General Discussion on Brass

M. G. CORSON.'-I am not going to discuss any of the papers presented but merely the question of season cracking of brass in general. Alpha brass has been known for nearly 500 yr. and from the very beginning a number of articles were made from sheets of this alloy by the process of spinning. Metal turning lathes were not yet known but wood turning lathes already existed and the wood turners used to make the mandrils and do the brass spinning themselves. Cases of season cracking were known even then. In 1915 I was connected with a small company doing a certain amount of brass spinning. Before the war its products never gave cause for complaint but their war-time products were cracking too frequently. The reason was, that due to the exigencies of war an excessive speed-up was attempted and the material simply could not take it. Today corrosion cracking of brass is most important in the case of cartridges for small arms ammunition and shell cases for large guns. The cracking takes place in storage and too frequently it is explained by the hypothetical presence of vapors of ammonia. However, I had the experience of purchasing some 20,000 rounds for the old Vetterli rifle from the Swiss government in 1905. The rifle and the cartridges were obsolete for many years and those which I bought were stored for at least 10 yr. None of them was found to be cracked or to crack in use. And the reason again was in the amount of work used in manufacturing the cartridges between anneals. The machinery today is more powerful and the amount of