The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-08-30 00:00:00

Tinny nub Nabu.
_.____

An additional force of Royal Engineers is to be
empllyed at the Royal Arsenal for thu completion of
the new rifled ordnance factory.

The Nar Department having decided on granting
their diacharge to such of the East India troops now in
Entdand as may deeire it, Colonel !fay has communicated
such intention to the East India Kamen and Miners at
Chatham. Out of 150 men only 20 availed themselves
of the privilege.
The engineers declare that, in conseluence of the
reocot works anil preparationa. Malta is now impregnable,
unlesa starved into capitulation. At rilibraltar 'her
aativity has Leen slinwn, and that fortress also is
declared impregnable. Corfit, however, is said nut to
be so atrongly fortified as it ought to be.
It is computed that the letters received daily at the
War Other are not fewer than 1,000 in number, and
sometimea amount to 1,500. Every letter is registered
awl anawered in the name of the Secretary of State.
The correspondence between the Rorie Guard and the
War Office iunouut to between 2.1,000 to 30,000 Petters
per annum.
Aitmoua.—A series of experimental trials
have been carried on during the peat fortnight at Ports-
mouth, with a view of ascertaining the amount of
recistance offered by iron and steel plates of various
manufactures when opposed to heavy ordnance at a
short range. The trials are understood to have reference
to the future coating of the steam ram now in mares+,
of construction. The practice has been carried on from I
the Stork gunboat, tender to Her Majesty's ship
Excellent, gunnery ship in Portsmouth harbour, both
from a 32-pounder and a 95 rwt, gun, the latter throwing
• solid 66111 shot, with lfilb charge of powder; the
distance of range 21.10 yards. At this distance the
result of the experiments have demonstrated in the
clearest possible inuiner that no iron or steel plate that
him yet been manufactured can withstand the wild abut
from the 95 cad, gun at a short range. The first shot
would not penetrate through the inin plate, but it would
fracture it, and on three or four striking the plate in the
same place, or in the immediate neighbourhood, it
would be smashed to piecea. As the results of the trial
affected the steel plates it !moved that a steel clothed
ship could be far more easily destroyed than a wooden
sided one, and that on the sma.shing in of one of the
steel plates the destruction of life on the armed ship's
decks, supposing the broken plate to be driven through
the ship's side, would be something dreadful to cen-
t-emulate, from the spread of the splintered material.
At from 600 to SOO yards iron-clothed ships would be
in comparative safety from the effects, of an enemy's
brmulsiele, but it !neat be borne in mind that the effects
of concentrated firing have yet to be ascertained on the
sides of an iron or steel-clothed ship, and account also
meat be taken of the damage the woodwork funning
the inner sides of such a ship would receive from the
driving in of the broken plates, and which, aa far as the
present experiments have illustrated, would appear to
prove that an iron or steel-clad ship, on receiving •
concentrated broadside from a frigate, armed in • similar
manneF to the Mersey, aud struck near her waterline,
meat sink then and there, with her armour on her back.

Tun NEW .tMEttIeAN Ittrt.ED CANNON.—The Ameri-
can, are not disposed to fall far behind the more helige-
rent nations of the old world in their implements of
war. At Chicopee, Massachusetts, expsrinients have
lately been made with a new rifled cannon, the inven-
tion of I leneral James, which pis tttt ises extraordinary
results. The projectile designed by (leneral James for
thew guns is a cast-iron cylinder, pointed by a solid
conoidal head, the dismets r being only 'O2 of an inch
less than the bore of the gun, and the length twice the
diameter f the calibre. The Board having examined
tie gun, and projectiles proceeded to test their effi-
ciency, the results obtained /icing very satisfactory.
The remarkable precision and power of the new rifled
ordnance constitute its chief value, but time grent earing
of ammunition effected is a matter of no small
ironic. The result., of the experitueuts above referred to
are expressed in tabular form, at much length. A". an
example it is ahown that in one instance ltt shot,, were
fired a mean distance of 1i74 yards, at an elevation id
one des'ree—the powder weighing 141 b., the projectile
1211 b., the deviation being only four inches to the right
of centre, and half an inch above it. On reaching
ground the missile was buried five feet in compact sand.
In another instance a shut was fired 2,4100 yards, at an
elevation of five degrees, and passed about 25 feet above
the top of the hill towards which it was directed. The
Board believe from the testimony of several witnesses
who were near the range, that the projectile continued
its flight many hundred yards beyond the hill, the sum.

mit of which was nearly on the acme level as that
upon which the gun was placed in battery. According
to the statement of Mr. Attica, the manufacturer of the
gun, who carefully examined the ground. it is almost
certain the ball went four miles. Alter uhot is already
known it innate to say that any ol.ject within the reach
of an ordinary spy-glass is afsir !nark for this terriblo
weapon. In this invxntion the foithiio iv and
the quantity of powder required is relatively much lera
than in the famous Aruistrung gun.