The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-20 00:00:00

THE ARTILLERY EXPERIMENTS AT

SHOEBURYNESS.

The important experiments smith Iron land defences and
heavy guns commenced at Shoeburynms on Tuesday morning.
The discussions that have taken place in Parliament and in
the press. upon the question of fort construction, bore their
natural fruit in an assemblage of spectators larger than
ever before collected at Shoeburyness,
-

_
The experiments have chiefly been directed at the eon.
partment or casemate of the Plymouth Breakwater Fort. Of
late. 11111110.0119 complaints have been made that the experi-
ments would not be honest, and that the charges of powder
to be used were so reduced that they would afford no
adequate test. At the last moment, several members of Par-
liament and others interested in the matter, made represen-
tations sufficiently weighty to induce an alteration of the
programme. On the whole the balance of opinion given in
the present instance by men whose ideas are worth repeating
is, that the target and the guns have been fairly made to
answer the experiment for which they were intended.
. . .

In making their arrangements the committee had in view
the probable distance at which ships would be able to engage
the fort, looking to the flre of the adjacent works, which
command the channels of approach as well as the space out-
side the breakwater, and to the shoals in front of the break-
water. This, they say, would render it impossible for large
ships to miunciivre at a less distance than 500 yards. The
actual distance of battery, however, was 200 yards.
Plymouth fort is a casemated one-tier battery, oval in shape.
and mounting eighteen guns. The cusemate represented by
the target is to receive 10-inch rifled guns of eighteen
•th 0301bs. of powder and 401 b. shot.
'this triget, ii so expensive and complete a piece of
iron-work can he thus called, Is 22 feet long and straight.
A. portion of it is composed of three layers of 5-inch plates,
• portion han an additional layer, making the total thick-
ness 20 Holies, and there are at the back supports or struts:.
I that in. . the thicimer oceasionialy to 12 Moho, Op.

posed to it was a batteryof five guns, two of which only have
to-day given us a taste of their quality. One of these wait
the 12-inch filled gun of 23 Tons, mad* at Woolwich, and
throwing a projectile of 600Ibs. weight. The bore alone la
12it. 2ie. long, and the total length of the piece is 15ft.
The conical shot has to be lifted by half a doses strong men,
and is sent to do its deadly mission I y a charge of powder
weighing The other gun was the much talked of
American Rodman. 1, is about the same length as the
tither, and similar in appearance, but luta a smooth bore of
15 inches, and throws a round ball of 4501bs The powder
charge generally 'nod is about solbs. of English and 00 lbs. of
American powder. _ .

The lii lug began about eleven o'clock, The first raper'.
meat was with the 12-inch Woolwich gun with a full charge,
and with the 600Ibs. conical At, at a section of the target
where there were four plates, and a total thickness of 201 n.
The shot made no marked effect beyond shattering the first
plate, and partly penetrating the second.
A 12-inch shell was then tired from the same gun at the
same thickness of target, close to the porthole. It did not
go through, hut penetrated the two front plates in a some-
what ragged manner, and cracked the additional live-inch
bar at the !tack.

-7c;it-;:til;"The Rodman, fired with a charge of 801bs. to
equalise the test. The experiment was keenly watched,
because the spectators were composed of two factions—
Rodmanites and 12-inchers. The first shot was badly aimed,
struck the ground, rebounded upon the target, and mode an
indentation. Another shot hit the target in its 20-inch
portion, and another Indentation, like a receptacle for a
huge bagatelle hall, was the result. The indentation was
41 inches deep, and its diameter was 17 inches. The back of
the target appeared ho be nuhdure.d....

The experimen s with t ie 12-inch Woolwich gun, the
charges, and the oUelli. rifled shot were then resumed. The
projectile pierced the target to a depth of 134 inches. and
was repelled by it a distance of over two feet, where it lay
upon the ground with point unhurt, but broken off at the
studs This was a fair shot at the .2.0-inch thickness, and the
friends of the weapon were gratified to find that the back of
the target wee fairly knocked to pieces by it. The same
shot was next brought to bear upon the 15-inch thickness. and
while it penetrated the target up to the studs, and stuck there,
It shattered the iron plate at the back, and hurled a piece of
three-inch bolt more than a yard long to a considerable dis-
tance. But for a support which interfered o ith the shot, it
was claimed by several that it would have gone clean
through. A 6001 b. shell fired from the same gun was im-
bedded and broken off, and did some slight damage to the
inner casing.
The battery was then moved, to allow of two other trials
which many of the visitors had conic on purpose to see—viz,
the respective merits of a 15-inch rolled iron plate made
by Messrs. Brown, at Sheffield, and a 15-inch hammered iron
plate made by the Thanies Iron Works Company. The
60014. shot were tired with the same charge as before; the
projectile went through the hammered plate with such
violence that the immense mass of iron was shifted out of
its place, but it was checked by the rolled plate just as its
point peeped through the other side, and the effect was a
cleanly cut conical aperture, the tiny hole made by the point,
and a considerable bulging,mt at the back..

The experiments excited considerable interest, both to
soldiers and civilians, and the prevailing feeling seemed to
be a preponderance of satisfaction with the result.