The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

• RAPID FIRING AND HEATED
BARRELS.

The Times of Monday published the following letter :
Sir,—l note in your columns an interesting dis-
cussion going on in reference to the Isandula affair, as
to the feasibility of grasping the musket barrel after
rapid firing for the purpose of using the bayonet.
Let me contribute a fact in evidence. In the re-
cent Civil War in the United States, at the battle of
Perryville, in Kentucky, October 8, 1862, I took into
action a company of 61 men, 21 of whom I lost in the
engagement. We were armed with the old-fashioned,
smooth-bore, muzzle-loading, Springfield musket,
United States Army pattern rifled for our use. This
piece is of wide calibre and carries alarge charge of
powder. My men carried each 60rounds of ammunition.
Daring the course of about an hour we repulsed
three several assaults of the enemy, and our rapid
firing was, therefore, divided by two intervals. During
the repulse of the third charge the pieces became al-
most unmanageable by the heating of the barrels. The
men could neither hold nor load the most of them,
and I managed to hold my line only by using the pieces
of the dead and wounded at our feet. By using some
of the pieces thus alternately, they would cool off
enough for moderate use. As the men expended in
this action all of the cartridges of their fallen comrades
as well as their own, there were more than 60 rounds
fired per man. In my judgment it does not take many
shots of very rapid firing to render a musket inefficient
for comfortable use, although that, again, may depend
somewhat on the calibre of tie piece and the conse-
quent quantity of powder buriTt. - • •
W. W. NEVIN, late Captain U. S. V.
American Exchange, 449, Strand, London, *arch 11.

•
THE AIR OF LARGE TOWNS.
In London, a paper has been read at the Society of
Arts by Mr. William Thompson, F.R.S E., F.C.S.
"On the Injurious Effects of the Air of Large Towns
on Animal and Vegetable Life, and on Methods Pro.
posed for Securing Salubrious Air." A great variety
of chemical facts and valuable statistics were brought
forward, mainly on the authority of Dr. Angus Smith.
to show that not only is the air of our large to% ns much
contaminated, but that these contaminations are very
injurious to the health, happiness, and longevity of the
people who breathe it. The best scheme as yet proposed
for the abatement of this evil, Mr. Thompson thought,
was that proposed by the well-known manufacturing
chemist, Mr. Peter Spence, F.C.S., of Manchester,
who deemed it practicable te build a chimney 600 ft.
high, 1401 t. external diameter at the bottom, and 1001 t.
internal diameter at the top, at a cost of about
£40,000, thus providing for the perfect combustion of
all the coal burnt in Manchester. It was understood
that Mr. Spence's system, propounded more than 20
years ago had been adopted successfully at the Man-
cheater Assize Courts, and was to be applied to the
new Law Courts in London. The first great advan-
tage of the plan was its making the liquid and gaseous
sewage to a great extent neutralize each other.
Again, it would thoroughly ventilate the sewers ; and,
lastly, it might materially help to solve the liquid
sewage problem, as was explained in detail. The
system might be cheaply extended to all our large
towns by simply joining all the chimneys in each block
!of buildings together, and connecting them with one
tall stack,