The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 9, 1864.

Day.

The Armstrong and Whitworth Trial,

!been large, and, notwithstanding the advance in the Bank
rate of discount to nine per cent„ the biddings for all de-
scriptions have ruled active, at the full prices current at
the close of last sales. Continental buyers have also been
in good attendance, and these have made somewhat exten-
sive purchases, at very full prices. The private contract
market is very moderately supplied with English wool, and
and the trade is very firm. Buyers, however, appear dis-
posed, in consequence of the shortness of the supply as
well as of the high price of money, to limit their transactions
to the supply of their immediate wants.
Current prices of English wool per lb.
Fleeces —South Down hoggets 1 111 to 2 01
Half-bred do
Kent fleeces
South Down ewes & wethers 1 9 110
Leicester do.
Sorts—Clothing
Combing . .

TALLO W.
The tallow trade is steady to-day, and prices are 9d per
cwt. higher than on Monday last. P.Y.C. is quoted at
41s per cwt, on the spot; and town tallow at 3Ss 9d nott
cash. Rough fat is selling at 2s 2d per Slbs.

Particulars. 1850, 1861 I 1862. j 1863. 1864.
—.- ---- ( --
Stock this aay.... 28,731 , 67,609 35.042 ' 40.6 2 50.050
( —8 Od --s Oct —8 Od s Oct —s Od
1 5356 a to'sBs 08 to'46s3d to 43562 to 41ti 3d to
Price of Y.C. ..
Delivery last week 832 1,327 1,219 699 1,012
Ditto from June 1 7,760 78,015 115,171 75,ii3S 71,558
Arrivals last week 1 611 104 20 279 645
Ditto from June 1 930-5! 116,530 93,467 78,272 83,761
Price of Town .... 54s 3d 678 3d 46s 6d 448 3d 416 Od
)

The competition for supremacy between these field-guns
has now lasted a month, each week of which has given
varying results with regard to excellency, though none of
them of such a conclusive kind as would warrant even the
most experienced in pronouncing an opinicn as to the ulti-
mate success of either. We say "either," for though three
guns are in the field—the Armstrong shunt-gun, the
Armstrong breech-loader, and the Whi:worth—yet the
varying equality of the competition we have spoken of must
be understood to refer only to the performances of the
shunt-gun and the Whitworth, The breech-loader is e.
good gun, and most especially is it good in its shell practice,
a missile which it was only made to fire, But, beyond its
shell practice, it is deficient in a thousand minor points, not
much, perhaps, when stated singly, but formidable in the
aggregate to either Sir William's shunt-gun or the hexagon
of Mr. Whitworth. Out of this country, where the science
of artillery practice is carried to a pitch of perfection which
is apparently, to judge from the make of their ordnance,
not even attempted by other nations, the breech-loader would
no doubt be thought a perfect weapon. But, side by side
with such severe staneards of excellence as Sir William's
shunt gun and Mr, Whitworth's hexagon, what were before
thought to be minor imperfections are now, with stern jus-
tice, measured as radical defects, and it is not too much to
say that the breech-loader is looked upon by all virtually out
of the contest: It now turns only on the comparative merits
of the shunt and the Whitworth. Thus, then, whatever
may be the result of the trials as regards the supremacy of
the Armstrong shunt-gun or the Whitworth, the competi-
tion has not been made in vain. Already the country has
gained an immense advantage by the incontestable proof
thus afforded that the gun with which our batteries in the
field are now armed is not the best that can be got. Such
an all-important truth is well worth a little cost and trouble
to elicit, and we know now beyond all doubt that, whatever
may be the result of Mr. Whitworth's claims, Sir William
Armstrong himself has in the shunt gun invented a very
much fitter piece of ordnance than that on which our troops
are now depending in the use of the breech-loader. The
literal market value of such a result can scarcely be over-
estimated. It now, therefore, only remains to be proved
which of the two conquerors of the breech-loader, the Arm-
strong shunt-gun or the Whitworth, is the better piece, and
whenever this result is definitively ascertained the country
may rest content in the assurance that they possess an artil-
lery which, until it is copied, will be without an equal in the
world. In the present state of this competition we cannot
venture on even a surmise as to which of the two will
prove the victor; but we can say confidently that the time
is fast approaching when the most momentous question at ,
issue between the two ordnance—that of endurance—will be
decided one way or the other. Nino hundred and ninety-two
rounds have already been fired from each gun, and each now
gives the signs of wear which may or may not be developed
into alarming weakness at any inoment.,More than this,in the
absence of strictly reliable information, and with the intense
party feeling which prevails among the supporters of each
gun at Shoebury, it would be unwise to say. We must add,
however, that both Sir William and Mr. Whitworth disre-
gard these defects as comparatively trivial, and that, on the
other hand, the committee did not quite agree in this opin-
ion, or, at all events, as a prudent measure, have determined
after the thousandth round, which will be fired today, to
treat them as unproved guns and fire them with a long lan-
yard while the gunners are under shelter, The mere fact of
such precautions being taken is an evidence of the begin-
ning of the end—an end which would terminate the whole
controversy if it took place with the big guns, but which we
must be careful not to regard as final with these small ones.
The principle of strength, rifling, and construction which
answers for a large gun will, as a mathematical certainty,
answer for a small one, but as an almost invariable rule
what does for a small gun will not do for a large one. The
great question, therefore, of destructiveness, length of range,
accuracy, and endurance will be tested quite irrespective of
the results of these field-pieces. It will be the trials of the
large guns which will form the court of final appeal,
As far as they have yet been gone through, the trials
embrace almost every kind of performance which could be
exacted from a gun in active service, with very many which
the utmost exigencies of a rough campaign would rarely
call forth. For range at various degrees of elevation the
tests have proceeded up to ten degrees, at which Mr.
Whitworth's gun threw its shot on an average 350 yards
further than the shunt. This may
seem a trifling differ-
ence at 4,000 yards, or nearly two and a half miles—a range
at which an engagement with such light guns would be
quite impossible. It must not, however, be forgotten
that if at two miles and a half there is an advantage
to Mr, Whitworth of 350 yards, at 20 degrees elevation, or
his superiority would amount to nearly
four milcs' range,
half a mile of increased range, and increased range as re-
gards the shot is greater penetration and more direct flight,
which is, in other words, a lower trajectory or flatter curve
as it drops from the muzzle of the gun to the earth. As a
set-off against this we must bear in mind that Sir William's
shunt gun has been found to be sighted too low and Mr.
Whitworth's too high;
and, though the difference is far too
minute to affect the results at 4,000 yards, it might make a
material change in the question of flat trajectory at 400.
In fact, from the tests made of initial velocity, or the speed
at which the shots leave the gun's muzzle, it has been proved
that the actual velocity is higher with Sir William's shunt
gun than with Mr. Whitworth's. At 800 yards, however,
Mr. Whitworth's shot is close upon Sir William's, and at
1,000 or 1,100 yards is, no doubt, equal with it in rapidity.
We only mention this fact of initial velocity to show that
on the question of flat trajectories Sir William's shunt gun
Whit-
worth's. But flat trajectories, or, to speak in plain Eng-
lish,P to 1,100 yards than Mr. Whit-
low
zit n
ateibe is lines
at r
not a
flight e
of iw t
shot from the gun's muzzle, are
only v
angles of the gun itself—that is, when
its m
much of
ch elevated, and the shot therefore
its
e a
urfl,azttllri toc
much
n
ranges throughout thegreater part of its course across a field
at about the height of a man. At high elevation of the
gn
a high and a low tranjeetory is a difference of
100 or 200 yards abode
the ground, the low trajectory that
passes at 100 yards is in practice as valueless as the high
trajectory which passes at 200, for in both cases the shots
diffe-
rencen when
between a great range has to be reached, and the
en
are not more noisy and quite as harmless as the idle wind.
But at low elevations of the gun a low Lajectory is valuable
in practiu, and is a result which all scientific gunners and
inventors of guns strive hard to obtain, for, as a rule which
never varies, the lowest trajectory at all ranges is the
truest gun—that is, it is the gun that sends its shot
longest in the straightest line. The test of initial velocity
proves that Sir William's shunt-Ften has the lowest trajeo-
tory up to 1,000 yards, and the increased range gained by
Ms Whitworth at 4,000 yards proves that he keeps not the
the
i‘Pui
lowest throughout, but a low trajectory for the longest time.
Last week trials were made at stockades, veryew z
similar in.
Thesetheir a
tripowerls
provedofresistance h
no t ton g
worthy or r"ecording, If meant in New
to show that men under cover of the stockade could be killed,
the targets were placed much too close to the 15 inches of
they all passed through before which the shells were fired
green elm which formed the stockade to display the effect of
the shell on bursting inside them. If it was meant to destroy
werethe much
large,
charges es
with
burst-
ing. Tho whole trial was, in short, one which had evidently
been discovered among the red-tape archives relating to the
tests of smooth-bore artillery, for as a test of rifled ordnance
it was alm,st worthless. The charges of powder were
either very much too great for such obstacles, or the ob-
stacles themselves were very much too great. The moat
interesting trial was made with targets representing regi-
ments of infantry in quarter-distance column. Each gun,
the shunt, the breach-loader, and the Whitworth, had a
series of targets to itself. These targets were of 2-inch
deal, and for each gun presented a front of 64 feet wide,
and behind each front lino of 54 feet were placed five
similiar targets, at intervals of 15 feet apart. They were,
in fact, placed for each gun so as to present exactly the
same formation in width and depth of a regiment of in-
fantry, moving, as they almost always do move, from point
to point, when in action in quarter-distance column. The
targets, however, were nine feet high instead of five, as a
regiment at 450 yards, which was the range for the guns to
practice at, would have appeared to artillerymen. The
firing was expected to be made with case shot; but Mr
Whitworth preferred either percussion or time shell, for refs-
sons which we shall presently endeavour to explain. The
practice with all the guns was good, except in the case of
the breech-loader, for the shortcomings of which very plau-
sible reasons were given as to wrong sighting, with which,
however, we have nothing to do, merely confining our re-
cords to results accomplished.
Both the Armstrongs ,fired with segment shell and con-
cussion /fuses; the Whitworth with shrapnel shell and
time fuses, On each series of targets the following results

were produced with five rounds from the three guns. With
the Armstrong shunt-gun there were through the six tar-
gets, from first to last, 551 distinct perforations ;and 682
places in which either fragments of the shells had lodged
or deeply indented the wood, making 1,273 marks in all.
With the Armstrong breech- loader there were 338 perfora-
tions and 368 places in which the fragments had either
struck or lodged, making 706 marks in all. With the Whit•
worth there were 524 perforations and 132 places in which
either the shrapnel bullets had struck or lodged, making
656 marks in all. In addition to these marks Sir William
had opposite the targets opposed to his shunt-gun three
ragged holes—one 10 inches by 9 inches, one 14 inches by
12 inches, and one 15 inches by 5, so that in destructive
effect the victory of the Armstrong shunt is here so pre-
eminent as to require no further comment, On Friday
morning last the same trials were continued with the same
targets to find the number of men which each gun would
kill in five rounds—the result to be ascertained after the
firing was over by forming up soldiers in line in front of
each target, and then counting the perforations only which
had been made in the wood behind every man. This test
gave the shunt•gun a total of 108 men killed, to the breech
loader's 118 men killed, and to the Whitworth 89 men
killed, in this case, also, very plausible reasons are
alleged to account for the Whitworth shells killing in
theory fewer than the other, but we can no more enter
into these excuses than Sir William's explanations why
Whitwor th beats him in range, or why his breech-
loader shot badly at the tile' we have mentioned.
These tests, we have said, ought to have -been made with
case shot, but Mr. Whitworth did not wish to use it, and
preferred his time-fuzee shells. Case shot is a mere thin
cylinder filled with musket balls, and stopped at each end
with a wooden wad. This cylinder instantly breaks on
leaving the gun, and the balls, spreading into a circle, tell
with murderous effect upon men at 400 and 500 yards, and
from the shape of Mr. Whitworth's hexagon rifling it is
said he cannot use this missile with effect. Such a deficiency
—if it really exists—is not of serious moment; but still it
would be a deficiency, and as such, no doubt, recorded
against the gun. Using time fuzes at such a range as 450
yards appeared to be objectionable. In time fuzes a mis-
calculation of the time of bursting, even such an infinitesi-
mal miscalculation as 1-10th of a second would be sufficient
to make the shell burst 40 yards too soon or too late. When
such fractional nicety is required it is like expecting im-
possibilities to suppose that men in the hurry and hot blood
of action, with the enemy as close upon them as 450 yards,
would be able to cut fuzees with such minute accuracy as
to allow for 10the of seconds in over varying distances.
How it would be in action with no previous knowledge of
the ranges was shown on Friday at Shoeburyness, where,
with perfect knowledge of the range, with ample time, the
most scrupulous care, and every scientific adjunct required
to insure success, only one shell out of five burst precisely
where it was wanted, right in front of the targets. In mak-
ing these remarks we wish most carefully to guard ourselves
from being supposed to advance anything against either the
principle or efficiency of Mr. Whitworth's time shell, of
which it is not too much to say that it is the most perfect
missile of the kind ever invented. The percussion shell of
the Whitworth gun is far inferior to it, and, as compared
with the general efficiency of Sir William's percussion shell
may be pronounced almost a failure. As yet it has effected
so little that on every occasion he can do so Mr. Whitworth
prefers to use his time shell, and with very good reason,
After the trials at these targets were over, another test of
endurance was made by firing 50 rounds of shot from each
gun, which were then left to cool, and impressions taken of
their interiors to show wear and tear of bore. It is only
necessary to say that these impressions proved that the guns
are wearing, though we are not yet in possession of such
authentic information as to state which has worn most.
In our account of the experiments made at Shoeburyness
on Friday the merit of Captain Palliser's plan of fastening
armour-bolts was inadvertently ascribed to his brother.
The praise is due to Captain William Palliser, of the 18th
Hussars.