The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-12 00:00:00

Armstrong and Whitworth,

Shoeburyness has not been established all these
years without having had to go through its share
of experiments which have been found worthless
when tried, and experiments which were known
to be worthless before they were tried at all. Yet
we venture to say that few more valueless in its re-
sults either for ships or guns have ever been made
than those which have just concluded between the
competing 70-pounders of Sir Wi liam Armstrong
and Mr. Whitworth against a Warrior target.
What comparative results the Special Committee
may draw from this portion of the programme of
course we cannot say, but every one at Shoebury
knew from the commencement that it was a mere
folly and waste of time to fire such light ordnance
as 70-pounders against iron targets at all. The re-
sult has only been what all foresaw and told. The
target is j ust so much shaken as to make it useless
as a test for heavier ordnance, and just so much un..
injured as to prove that men under its cover might
have slept with the most perfect confidence, and let
both competitors hammer away as they pleased.
This is an unsatisfactory return for the large out-
lay this ordnance competition will cost the country,
and what is more unsatisfactory still is that we
must look for no better so long as the competition
is confined to 70-pounders. We are ignoring all
that we have learnt with so much cost at S'aoe-
bury during the last four years; we are literally
going back to experiments which were proved to
be worthless now fully three years ago. Until
these trials commenced no one ever dreamt of
seeing a 70-pounder used at Shoebury again.
Since Sir William's breech loader 70-pounder was
withdrawn from both services it has become an ab.
normal piece—a calibre to which no one expects or
wishes we should return ; too heavy for light work,
much too light for the heavy work of smashing
iron frigates for which now-a-days naval guns
should only be made. Yet, in spite of the tremen-
dous lesson the Lord Warden target got from Sir
William's 100-pounder the other day; in spite, too,
of the equally conclusive experiment of the Kean-
sage's heavy guns on the Alabama,we once more see
at Shoebury time and skill and money deliberately
lost in bringing forward these guns to destroy a
Warrior target. What makes this more annoying
to those who really wish to see this great contest
have a proportionably valuable result to the country
is that side by side with the 70-pounders on the
ground Sir William has 150-pounders, and Mr
Whitworth has another ready at Manchester which
could be brought to Shoebury in a week; yet,
strange as it may seem, it is not intended to make
any trial with these 150-pounders, which are ex-
cluded from the Special Committee's programme
altogether. The £40,000 or £50,000 which this com-
petition will certainly cost the country would be
well spent if it in any degree helped to bring out
clear and definite results on a vexed question, in
the solution of which every reflecting Englishman
must be deeply interested. What makes the matter
more singular still is that both Sir William and Mr
Whitworth are willing that their rival 150-pounders
should be tried, and each alike agrees in the futility
of trying with light 70-pounders to pierce the
massive target opposite which their guns are now
placed.
Another unpleasant feature, so far as the proper
armament of our ships and batteries is concerned,
is the apparently illimitable nature, in point of
time, of the controversy which our authorities have
undertaken to settle. Sir William and Mr Whit-
worth may think that the race now lies between their
two selves, and that whoever is declared the victor
will be acknowledged to have designed the best
gun, and thus the question will be set at rest.
They may be right, or they may be wrong, in this
opinion; but, as a matter of fact, it is by no means
shared by other inventors. When this fresh com-
petition—for it is the second—was allowed between
Sir William and Mr Whitworth, other and by no
means unimportant artillerists were allowed a
trial also. Thus there are two committees to de-
cide on rifled guns, one the Special Committee,
which it is hoped will settle the Armstrong and
Whitworth rivalry ; the other the Ordnance
Select Committee, which has to choose between
the claims of five guns—the French rifled can.
non, Mr. Bashley Brittain's system, Mr. Lan-
caster's system, and the systems of Mr. Scott and
Mr. Jeffereys. Each kind of gun has been made
at Woolwich, and experiments with some of the
five have, we believe, actually commenced. The
trials of these five guns are certain to take a much
longer time than the trials of the Armstrong and
Whitworth, which are not likely to be over before
October, nor reported on, perhaps, before the end of
the year. At present nothing is known of an
authoritative kind of the performances of the
five guns we have spoken of, but among them there
are said to be at least two which can equal if they
de not surpass either Armstrong or Whitworth. If
these promises are supported by performances, it
follows as a matter of course that the best of these
five guns will claim, and be allowed to try, conclu-
sions with whichever is victor of the Armstrong or
Whitworth. Thus, then, about this time twelve-
month, at the earliest, we shall begin really to get