The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-16 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

It was yesterday announced at Chatham that the
Government has given instructions to Major Pals
liser, the inventor of the mode of strengthening cast
iron guns by the insertion of a wrought-iron tube,
to construct a 300-pounder gun on the plan pro-
posed by him, in order that it may be tested in the
usual manner at Shoeburyness, before any other
guns on the same principle are manufactured. The
advantages resulting from the discovery of Major
Palliser, of utilising the whole of the cast-iron
smooth-bore guns by supplying them with an inner
wroughteiron chamber, either rifled or of smooth
bore, is deemed of such wide importance that a care-
ful survey of the entire stock of smooth-bore ord-
nance, which has hitherto been deemed compare.
tively useless, has been made at Chatham, prepara-
tory, it is understood, to the most serviceable of the
guns now in store being treated according to the
proposed method. The invention depends upon the
now well understood fact that the inner portion of
a gun really does nearly all the work of resisting
the strain of the discharge. It follows that if
the brittle cast iron be removed from actual con-
tact with the exploding powder, and a wrought-
iron tube be substituted in its place, the gun
so compounded may be expected to prove as strong
as if it were altogether made of wrought iron, pros
vided always that the work transmitted by the tube
to the cast iron around it does not exceed the
strength of the material of which the tube itself is
composed. The truth of this theory has been de-
monstrated in a series of recent experiments made
by Major Palliser in the presence of the Ordnance
Select Committee. On the occasion of the first ex-
periment two old guns—one a 10-inch and the other
a 68epounder—both treated on Major Palliser's
plan, were prepared and tested to destruction by
firing 100 rounds with service charges of powder
and cast iron cylinders, the weight of the whole
charge being increased after every 10 rounds by the
addition of the weight of one more shot. In this
way the weight of the charge in the first 10 rounds
was 161 b. of powder and a 681 b. shot, and in the
50th to the 60th rounds 161 b. of powder and 3401 b.
of shot, In the last 10 rounds the charges had been
increased to 161 b. of powder and ten 68-pounders,
cr 6801 b. of shot. The first of these guns was con-
verted into a 9 inch gun by the insertion of a
wrought iron tube, with this advantage, that it
could throw a round shot of 100 lb., instead of one
of 681 b., if required. The gun described went
through the ordeal most satisfactorily, and is the
only cast iron gun, whether strengthened or not,
which has endured so formidable a test, the con-
clusions drawn from the experiments being that both
68-pounders and 10-inch cast iron guns can be con-
verted into 100epounders—a species of weapon which
experience has demonstrated would be of the greatest
benefit as broadside guns. At the termination of the
first series of experiments the Ordnance Committee
directed the charges to be doubled, when the gun
finally gave way at the 7th round with a charge of
321 b. of powder and a shot of 2001 b. In this case, it
may be observed, the gun had already stood much
heavier strains, and only yielded at last to the gradual
process of wear and tear from such long continued
and excessive charges. The other gun tested was
an old worn out 10-inch cast iron gun, which had
already been condemned as unserviceable, but
which had been converted into a 61 inch by Major
Palliser, and rendered capable of throwing an elon-
gated bolt of 100Ib. weight. This gun was tested
in an exactly similar manner to the former, and
ultimately burst at the 81st round, with a cylinder
shot nearly Eft. in length, and weighing 6121 b. As
the usual service charge of a 32 pounder is 81b. of
powder and a 321 b. shot, the charge, therefore,
under which this gun succumbed was really equal
to 161 b. of powder and rather more than 19 32•
pounders of shot. Like its predecessor, this gun
showed greater endurance than any previously
strengthened or unstrengthened cast iron gun. The
result was deemed so satisfactory that the Ordnance
Select Committee requested Major Palliser to make
a 7-inch gun rifled on the shunt principle. This
gun was accordingly constructed, the tube being
composed of different qualities of wrought iron
coiled, weighing about 16 cwt. At the trial of this
gun two rounds were fired with charges of 201 b. of
powder end 1101 b. shot, and 20 rounds with 161 b.
of powder ana 1101 b. shot, the shot used being
round-headed Armstrongs. This trial was attended
with equally satisfactory results, the tube on being
taken out and examined being perfectly clean and
uninjured. The results of these trials prove most
clearly that • the vast stock of cast iron guns now
lying comparatively useless at Chatham and else-
where, in consequence of the great expansion of the
modern principles of gunnery, may all be utilised
by their conversion into rifled guns by Major Pale
liser's process, while a great mechanical advantage
is secured by the facility with which such guns can
be manufactured, and especially in the ease with
which the tubes can be bored and rifled.
The Netherlands transport Rotterdam, Captain
Adriaans, 116 days, with general cargo from Batavia.
bound to Nieudiep, which put into Plymouth on
Sunday, the 6th, continues in the Sound, She em-
barked 104 invalid soldiers, who continue sick ; one
of them died last Friday, and another on Monday.
Tho Austrian gunboat 'Wail, Commander Mon-
'roni, which arrived at Plymouth on Saturday last
'rem the Texel, was appointed to leave yesterday
'or Brest.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

GREAT WESTERN.

The directors of this company have given notice
of an intended application to Parliament in the en-
suing Session for additional powers, to enable the
company to make a railway from the Stonehouse
and Nailsworth line to the Great Western Railway
at Stroud ; also another line from Stonehouse to
Stroud, in the county of Glocester—a line from
Stonehouse to Kingstanley—a railway from the
Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway at Hereford,
near Barr's Court, to the Newport, Abergavenny,
and Hereford line at Helmer—a line from a point
1171 miles from London on the main line at Bristol
to a junction with the Bristol and South Wales
Railway at Barton Hil!—a junction line from the
company's main line at Acton, 41 miles from Lon-
don, to the North and South Western Junction
Railway in the same parish—a railway from the
Shrewsbury and Chester line at Ruabon to the
Llwynennion brick and tile works in the parish of
Wrexham—also a branch from the latter line ter-
minating near the coke ovens at the Bryn-yr-Owen
colliery —a railway from the South Wales line in
the parish of Swansea-Higher to the Worcester pit
of the Worcester colliery in the same parish. To
alter the levels end works of certain lines of rails
from that part of the main line which is in Ken-
sington at a point 11 miles from London to a point
in the parish of Paddington near the broad gauge
engine house, and to lay down additional lines of
railway. To enable the company to purchase
additional lands at Slough, Ealing, Kensing-
ton, Pontypool Road, Malvern Wells, and Welling.
ten ; and also at Acton, Windsor, Oxford, Pang•
bourne, and Bray. To authorize the extension of
time for the sale of surplus lands, and for the con-
struction of railways at Kidderminster and at Hut-
ton, To abandon a portion of the railway near
Oxford and of the Mangotefidd trarnroad, and to
sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the same. To
authorise the Great Western and the Midland com-
panies to enter into agreements with reference to
the construction and use of a joint station or sta-
tions at Worcester and Glocester respectively, To
authorize the Great Western on the one hand, and
the South-Eastern and London and South-Western
Railway companies, or either of them, on the other
hand, to enter into eontracls and agreements with
reference to the (mnstruction, adaptation, and use
of a joint station at Reading ; for the appointment
of a joint committee, and for the settlement of die-
putee. It is further intended to ask for power to
convert the Chester and Birmingham guaranteed
shares or stock, and of the contingent rights attach-
ing thereto, into shares or stocks of such an amounts
and carrying such fixed or preferable rates of divi-