The Express.
London, England, 1864-06-16 00:00:00

TRIALS OF THE ARMSTRONG AND

WHIT WORTH GUNS.

The Special Committee have now narrowed their
inveetigation of the qualifications of the 12-poun-
ders into the question of eudurance. Almost every
day donne the past week the three guns with which
the experiments began have been fired from 100 to
150 round,, so that they have now endured a test
more severe than any to which tield-pieces of that
calibre are evor put m actual warfare. As far as
we can leers, t he only guu which shows any serious
signs of dateno. ration is the shunt or Armstrong
muzzleloader ; i. u this, the hollowing of the grooves
by the gases hes increased, and the friction of the
projectiles has to.'d upon the bore to some extent,
though the gun ha. I resisted destruction far better
than an iron gum of any possible construction could
have done, as ws t, ' be expected from the use of
the homogeneous me tal or mild steel, of which the
most important pan uf. the gun is made. The other
Armstrong gun, the b reech-loader, is reported to
be in perfect condition as to the polygroove bore,
and no splitting of say . one of the three vent pieties
employed has occurred. They have been re-vented
just as the vent plug et • the Whitworth gun has
been renewed, but this is not considered to affect
the question of endaran ce of the guns, as it
is more a matter of fittings than of the gun itself.
However this may be. leers must always be a reef
great disadvantage economics Ily against the breech-
loader, as it has to be prov ided with three vent
pieces each containing a it d part of the ilun,
which is costly and difficult t o replace, es ally
on foreign service, compared n ith the einem screw
plug of the Whitworth unicilielt eider. Indeed, we
imagine artillery officers are b eginaing to agree
with their men sad many maim r artillerists, that
a breech-loading field-piste has no advantages
whatever. It should have very considerable
advantages to esseponsate the exua net of gun and
ammunition, sad the liability to 1 *than "out of
order" to rapid practice. Howe rev, Si Wm.
Armstrong has every rearms to be well satisfied
with hie breech-loader ; it is in pant :Ma the Fame
as the original weapon with which he wen his fame
and position, and, thee principle hawk toe plowed to
be practically superior to the shunt oder io these
long continued and careful supesime. nee for the
Ipolygroover gun with its lied-thetett projectile
hoe maineeised a sertaiwaccuray and 'aims, while
the shunt grooved gem has, tales oil in these
important qualities. L 4 it were seccesery Woo
would be pprosoved, we vesture toesy,. by toning the
ski brewbdostler and the sheet,. which. bath
now feed some 2,480 rouods, for range sus& ante-
sacy lit 5 dogs. or 10. deem Weyer:Ma- It must be
borne m mind, as we, standina. outside the pre-
fessional circle, have throughout these .triaie
deavoured to. shoirs.thate, all other things being,
0401111, that gun must be eatesmalithe. Matt eligible
for the count whieb.ereame the best, Or, in. other)
wade, maintains its alithency with regularity at
the lean cost.. Now with regard to the endurance.
of the Vithitworth g rm,.it r state Ltheiti this
impotently serrioesbleoonditiou. lie small furrow-
near the-entrance of the vont pluOms been Romped.
out and effectually milt., urn allowing at, all
after thrtive or six .ronie le einem-fired ;Alice
gun having oentinusido br fired by a eentral.vent.
through the breech, seessansigine My intended-The .
bore beimg.teeeed bv. ascorate me warement is said.
to show ao.apgreciable enlargement at the sea ot
grithat pressure. Indeedt we nu m anticipate that-
a wry much greater menhir of rounds will ham to.
be iced lieforsthe guns. any. of t hem give ouc the
exterme signs. of destruction or are actually. bent.
Mr. Whitworth, we have heard, exiss so far am. Lo-
de* the knee of gunpowder, shish Ilse been.
variousljc estimated amfrous2s to t ettonsthe mgare
inch, by proposing, in. arse, his gu -cameo% beenets
demslumervisaabla iu.the esdiner ecoerse of fang,.
to load it with shot, mad:tile& fill thabose up Wel*
mama with a.pluer td. iron,. fixing his by a power.
fuLscrese cap fitting over the missle, of thuguno.
and, then. firing the gime.. The remit of. this name
ordeal-1r teak. whichbaa beau trislibefore up= the
Widtworelt gene, it is mimed scald. be Unties
whole of the modest& of the culmination cia the
powder would, escape through th is touch-holm
each a standard of strength as this should brothup
by the Special Committesai Slice/urges.% we may
rest ealialieth with hevingobtaineii a. perfection of
icructure usa gnu thateaunot b,rsuunpassetl.
Learugthe finehmeffieof the taiffieler endtirenee,
the interest in which is now so rapidly culruinatieg,
we moat glance at the practioewith alielh, which
has been earns:kali iumag the. past wee7m, and is
now, we believe, brought to smnOetiou.. As we
have remarked, Bra itivestigatian. has arisen. col-
laterally with the trials of the Armstrong and
:Whitworth gras, awl has properly little et no
reference to the punts at isms between the
throe system,. of artillery staler conadieration.
We mart not for a moment meth°, hoarser, that
them shell eaperiments have sue been of the utmost
importance for the service. They man indeed be
sag to have brought out in a amiclusese manner
the superior efficiency of the Shrapnel shell which.
Lient-Oulmial Boxer has perfected as the royal'
laboratory at Woolwich. We can mile give a sum-
mary of the results of the concluding experiments
with shell at 600 yards. with across to Mast
the percussion shells placed at varying distances in
advence of the three multi of tergete, so as to thew
the onward course and seeead of thehalls,segmeees,
and pieces of shell, the kriel of stalking being born
t ree to six feet and user from the ground. suat-
i•eg the through hit. apse the tam ens, and not every
piece which stuck in the beards or made a mark,
the score was in ten remade at target, with screens
23 pads in front, Armstrong skeet muzzle-loader,
hits through, 388 ; bresch-loader, 293 ; Whitworth,
350. In ten Tolima% with heisting screeea placed
50 yards in front, the score was—for the Armstrong
shunt inuzzle-loader, 131 through hits ; the
breech-loader, 91 ; and the Whitwortb, 224.
In the same number of rounds with screen
at 100 yards in advance, the through hits
were, for the shunt, 43 ; the breech-loader, 34 ; and
the Whitworth, 113. It will thus be observed that
the Boxer shrapnel gains is efficiency as the dis-
, tanos from the burst is increased, consequently in
'tiring with time fuses and bursting short of the
object, which often will happen in the field, this
kind of shell is more than twice as destructive as
the segment shell, or in figures as 113 is to 43 and
34 respectively. Allowing every bit, whether
lodged or grazed, to the segment shell and the same
for the Boxer shrapnel, the figures would be, foe
the Boxer shell, 198 ; shunt segment, 183 ; breech-
loader segment, 121. The penetrating power of the
Boxer shrapnel is also superior at the closer bunt of
10 yards, the throsgh bits being 603 for the Whit-
worth, 546 for the shunt, and 496 for the breech.
loader, the latter having the advantage if every
mark is counted, the proportion being then as 728
to 636. In subsequent trials at the lanher range of
800 yards this superiority was maintained. The
average of shots sent through the targets each
round being, for the Whitwortb, 62 ; shunt, 56 ;
breech-loader, 48. The trials of the muse shell.
against mantelets made of strong rope, suchen wens,
found to be so efficient a protection to the
Russian gunners at Sebastopol, were (meat intense.
ing, and they still showed the great penetrating.
power of the Boxer shell. These are fired at from