The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-11-06 00:00:00

MR. PERKINS'S STEAM GUN

From the London lieg7sicr.l

Much as inny have been said of the power and effeets of
steam, and great as have been the improvements in engines,
and in the application of this powerful agent to the pur-
poses of iriatim'ieetore and the lots, it s tes:eveel for Yr.
Perkins to astonish us. even at a period wheel we imagined,
that the ingenuity of ma!' had itself to the unit ,st.
We could nil several Fees with an etiumeratien of the
improvements iteroduesal pegs
Mr. Perkins, but ills:sr:lee
which we in net devote to the in Celli ion Mon:abet-1y 1)....':re
us, will not permit it. We will brie fly oliseree, that to
him we ow^ the ievertion of safe ty joints in steam pipes,
which resist the presgure of a thousand pootels to the
square inch, whereas formerly they were to ex-
kplosion at a pressme of only :bay pounds. Mr. Per-
ins also we owe much of the knowledge which we now
possess satire to high pressure steatte engines, and which
has given us so decided a superiority over cur continental
competitors ; steel we cannot help noticing as a powerful
testimony to the skill and science of this gentleman in all
his ersperimeutg, for ascertaining the powers ei steam, nett
the nodes of placing it under command. that he lies never
met with a alt tee accident. Explosions, indeed, he has had
without number, hut they have been coutined to parts of
the engine in which ten danger could atise to the persons
near to it, becanse, for the v: r} put pose of asscrtaining the
amount of pre7sore which pips wotad bear, end which
was frequently two tleasisitel pounds to the square inch,
other pipes were placed in various parts, of such construc-
tion, that they must burst at a pressure of only rice thousand.
Now, however, all danger of explosion in this way is at an
end, as the pipes are constructed so that they will bear all
the pressure which can he placed upon them. To come,
however, more immediately to the subject of this article,
we must observe that w, were enabled on W, dnesday last,
through the kindness of .Ir. Perkins, to examine minutely,
at his manufactory in the It gent's Park, the extraordinary
piece of mechanista, d the Seam Gun. The gun
is simply formed by introducing a barrel into the steam
generator of sly engine, and by the addition of two
pipes towards the chamber of the gun, introducing a quan-
tity of balls, which, by the act'on of a handle to the cham-
ber, are dropped into the barrel. and fired one by one, at
the rate of from four to five hundred in the minute. The
explosive force of the steam which rushes from the genera-
tor and expels the balls is about 70011 w. to the square inch:
with this force a musket ball theri against an iron plate at
the distance of 100 feet from the gun, is completely flat-
tened, and when a force of sloths. to the square inch is
applied, the ball is actually driven to pieces in such a way
that none of its fragments ran be collected. As the gun is
now fixed, having a direct communication through a wall
with one of Mr. Perkins'a engines, it cannot of course be
removed from the spot, the barrel merely being susceptible
of alteraion : but in the event of the invention being ap-
plied to purposes of warfare, it would be easy to attach a
portable steam engine of small demensions, which could
be removed with as much rapidity as any piece of ordnance
now in use. The cost of such a machine altogether would
be comparatively small, and as Mr. Perkins is about to
construct a 4-pounder, which can be moved about with great
facility by two horses, the public will have a good opportunity
of judging of its practical merits, of which, however, there
cannot be a doubt, after die experiments already made at
the manufactory. The most extraordinary part of the
afair is the smallness of the expence in charging artillery
of this nature compared with that of the present system.
In Mr. Perkins steam gun, owe pound weight of coals Is
found to produce the same effect as four pounds weight of
gunpower in the ordinary way, viz.—one pound of coals
will generate safficietit steam to expel, with equal force, as
many bars alfi ur rounds of powder. Of the rapidity with
which the WA:ha-gni are made we say little, after what we
I have observe.l of the mode in which the balls are expelled,

but there is another great advantage, which, on the score
of humanity. &serves complier:dation. An explosion from
this gun is next to impossible ; for the greater the rapidity
of firing, the less is the danger, as the stream of vapour
rushes forward without check, and finds a vent in the open
air. Ilow many lives, on tlse contrary, have been lost by
the bursting of our common field-r-ieces, and how little re-
liance is to be placed upon the greatest care in cleansing
them in the heat of battle. Ten guns, upon this principle,
would, in a field of battle, be more than equal to two
hundred on the present system ; and a vessel of only six
guns would be rendered more than a match for a seventy-
four. We think we hear it said, " What a murderous in-
strument ! What barbarians to recommend such a mode
of warfare." Gently, good friends—if you will reflect
for a moment, you will find that if Mr. Perkins's Steam
Guns were introlucevl into general use, there would be but
very short wars ; since no fecundity could provide popula-
tion for its attacks. War is a very pretty pastime now a
days, when it gives chances of promotion to many pretty
fellows, and tenths to remove any superabundanee of the
earth, if we are to believe what we should very much doulit,
that any reasonable creatures were born to be sacrificed to the
ambition or folly of few individuals—but it would be a
very different thing, indeed, if some fifty or sixty thousand
men, on either, or both sides, were swept away by Perkins's
exterminator.
If any two rulers of the earth were to know, that in the
event of declaring war against each other, a plague or
pestilence would blast both armies, and sweep them from
the face of the earth, they would pause before they made
such a declaration ; but what plague, what pestilence would
exceed, in its efl'ects, those of the Steam Gun ?-300 balls
fired every minute, and one out of 20 to reach its mark—
why, ten of such guns would destroy 150,000 daily. If
we did not feel that the adoption of this mode of warfare
would end in producing universal peace, we should be far
from recommending it, for we have some antiquated no-
tions about christianity and ambition, and consider that it
is not the pomp and pageantry of war that removes its
moral offence, and that the commission to kill of an tat-tidy
potentate, would by no means set aside the mandate of
"love thy neighbours." •
Let us, however, turn from the consideration of the sub-
ject in the light of warfare, and consider what a vast field
of information is opened to us by the invention of this in-
strument, as a practical proof of the power of steam. After
this who knows where the thin-, will end ? Thirty years I
I ago, when we heard of steam boats in America, we laughed
heartily at the joke ; and even recently, when attempts
have been made to deprecate the use of SO powerful an
agent ; and yet to what does England owe its present
greatness, but to its steam inventions ? Why are the ma-
nufacturers of Manchester busy, whilst those of Rouen in
France are idle ? Because the former have more and bet-
ter steam engines. Why are the facilities of coast and
inland navigation greater, and therefore the chain of coin-
nitwit-Atkin more regular here than on the Continent ?
Because we have more steam boats. It has been with I
steam, as with gas—the interested in opposing its applica-
tion to practical purposes, and the unenlightened, who
could not understand it, have been alike its enemies. Ri-
dicule, too, has been resorted to, to prevent its pro-
gress, but ridicule can avail nothing against facts. Such
improvements must eventually triumph, and who knows
where the perfection in them must find its acme. Mr.
Perkins, than whom we knew no better authority in these
routers, would seem to consider steam discovery as in its
infancy, for he says he is convinced that a steam engine
might be made to throw a ball of a ton weight from
Dover to Calais, we had aim( written from Calais to
Dover, but God forbid such steam improvement as that
would be. and enable us to keep our advantages to our-
selves. We have heard, but we do not vouch for the fact.
that the Emperor of Russia, who has more knowledge of
the importance of steam than some of us Englishmen, has
sent an agent here to procure a supply of Perkins's :team
guns. which that gentleman's patriotism will not allow hint
to offer.

IMPROVEMI'NTS ON Tits GROPVT:NOR ESTATt.
Knightsbridge, on the south-side, now presents ene of the
finest rows of edificcs in the Western outlet of the metro-
polis, which modern improvements have brought to light.
In the rear, streets and squares are marked out ; hut the
meat extraordinary part of this revolution is, that a contract
has this wee,: been cnu•rcd into by Mr. Cundy, Lord
t;rosvenor's architect, with the present proprieters of the
Amphitheatre at IVe4minster-bridge. Mr. Cundy under-
takes to erect, by the next season. a temple upon the model
of the Pantheon at Rome, and upon a suitable eFt of
['round in use rear of Main. street.