Public Law 58–1402

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.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, ,

fortifications and other works of defense. For modernizing older emplacements, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For construction of tire control stations and accessories, including purchase of lauds and rights of way, and for the purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance 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, and test of range tinders and other instruments for tire control at the fortifications, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, one million dollars. For purchase and installation of searchlights for the defenses of our most important harbors, two hundred thousand dollars. For the protection, preservation, and repair of fortifications for which there may be no special appropriation available, three hundred thousand dollars. For preparation of plans for fortifications, five thousand dollars. 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 construction of sea walls and embankments, nineteen thousand four hundred dollars. For the construction of mining casemates, cable galleries, torpedo storehouses, cable tanks, and other structures necessary for the operation. preservation, and care of submarine mines and their accessories, four hundred thousand dollars, to be expended by the Engineer Department. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to apply the money herein appropriated for fortifications and other works of defense, in carrying on the various works, by contract or otherwise, as may be most economical and advantageous to the Government. Where said works are done by contract, such contract shall be made after sufficient public advertisement for proposals, in such manner and form as the Secretary of War shall prescribe; and such contracts shall be made with the lowest responsible bidders, accompanied by such securities as the Secretary of War shall require, conditioned for the faithful prosecution and completion of the work according to such contract.

armament of fortifications. For the purchase, manufacture, test, and issue of machine and automatic guns, including their carriages, sights, implements, equipments, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, seventy thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of mountain, field, and siege cannon, including their carriages, sights, implements, equip-ments, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, six hundred thousand dollars. Balances remaining unexpended from amounts appropriated by Act of May seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, for siege breech-loading mortars, steel, of seven-inch caliber; by Act of May twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred, for carriages and platforms for steel field mortars of three and six-tenths inch caliber, including implements and equipments; and by Act of March first, nineteen hundred and one, for five-inch breech-loading rifles, siege, and for carriages for steel breech-loading rifles, siege, of five-inch caliber, including equipments, platform, and ammunition wagons, are hereby made available for such objects as are provided for by the foregoing appropriation, and such funds will hereafter be accounted for under this same heading of appropriation. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition for 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, two hundred thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, test, and issue of seacoast cannon for coast defense, including their carriages, sights, implements, equipments, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, five hundred thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition for seacoast cannon, including the necessary experiments in connection therewith, and the machinery necessary for its manufacture at the arsenals, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of inspecting instruments for the manufacture of cannon, carriages, and ammunition: range tinders and other instruments for file control at the fortifications and in field batteries, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, one hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition, subcaliber tubes, and other accessories for seacoast artillery practice, including the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, three hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition, subcaliber tubes, and other accessories for mountain, field, and siege artillery practice, including the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, seventy-seven thousand dollars. For the alteration and maintenance of the seacoast artillery, including the purchase and manufacture of machinery, tools, and materials necessary for the work and the expenses of the mechanics engaged thereon, five hundred and sixty thousand dollars. For eight-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch guns, manufactured by contract, under the provisions of the fortifications Acts approved August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, and February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, twenty-eight thousand dollars.

proving ground, sandy hook, new jersey. For current expenses and maintenance of the ordnance proving 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 fifty thousand two hundred and forty-three dollars. For the necessary expenses of officers while temporarily employed on ordnance duties at the proving round 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. For repairs of railroad tracks connecting the proving ground with the Central railroad of New Jersey, six thousand dollars. For straightening railroad from Highland Beach, New Jersey, to proving ground, ten thousand dollars.

watervliet arsenal. watervliet, new york. For alteration of cranes at seacoast gun factory, Watervliet Arsenal, fourteen thousand dollars.

submarine mines. For the purchase of submarine mines and necessary appliances to operate them for closing the channels leading to our principal seaports, and continuing torpedo experiments, for the purchase of the necessary 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 thousand dollars.

fortifications in insular possessions. For construction of seacoast batteries in the insular possessions, seven hundred thousand dollars. For the purchase, manufacture, test, and issue of seacoast cannon for coast defense for the insular possessions, including their carriages, sights, implements, equipments, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Provided, That the Secretary of War is authorized to mount two twelve-inch and three ten-inch breech-loading rides on a corresponding number of carriages for which appropriation was made for the insular possessions in the fortification Act approved April twenty-first, nineteen hundred and four, and in addition thereto two twelve-inch and two ten-inch rilles for the carriages for which estimates are now submitted, these guns being surplus on hand in excess of the number of carriages provided for emplacements in the United States. For purchase, manufacture, and test of ammunition for seacoast cannon, for the insular possessions, including the necessary experiments in connection therewith, and the machinery necessary for its manufacture at the arsenals, one hundred thousand dollars. For purchase, manufacture, and test of inspecting instruments for the manufacture of cannon, carriages, and ammunition; range finders and other instruments for tire control at the fortifications in the insular possessions, and the machinery necessary for their manufacture at the arsenals, sixteen thousand dollars. Hereafter all estimates for fortifications for insular possessions of the United States shall be made and submitted to Congress showing amount proposed to be expended at each harbor in each insular possession.

board of ordnance and fortification. To enable the Board to make all needful and proper purchases, experiments, and tests to ascertain, with a view to their utilization by the Government, the most effective guns, small arms, cartridges, pro-jectiles, 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 us may, in the judgment of the Hoard, he necessary in the proper discharge of the duty devolved upon it by the Act approved September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; to pay the salary of the civilian member of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification provided by the Act of February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and for tile necessary traveling expenses of said member when traveling on duty as contemplated in said Act; for the payment of the necessary expenses of the Hoard, including a per diem allowance to each officer detailed to serve thereon, when employed ou 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, ten 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: 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. 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 lie admitted free of duty.

Approved, March 3, 1905.