From the Richmond Times, 3/25/1898, p. 5, c. 3

THE ORDER FOR MORTAR SHELLS.
The Tredegar Secured it Over Many Competitors.
IRON CASES FOR EXPLOSIVES.
The Company Made Such Rapid Progress With the Last Order That Another Was Given Them – Nature of the Work.

The Tredegar Iron Works, of this city, was one of the two Virginia firms which received contracts from the United States Bureau of Ordnance on Wednesday for a large lot of cast-iron shells for the use of Coast-defence mortar batteries.

The placing of the order with the local firm is doubly gratifying when it is taken into consideration that theirs was one of sixteen bids submitted by firms in various parts of the country and all doubtless representing their very best figures.

THE ORDER

The order awarded to the Tredegar Works was for 165 twelve-inch mortar shells, of 800 pounds each, and 500 twelve-inch, similar shells, of 1,000.

To better ascertain the nature of such an order a Times reporter called yesterday at the office of the works and was received by Mr. T. F. Glasgow, Sr., the superintendent.

His company, he said, had as yet received no official notification of the fact that they had been awarded the above contract but he had no reason to doubt but that the press dispatches from Washington, were in every way correct. Without being in possession of the government specifications, he said it would be impossible for him to state positively how long it would take to fill the contract, but he felt free to say that he thought that one of the reasons his company had been favored with the present order, in addition to the lowness of their bid, was the expedition with which they previously filled order for similar missiles. The last contract which the company had from the government and that to which Mr. Glasgow referred was the one which was completed in February last and on which the company had until June to finish. It was his opinion that the exigencies of the situation which confronted the government was what caused the order to be divided for the purpose of expeditious completion.

ONLY THE IRON WORK.

When asked to explain the nature of the shells which the contract called for, Mr. Glasgow explained that they were really not projectiles for use in either old-fashioned or modern guns but were simply hollow, circular, cast iron cases used for enclosing high-explosives to be hurled, for mortars in coast-defence emplacements, to the decks of attacking ships. They have no penetrating abilities in themselves and rely solely for destructive qualities on the explosives which they contain. The company here simply does the iron work on them after which they are shipped to one or other of the government arsenals as instructions may be received, and there charged, fused, and made ready for actual use.

The other contract was awarded to the Petersburg Iron Works.

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