The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-27 00:00:00

AR MSTRO:

TWORTH,

There is still nothing very decisive to record ii
the way of a clear final advantage of one of thos
competitors aver the other. The verdict of one day'
firing so often reverses the results gained the dal
before, and these are so likely to be in turn upsel
by experiments which are to come, that any attempt
to give even an outline of each day's results woulc
only add to the confusion of a confused subject, anc
involve a question which the erratic and contradic
tory action of the committee renders more involvec
each day. The trials as regards firing for rang(
and accuracy of the light 12-pounders have, as oui
readers know, been brought to a conclusion, but a
great deal yet remains to be done before the entire
official programme is gone through, and the guns
are delivered to the competitors for a kind of sup.
plementary trial, in which both Sir William and
Mr. Whitworth will be allowed to show off the
powers of their ordnance in any specially favourable
light they may choose. The latest competition
with these 12-pounders was with shell —come
men, segment, and shrapnel—against mantelets and
targets, and to show the effect of accidental
bursting of shell—that is, shell bursting 100 yards
in front of troops, instead of, as they ought to burst,
at 20 or 25 yards. These trials have been of the
last importance in eliciting the destructive effects of
each gun, and that and the question of endurance
are really the main points to be solved by this con-
test. The value of a fieldegun may be estimated in
a great measure by its power of throwing a destruc-
tive shell effectively. Its performances with solid
shot are so secondary to this important result as to
bo in a measure almost beside the question. The
marvellous excellence of Mr Whitworth's field-piece
as a solid shot gun has never admitted of question,
any more than that shell firing used to be its weak
point. Colonel Boxer has, however, designed a
shell (very similar in its general principles to that
now in use among the Federals, who, Colonel Boxer
asserts, have taken his idea) Which seems to suit Mr
Whitworth's gun admirably. Certainly, the results
which have been obtained during recent practice:do
the highest credit to Colonel Boxer's invention,
which is most ingeniously constructed to get over
the difficulty which the narrow diameter of Mr.
Whitworth's projectile offered to its containing an
efficient bursting charge at all. At the same time
we must impress upon our readers the necessity of
separating in their ideas the performances of Mr.
Whitworth's gun from those of Colonel Boxer's
shell, in so far as that if the Boxer shell is better and
more destructive than the Armstrong segment shell,
it is only a proof of the superiority of shells not of
guns, as the Boxer shell can be fired from either,
and would, if anything, be more easily adapted
to the Armstrong gun than the Whitworth,
and for these reasons:—The Armstrong fires a
rather short, cone-headed, cylindrical shell ; this
cylindrical form enables it to hold a large bursting
charge in the centre, and round this are built or
placed little rough cast iron segments of a circle,
which give its name to this destructive shell. The
Whitworth shell, on the: contrary, from its very
narrow diameter and hexagonal shape, is not easy
to adapt to a centre bursting charge, or to the iron
segments. Colonel Boxer has, therefore, designed
a thin cast iron shell, which be fills with leaden
bullets, putting either the time or percussion fuse
on the top, which leads down to the bottom of the
shell, where a small exploding charge of powder
is pieced. It the shell is to be broken up and
spread its pieces with destructive effect this ex-
ploding charge is 12 drachms; if the bullets are
wanted to go far it is only 6 drachms. With the
latter small charge the shrapnel bullets are just
blown out of the cast-iron shell case, which drops to
the ground, while the bullets sweep on in a gradually
exteneing circle, with all the force which they have
derived from their original discharge from the can-
non's mouth. Thus, then, Colonel Boxer fires a sort
of iron blunderbuss from the gun, which is die-
charged either by the time or by the percussion fuse
on meeting any obstacle, and sends its hail of bullets
forward. When used for short distances, however,
the 12 drachms charge is preferred, which is enough
to break the shell case and add its ragged fragments
to the general havoc of the round bullets. If this
principle was used for the Armstrong gun, the
greater diameter of its shell would enable it always
to use the full bursting charge, while a greater
number of circular bullets could naturally be got
into a circular shell than into a six-sided one. The
use of a varying bursting charge is open to most
grave objections in actual warfare. The idea of
measuring the charges into a shell in the hurry and
hot blood of action is as much out of the question as
Sir William's idea of filling his common shells with
the aid of a rammer and mallet, which was objected
to and stopped by the Committee on Thursday as a
thing which, like the altered charges of shell, it
would be impossible to use in actual service. Ttie
theory of the Boxer shell having a light charge to
part its bullets without at all depriving titan of the
force of their onward flight from the gun is wee•
tics: with the theory of Sir William's segment
shell, and, as we have said, with the theory of the
Federal shell. The shrapnel shell of Colonel Boxer
is very perfect indeerlt, but in its present adaptation
to the Whitworth, gun it has some disadvantages
which may very likely be capable of adjustment,
bat which in the present state of this keen compe-
tition require notice. Colonel Boxer has no more
fin'' !y perfected his percussion fuse than Sir
William Armstrong has his fuse for time. When
colonel Boxer fires his shells against the ground in
front of troops many of them turn out " blind"--
that is, do not explode at all. When they do so
explode, however, their effect in ricochet firing is
greater thau Sir William's segment shell. The
spherical form and superior density of Colonel
Ilexer's bullets enable them to glance upwards after
bursting sometimes in the right direction with
murderous effect. Very often, however, they go in
quite a wrong direction, for the Whitworth shot
efter touching the earth is rather erratic in its
ricochet, and if its percussion shell explodes it may
high into the
throw its bullets to the right or left or
air according es the shell glances. This failure of
explosion, which, though not frequent, yet some.
times, to say the least, occurs, has led Colonel
Boxer often to prefer his time fuse, which, as come
pared with percussion, is very objectionable in
action,, as the difference of cutting or piercing
the fuse by one-tenth of a second—that is, the
thickness of the edge of a penknife—more or less
would make a difference of 40 yards too far or too
short of where the shell ought to explode. Is it
reasonable to expect that either officers or men can
attain such infinitesimal accuracy in actual battle ?
This partial failure of the percussion fuse no doubt
is capable of adjustment, but all we have to say
now is that it must be so adjusted before the shell
can be considered to be what further care and prac-
tice no doubt might easily make it—a perfect shell,
it is, perhaps, to overcome these temporary defects
that the Committee have tried many of their late
experiments against wooden screens in front of the
targets, which burst the percussion shell before
the target is reached, and thus insure es far as
Possible the non-failure of Colonel Boxer's fuses
against the ground, and also guard against the
erratic ricochet of Mr. Whitworth's projectile,
and the contents which Colonel Boxer puts
into it. This arrangement brings to mind,
again, what we have before stated, that Col. Boxer
has no more perfected his percussion fuse than Sir
William has his time fuse. A large number of Sir
William's time fuses have lit in the gun, and this
premature explosion is a most grave defect, which
must be due either to the fuse itself or the wear of
gun may be disre-
the gun. The injary it does thc
garded, though it is by means trifling, but the mis-
chief it would inflict on troops if firing over their

heads or operating upon their fl inks cannot be lost
siglit of for a moment. If the fuse is not in fault,
the shunt gun in which this defect has been most

observab's is evidently letting the gases caused by
the explcsion pass the and so burn its fuse. If

this occasional failure can be prevented for the
future, well and good. If it cannot, then either the
us easel! is dangerously wrong or the shunt gun is
giving the first well-marked signs of wear which
may soon render it unserviceable. Ia the practice
against the rope mantelets, which were made after

the pattern of those used by the Russians to protect
their embrasures, and were plaited mats of rope four
itches thick, the shrapnel bullets from the 13,)x.