The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-01 00:00:00

wrought-iron gun it cut and indented some portions
of the barrel more or less. One impression was
nearly the size of a florin and almost thrice as thick.
Had this wrought-iren gun been lined with a steel
barrel, as Sir William wished, it would have made
little or no mark at all, and, as it is, the mere fact
of a wrought-iron gun bearing the explosion of a
shell loaded with 131 b. of powder in its barrel in
addition to its firing charge of 701 b., speaks loudly
in favour of the strength of this welded principle
of construction. The same gun was also fired to
test its velocity, and gave almost indenti-
cal results with those previously obtained
from other tests of the same kind. The
shot left the muzzle at an average velocity of
1,250 ft. per second, diminishing, as might be ex-
pected from its enormous weight, very slightly at
500 and 1,000 yards, and alighting on the target
at 1,500, with a speed of from 1,090 to 1,085. The
deviation from the true line of firing daring these
experiments was something marvellously slight.
Now that the men have 'got accustomed to this
piece its loading is conducted with such rapidity
that during a considerable part of one day there
was only an interval of al minutes between fire and
fire, including all the delays of cleaning, training
the carriage, and getting the preciso elevation.
The impressions recently taken of this gun's bore
show no perceptible increase either in width cr
depth of the minute openings in the coils we have
before spoken of, except that instead of being all
. _

in the direction of the coils, there are indications
of their appearing longitudinally. It may and
will no doubt be a long time before these affect

the durability of the gun, but there can be
no question but that when once these insidious
fissures make their appearance, it is a mere matter
of arithmetic to ascertain how many rounds the
gun will stand before the gases find their way
through the inner coil and then instantly ruin the
piece. That it will fire its 160 proof rounds there
is no question, but it is much to be hoped that after
this heavy trial is over it may before further expe-
riments are entered on be returned to Woolwich to
be lined with a steel barrel.

The Armstrong and Whitworth competition pro-
per is not expected to be resumed till towards the
end of this month. Without at all wishing to de-

:ract from the value of the labours of this Commit-

tee, we may still venture to express an opinion that
no great importance attaches to what remains to do
in this long contest. The minds of the Committee
must have been long since made up as to the value of
each gun as a military weapon ; they now know
their endurance, can appreciate their destruc-
tiveness, estimate the cost of their production, and
the facility with which each is likely to be pro-
duced when urgently wanted. What remains to try
may be most valuable as a scientific experiment;
it may be interesting to know which gun at four
miles drops its shot so many feet more or less to
the right or left of the true line of fire, bat beyond
illustrating long-range theories by actual practice
there is nothing which concerns the character of
each gun as a weapon of war that is not already
well known. As we have said throughout, the
trial has been a delusive one in limiting the size of
the competing guns to 70-pounders, which are ad-
mitted to be too light to be of any effect against
armour-plates--the only use for which rithd guns
are wanted now. There are several 150-pounders
of Sir William's at Shoebury, and there is one of
Mr Whitworth's also, which was built on Sir Wil-
liam's eoil system at Woolwich. If these guns are
tried, some really good and definite result may be
obtained in return for the very large sum this com-
petition will cost the public. Unless such trials
are made, scientific artillerists will regard a cora-
petive trial of 70-pounders as of very little worth.