The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-01 00:00:00

BURYNEB.

ARTILLERY EXPERIMENTS AT SHOE-

The gloom and fog of the November season have
once more arrived, and the estuary of the Thames,
deprived of the cheerful glitter of sunshine, has
resumed its uninviting and uniuteresticg winter
aspect, an expanse of muddy water, with a leaden
sky and cold misty atmosphere, and banks whose
dead level adds to instead of relieving the dreary
gameness of the landscape. In addition, however,
to partaking iu the features of the surrounding
scenery, the practising ground of Shoebury pos-
sesses a strange air of weird desolation peculiar to
itself, iinparte.l by the remains of countless tar-
gets—the wrecks of many hopes—with which its
surface is dotted. Some are seen standing in hard
outline agaiust the sky, others overthrown and
strewn iu disorder on the ground, but all wearing
the bare and rugged aspect of recent ruin, and
wanting those softening touches which attend on
destruction wrought by the hand of Time.
On Tuesday 44 rounds were tired for range and
accuracy at 6 deg. elevation, with the three
70-pounders. _

Mean time of flight.
Whitworth 8.4 seconds.
Armstrong muzzle-loader
• „
Armstrong breech-loader 7.4
On Wednesday 28 rounds were fired for range and
accuracy at 9 deg. elevation, front the same gnus.
?dean time of eight.
Whit worth ll.s seconds.
Armstrong muzzle-loader
Armstrong breech-loader 111.3
On Thursday two tlat-headed steel shell were
fired front the Whitworth, weight, 771bs. ; length,
14.7 inches ; bursting charge, /lb. ; range, 400
yards ; elevation, 40 min. The first struck par-
tially over a former shut, so as to vitiate the result.
The nose of the shell was blown through the rear
of the target. The second shell penetrated 16
inches' and lodged with its rear 11 inch below the
faee of the target, bulging the backing and cracking
a rib. The result of the experiment confirms the
conclusion we arrived at after witnessing the former
shell-firing against this target in August last—viz.,
that a 70-pounder is decidedly too small a gun to
encounter VI-inch iron plating of good quality, with
backing ou the Warrior pattern.
We have before stated that each competitor has
been granted permission be the committee to fire
200 rounds, according to any programme he may
determine on, ..ud during Wc.inesday and Thursday
Arul:troug availed himself of the re-
gulation to fire with the breech-loader 40 routils
with shut the lead envelope of which was attached
by undercutting, and 40 rounds with shot the leaden
covering of which was attached by previously-
coating the iron with zinc.

On Friday a very important and interesting
experiment took place. The three 12.ponoders tired
each 10 solid shot, shrapnel (and segment) shells,
and lUcouiniou shells. which had been packed iu wet
straw for four months. The projectiles were not
allowed to i c cleaned or %%irrti, but were inserted
in the guns with bits of wet straw adhering to them.
/cot the smallest hitch in the firing took place, a
result which under such circumstances must
be regarded as highly satisfactory, and as decisively
establishing the practical efficiency- for service of
either etc of the three guns under trial. The blis-
tering of the leaden coating of the Armstrong
breechloader projectiles, once so much talked of.
seems overc,itie, whilst the confident predictions of
the jamming of the Whitw.4-th shot when rusty are
shown to have had no better foinniation than the
misconceptums and ignorance of those who gave
utterance to them.

Perhaps the most important result of these ex-
periments has been the practical demonstration of
the fact that iron or stee/ projectiles mechanically
fitted with great accuracy to the bore can be lauded
and tired with the utmost ease under all the exi-
gencies incident to actual service in the field, and
that their use. even in conjunction with a twist
inure rapid than was ever beton: used, is compatible
with the highest degree of durability on the part of
the gun, up at least to the dimensions of a TO-
pounder. Now the French method of tapping
on to the projectile three rams of sort
natal studs (the plan adopted by Sir William
Armstrong in his shunt, which is virtually the
French service gun) is not only much more costly
but so inueli less simple than coat of shaping the
projectile to the bore, that it never can be regarded
by the eye of a true mechanic in any other light
than as a substitute for accuracy of workmanship,
only to Le tolerated as a necessity and dispenses'
with as soon as possible. Mr. Whitworth having
now shown us that he can unfailingly command the
requisite accuracy of workmanship, in our opinion
1:11,11 compara, ive gimcrackery as rams of soft
metal studs tapped into iron or steel projectiles
must be consigned to the limbo of superannuated
expedients, and regarded henceforth as a thing of
the past.

. -
lu taking a review of what lies within the scope
of the present series of experiments to determine,
and how much will still remain to be accomplished
after their completion, we cannot but regret, consi-
deriug their tortoise-like rate of progress, that other
iuquiries, the solution of which is equally urgently
needed, were nut prosecuted contentporaueously.l
For instance, at the period when these experiments
counneeced—in fact even long before-70-poutiders
were notoriously supersraled and obsolete as the
heavy guns of our tiect ; and it was very well known
that 11 less than 9-iucli guns would suffice.
Yet &lice this fact has been as patent as the sun at
noonday. two years have been suffered to floe away i
without any really efficient steps having been taken j
to determine the best description of lilted
onus 1n tae• no tritium our nary remains cotupara- '
tively smarmed, no new guns being provided for it
but the P-inch smooth bores, which with incon-
eeis-able in fat ,at ion our naval authorities seem de-'
termitied to trust to in preference to rifled guns in
face of the fact that the destructive power of a rifled
gnu with its own projectile is double that of a
smooth Luse of the same calibre, whilst it is also
capable of tiring, if required, the spherical sic t
of the smooth bore with equally as good
effect as the latter gun. Why then have
we not an Armstrong and Whitworth 9-inch gull
under trial tirteg th.ir 2.000 rounds for entiuratice,
and exhibiting .it the same time their comparative
aceura`T, raw:,, and destructive power A
compari.ou of the relative merits of the
two gitti, would also be much factlitate.l
by having another ",-(1-potinder of each com-
petitor's tried, the Armstrong of rather smaller
calibre than the present gnu, and the IVltitwortli
of rather larger, it being probably advisable to
have guns of two classes a. regards diameter of bore,
with the sat o• seil.t of projectile, or, ill other
worth-, .v I a:sities a gun for general use, a
special Lr.•in for lon: ranges. The present pattern
Wititivoro ;11-nem:der s,•ms well adapted for such
a purp••-•. I;i:st for ranges not exceeding I,:aio
yank ;Lod ••••:•eenilly as a N gnu, there Call be 110
doubt !•tlt ti `lt •liAt ;LAblitioll to its calibre, en-
abling it „iwil to contain a heavier bursting charge,
would is ereao• its destructive effects.
We lnel :Ilite•-t omitted to note that the cause of
the toi-ohres with the rear vent seems to have been
entirely reile,ve,l by increasing the diameter of the
orj 'on- . of al. inch !the usual service being
,!,11.1...:t11.-I,L,t week not a single miss-tire
Laving occiirr,'d.

Tae (; , 14 1:::;TIoN IN Lir Ell Nad..
Tr.. T••azu Council determined Yesterday to
author,- tl., Wlthil and Fire Prevention Committee to
apply t • p.n au'ett to neat session for power to esta-
blish for preventing accidents in loading,
carriage of gunpowder within the borough
soil on t!... river Mivss•e. The magazines on the Mersey
were stated to he capable of holding 300 tons of powder.
and to to fr• quentls full. In 1451 the corporation paid
tt,7.ar'. to eioi.peoaation fur the removal of the magazine.
from Lsoard, and since that time the Maater-General of
the i ii. oaten and the Conservators of the River have had
power to more the magazine from one part of the river
to another, hot not out of it. The transmission of powder
from the small vessels which bring it trot. the nixonfactories
to the msgazinea, and from the magazines to ships for ex-
port, is felt to be a source of greater danger than the situa-
tion of the magazines themselves. Magazines in populoxs
districts of it, town of Liverpool are also productive of
alarm to the latish:tante. Regulations will probable be re-
solved upon after the visit of Colonel Boxer, the Beard of
Ordnaoce Inspector.