Originally Posted By: Ken61
An added note I'll include about Washington barrels. There is an obvious lack of visible inclusions in the Wrought Iron. In general, they usually color fault-free. It appears that this may be due to the higher steel content of the tubes. This also may explain why the Riband welds color dark instead of white. DocDrew, have you tensile tested a Washington section? Scrap Washington tubes are hard to come by, but I'd hypothesize that they may be stronger due to the higher steel content.

It's possible that they may have been developed not only for their looks, but to provide stronger tubes as dense smokeless powders became more popular.


The steel industry in Belgium is changing at this point. They have contracts to build ships. In a few cases, men of war. Also the impact of WWI on the industry was showing. No doubt the changes in powder influenced a small part of the steel industry, barrels for small arms, but not nearly the financial influence of ship building.

Pete

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