The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-10-14 00:00:00

Strum anb Nabp.

RIFLED GUNS AND ARMOUR PLAT!.—At the meet-
ing of the British Association for the promotion of
scienee, last week, Mr. T. Aston, N. A., read a paper
on "B.iged glans sad projectile* adapteri for attacking
armour plates." In the course of his remarks he said :
There has been great misconception in supposing that
the old smooth-bore gives a greater initial velocity than
the rifled gun, as the result obtained will show. The
average Initial velocity of the 68-pounder is, in round
numbers, 1,600 feet per second, with &charge of powder
one-third the weight of the shot, the length of ths
shot being, of course, one calibre. Sir W. Arentro,4
stated, with a charge of powder one quarter the weight
of the shot, he obtained with his rifled gun an Ririej
velocity of 1,740 feet per second. He did not state fild
length of his projectile. Mr. Whitworth, with pre,
jectile two calibres long, obtains, an initial velocity ot
1,900 feet per second, and with a projectile one
calibre long, like that of the s'mooth'bore, an initial
velocity of 2,300 feet per second, being greater than
that of the sinnoth-frove in the proportion of 23 to 16.
The fonowing table shows the actual rev*, obtained
by various guns
Gun.

Penetration
reange. PCCllieor
‘raiour
110-pounder Armstrong } 2)0 1101b.aol1 UM 11 to 2 inch
68•P000'ier
smooth-bore 206 681 b. solid lb. 21 to inch
Whltwerth 1_ 2, 70Ib. shot 121 b. ) Through sm.
70-pounder 1 and ihelllf sod batting
Whits"rth } 800 ISOlb she 251 b. )1171ack
17h Plato
120-pounder bing
The first two results show that the Armstrong rifled
gun is a arcane compromise than the old gun it witotat
tended to treperepde. It is worthy of notice, that the
Initial trek:hi:gents
velocity of the Whit*orth heavy projectile after tra-
veraing 600 yards (a good fighting range) was 1,263
feet, being 60 feet rater think the
the Armstrongirryectire, which is 1,110 feet at the
muzzle of the The total results in reelect of
penetration being so decidedly in favcor of Whiteorth,
It follows that he haa adopted the best oettPtutnitei 111
combining all three besmear, conditions ef Frets* lona
and material of projectile aid Pfficient velekitY. That
the velocity, though perhaps MI the muzzle et'
slightly below that of the surooll-iore, is anOcient
when combined with proper form and material of
jectile, is shown by the penetration result, whisk b.'
the case of the Whitworth is through and through
both armour-plate and backing, in the case of the
emooth-bore is barely through half the armour plate,
and in the Armstrong is not half through. The form
of projectiles, both shot and shell, employed by Mr.
Whitworth for penetrating armour plates were then
described. The material of which the projectile is
composed cndergoes • carefully regulated process of
annealing. The same metal fa used for the Whitworth
field grins, and practical improvements now enable it to
be worked in masses of any requisite size, whose
quality tray be henceforth depended upon with cer-
tainty. Mr. Whitworth is therefore now making his
heavy ordnance with both interior tubes and outer
beeps of homogeneous metal of the improved manu-
facture, so that the guns will be constructed through.
out of one uniform metal, without any welding at all.
Experience justifies the expectation that they will be
free from the objections which it is well known are in-
herent in all welded guns, and be fully able to resist
the severe and searching strain that is sure sooner or
later to disable a gun built up of forged coiled tubes if
it be called upon to do de full work by discharging
&Noy projectiles at efficient velocities.
GREAT Gums.—A writer in the Daily retegraot
lays :—Ooe of the remarkable circumstances of the age
we live in is the unblushing favouritism which is to
be found in our Government departments, and
.orldrik at this moment has a striking instate in
the determined support given to Sir William Arm-
strong in his futile attempt to make great guns. If
the employment of this gentleman in making guns for
four or five years—in which, with the exception of
light pieces of ordnancefor field service, he has utterly
failed—bad originated in a Whig job, it would have
been shown up by the Tories; but, unfortunately for
the country, Sir William Armstrong was the Want
gdid of General Peel, knighted by that Minister at
War, made inspector of artillery at .£l,OOO per annum
salary, and work secured to his factory at ELM&
under a penelty, by indenture, of £BO,OOO. It aipifies
nothing that Sir William Armstrong ass secured all
these advantages, because 'General Peel supposed and
believed that his breech-loading rifled great guns would
be the best protection for our forts and the best arm
for our me servioe • but the disastrous feet stares ns in
the face that Sir William Armstrong's principle of gun
founding having been found radically wrong, and hav-
ing failed, yet we cannot get rid of this iron incubus,
and are doomed to have him fixed as firmly on as as
Minbad's Old Man of the Sea. At last Sir William gets
to the and of his experiments—for his grin-founding
has been a tissue of experiments and expedients—and
finds that he canbot make a gun of • weight proper
for sea service which could be any substitute for our
68-pounder smooth-bored guns. This Sir William
Armstrong admits. The question, then of future
contest with armour plated ships, such as La Gloire of
the French navy, is entrusted to our naval officers,
who must pound such ships at two hundred yards' dis-
tance with the old guns, and with solid shot weighing
68 pounds. In common life, under such • este of
things, such a failure, and such an expedient, • mer-
chant contracting for ordnance would my, "Well,
Armstrong, you cannot do what you pretended; let
me have your bill ; I will pay the money you ham
wasted. Good morning. Shut up Faswick and be off."
Government has a different way of proceeding, and
thus the War Office argues : We have a coldly blunder
entailed upon us by the Derby Government; they in
opposition dare not attack it. We will have an under-
standing with one of the leading journals ; we will
keep the Armstrong forte up, and glorify Peel's knight
—not for what he has done, but for what he cannot
do. Unfortunately, however, for this arrangement,
the engineering world loudly clamouring at this marked
partiality and rank job, up jumps Whitworth; he
claims a trial for a sea-service gun—a 70-pounder rifted
gun—mush lighter and more handy than our 68-pounder
smooth-bored gun now in use; and this gun does all
and everything that Armstrong has been failing to do
for five years. Hbere at last is a gun and a abell
load it with—capable of blowing up and sending down,
the strongest armour plated ship in the world, which I
believe the Warrior to be. The Times, however, can-
not refrain from an attempt to bolster up Sir William
Armertrong, and actually, in an article, !peculates on
what the knight is to do next. Whitworth's gun Is
made on Armstrong's principle of shrunk iron. Now,
what is the fact? The only thing in Armstrong's guns-
worthy of attention is not his own idea or invention,
viz., the mode be has adopted of fortifying his barrel'.
That is the principle on which the Swish rifled guns
are made ; it is Captain Blakeley's mode of fortifying
behisforpeieoeit
was iwanodooda patent
by swtroaangtakn out
..d for
birt
the American gun-founder, Parrot. Whitworth pro-
duces a man against which no plated ship ten stand •
thence at 600 yards—you may safely say 1,000 lards,
for the trajectory power of a rifled gun does not
diminish as in a smooth-bored gun; and the Times
gravely asks what igun Armstrong, not Whitworth. Is
to make next, to prevent ships from bombarding Ports-
mouth at long ranges. Surely, the answer is plain.
Armstrong is hors if. combat; but Whitworth has
made a gun and a shell which, if placed on hoard gun-
boats or Boating batteries, will render the approach of
'it maritime foe an impossibility.

The Chief Commissioner of the Sanitary Report,
visited the Blocks to inspect the Pon TA imported by
HORNIIIAN ag CO., LONDON, from having on investiga-
tion found that many teas in general use are covered
by the Chinese with an objectionable powdered colour
which is drank when the tea is made. 11019i113111'11
Green is a natural dull olive,—not bluish,—the Bleak
is not intensely dark; by importing the leaf uncoloured,
the Chinese cannot disguise and pass off as the best,
brown wintery flavourless sorts, consequently, nom
-
men'. Pare Tea is uniforntly strong, deliciow, and
wholesome. Sold in Packets by 2,280 Agent.. —Agents.
In THIS LOCALITY are advertised in lint column of this
day.

A CLINCHER FROM CANADA. —ITI,MB FOR IIrTALID6.
Some Canadian statistician who has ascertained the
amount and value of the leading drugs and medicines
imported into British America during the last three
years, announces that the receipts of Holloway'll
Remedies for internal and external disease daring that.
period were nearly equal to those of all other advertised
medicines combined. We presume the statement ia,
correct. The faith and confidence placed by the Cana-
dians in those celebrated preparations, is • striking
feature in the history of their general progreas. They
were introduced earlier in Canada than in any other
part of our colonial empire, and for more than twenty
years the annual demand has continually increase&
Tempted by success Professor Holloway has bad many
imitators of what are termed" patent medicines," erb'''
have endeavoured to share with him in that field of his
usefulness, as well as in others, the harvest of honour
and profit which is the guerdon of a well-directed en-
terprise. It seems, however, from the statistics above
referred to, that they have not met with much encou-
ragement Their failure perhaps may be referred to
the fact, that the same publicity which renders • goOd
article popular makes a worthless one notorious. Iso
preparation which falls short of the promiees publicly
made in its behalf oan long survive. The editorial tone
of the colonial, as well as the home press, in 'Pet"
of Professor Holloway's Remedies, is • departure from
eistablishod usage. It is rarely that • leading puma!
touches upon such subjects, even by way of refereem
to an advertisement, yet we not unfrequently notice
in prominent English publications, remarks besrill4
upon merits of those specifics, which would be considered
infra dip as applied to any other advertised pirePlll"
tion. The Canadian press, which ham • way of saying
what it thinks upon most subjects, without Tench
regard to conventionalities, not only eulogises Protector
Holloway as the snecessful solver of a great medical
problem, and as an eminent public benefactor, le,gt
draws such contrasts between the effect of his remedies
and of those ordinarily administered by the fecal.
as must be anything but palatable to the latter. •
belief in the infallibility of doctors ever Prot•lied In
_..
British America, it has certainly ceased long to eC"'
for certificates innumerable assure as that the writers
after being" given up" by their medical advisers, took
counsel of their own judgment, resorted to the Pills or
the Ointment, or both, according to the nature of
disorders, and got well. It is doubtless veil
unmannerly in a p recover to oover after having bee•
declared insurable by his professional attendant, but
is se it
one of those breaches of etiquette for whish it is 01'.
possible to express regret, with 107 deco Of 011010
, .-iren,Off jornai. their

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