the time it was an improvement on the earlier 3/23 caliber gun, after using larger guns on many other submarines, the 3/50 caliber gun Mark 21 was specified as the standard deck gun on the Porpoise- through Gato-class submarines launched in 1935-1942. The small gun was chosen to remove the temptation to engage enemy vessels on the surface. The gun was mounted aft of the conning tower to reduce submerged drag. Wartime experience showed that larger guns were needed and this need was initially met by transferring 4/50 caliber guns from S-class submarines as they were shifted from combat to training roles from late 1942. Later, the 5/25 caliber gun, initially removed from battleships sunk or damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor and later manufactured in a submarine version, post-war experimentation with an extended range variant was abandoned as shipboard surface-to-air missiles were developed. The United States Navy considered contemporary 5/38 caliber guns and 5″/54 caliber guns more effective against surface targets, the 3″/50 caliber gun was a semiautomatic anti-aircraft weapon with a power driven automatic loader. These monobloc 3″ guns were fitted to both single and twin mountings, the single was to be exchanged for a twin 40 mm antiaircraft gun mount and the twin for a quadruple 40 mm mount
7.
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
United States
