The Express.
London, England, 1864-07-22 00:00:00

RKFICRMENTS AT SHORBURYNESS.

The Ordnance Select Committee have commenced
an important series of trials with experimental
grins at Shoeburyness, which are entirely distinct
bun the experiments which have been going on for
the hest three months under the direction of the
speeial Committee appointed by the War Depart-
ment to consider the relative merits of the Arm-
stmeg and Whitworth systems of artillery. It is
quite necessary to distinguish between the two
opuses of experiments, as they are now being
tarried on at the same time, and almost side by
side. At the same time it will be well not to lose
eight of the issue which is to come of the labours
of the Special Committee—labours that, aa we can
testify, have been carried on under circumstances
often extremely taxing and arduous, but always in
the best spirit of fairness and unbiassed investiga-
tion. The point this Committee are engaged in
examining into is as to which of three systems
of artillery is the best for the services and the
eountry—whether the Armstrong breech-loader of
Abe aseeisa the Whitworth gum, or the Arreaseng
shunt gait It was concluded, and very naturally so,
that these embraced the only kinds of ordnance
which had been matured into a system; °there'll*
we should have expected to find, not a special com-
mittee from the War Department to consider the
Armstrong and Whitworth systems, but a sort of
general competition of artillerists, whose preten-
sions were to be decided by this special committee.
Zveryone at all acquainted with the matter knew,
indeed, that there were half-a-dozen oe more in-
ventors ready with their guns, each peculiar in
some way, and now it appears that these guns have
been taken especially under the wing of the
Ordnance Select Committee • they have been made
in the royal gun foundry in ihe last most approved
method adopted there, with steel inner tubes and
iron coil for the outer part of the substance of the
gun. All these methods of rifling and the corre-
sponding projectiles have been tried during the last
four or live years, and had they shown any marked
advantages surely they would have been brought to
the front, as those of Sir William Armstrong and
Mr. Whitworth have been. Theonlynovelty is in the
make of the guns, and in this respect the trials, so
far as they have gone, have not shown any improve-
ment • on the contrary, a decided inferiority to the
Armstrong and Whitworth guns now being tried by
the Special Committee. It really) sounds like a re-
vival of old war times to be talking again of the
Lancaster gun ; but so it is, and this is one of the
foremost guns in the new competition and, as it
would seem, with much better credit than at
SebastopoL This gnu is peculiar on account of its
spiral eliptical bore. Commander Scott's, known
as the eccentric rifling, is also by no means new ;
while Mr. Buhley Britten's plan, proposed in con-
junction with Mr. Jeffery for using lead-ousted allot
with a polygroove (15 groove) rifling, sounds still
more obsolete. Then we have, by way of affording
direct comparison, a Preach gun, which, as we
have often 'aide is similar to Sir W. Armstrong's
shunt gun, firing cylindro-conical shot and shell,
having studs upon the surface to takethe grooves of
the bore. All these guns are of the same calibre
of 7 inches ; they carry 110 lb. shot, and weigh
about 7} tons. There is one interesting remark,
however, to be made of these guns in reference to
the Lancaster gun; this is the only one that can
be said to represent a 'phi of rifiiug equally
applicable to the small or the large bore, as in the
case of the Whitworth system. The other methods,
in which may be included the Armstrong shunt
plan, are all more or lees imperfect as to mechani-
cal principles, and depend for the amount of
accuracy, range, and velocity which is obtained
upon certain expedients, such as lead coating, soft
metal studs, or projecting parts of the body of the
shot, for taking the grooves of the bore, and giving
the projectile the necessary twist or spin in its
flight. The Wbitworth and Lancaster systems of
riding, though very distinct, are both on the prin-
ciple of regular mechanical figures, and require
neither lead coating nor brass etude. Therefore it
would not have been surprising if Mr.
Lancaster, in this new competition, had shown the
superiority of his gun over the French, the shunt,
Commander Scott's and Mr. Britten's gun. So
far as the trials have gone, however, this has not
been the case. Captain Scott's gun has proved the
best of all with the three charges of 12 lbs., 20 lbs.,
and 25 lbs., the Lancaster being next, but as much
as 170 yards short of the range of Captain Scott's
gun, at 10 degrees elevation. The Jeffery-Britten
gun and the so-called French gun were souompletely
distanced in range and surpassed in accuracy that
they are not likely to attain the privilege, to be ac-
corded to the best gun of the four, of firing at iron
armour plates. The ranges of all, for equal charge'',
are found to be below those obtained by the Arm-
strong and Whitworth guns, both 12-pounders and
70-pounders. The noticeable feature in these ex-'
periments is the large charges of powder employed,
the lowest (12 lbs.) being the full service charge of
the Armstrong 110-pounder, and the highest more
than double, vie., 25 lbs. Bain with this it will
probably be found that neither in range, accuracy,
nor penetration of iron plates will these guns
equal the 70-pounders of the Armstrong and Whit-
worth systems with their comparatively low charges.
The reason for prejudging the matter so far is that
in each of the guns the pitch of the rifling is very
slow and the projectile very short. The Lancaster
has a spiral of one whole turn in 52 diameters, or
about one-third of a turn in the bore ; the Boott has
one turn in 42 diameters, the French gun one in 37
diameters, while the Jeffery-Britten gun has one in
115 diameters. The length of the projectile is in
all not far different, and rather more than
calibres ; Mr. Lancaster's is exactly 111 inches
long, Captain Scott's 121. Now if any substantial
advance has been made in rifled ordnance, it is,
next to the construction of the gun of steel, in the
elongating of the projectile and in the sharp twist
given to it by the rifling. Mr. Whitworth arrived
at the proportion of three diameters as the beat
for small bores, with a twist of one whole turn in
20 inches, or about 1+ in the bore ; this is varied
in the larger calibres, but the principle is
maintained. Sir Wm. Armstrong also adopts to
a great extent the same, his gun of largest calibre
firing projectiles of considerably more than two
diameters long, or 30 inches, the calibre being 13}
inches. We can only suppose, therefore, that the
Ordnance Select Committee have some notion that
large charges of powder will make up for defective
principles of gunnery, or these experiments would
not have been instituted. They have as yet developed
no new points, and will end with merely re-proving
what was known before, that none of these guns offers
an eligible system for the services. So that while
the War Department is incurring enormous expense in
the really important Armstrong and Whitworth in-
quiry, the Ordnance Committee are wasting money
over their objectless experiments. One instance
will suffice to condemn these guns as serviceable
guns compered with the Armstrong and Whit-
worth guns under trial. It appears that all
the guns show serum wear, although they
have only fired 86 rounds. The Lancaster
less than the others, but to the extent of 2-100ths
of an inch, which sin these days considered a good
deal, when the Armstrong and the Whitworth guns
especially have fired their 4,000 rounds without
much greater signs of injury. The Scott gun is
worn iu the grooves 3-100ths of an inch, and also
in the lauds, and the French gun in the same places
still more, in thegreove to 15.100ths, and the lands
2-100ths. In milieu then of endurance these guns
show a very decided inferiority to the standard
promised as the result of the Special Committee,
and it need scarcely be said that the quality of
endurance, &atria paribus, is one that must stand
I first in any estimate of a gun for the services.
IThe Ordnance Select Committee, as if to