The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-09 00:00:00

tinned, to show the effect of the three guns on
earthworks, the ordinary field fortifications behind
which armies intrench themselves against superior
forces. For this purpose they were trained at
the same range of three-quarters of a mile upon a
small fieldwork, surrounded with a strong abbatis
or chevaux-de j rise of felled trees, behind which
was a palisaded ditch—that is, a deep, dry fosse
with a high, strong wooden fence in the centre, but
out of sight of the attacking forces tilt they should
be actually in the ditch itself. Two of the embrasures
were formed of gabions on Sergeant Major Jones's
plan—that is, of gabions of bands of galvanised iron
woven round stakes, like basket-work ; while one
embrasure was built up on Captain Tyler's plan—a
mere open cylinder of thin iron, filled in like the
others, with sand. In the embrasures were placed
three unserviceable guns, while the artillerymen
that would be required to work each piece were re•
presented by six dummy figures, made of deal, and
placed in their proper quarters at each side of the
ordnance, though, of course, as in actual service,
under cover of the earthwork.
The guns commenced on this with solid shot at
1,300 yards, firing five rounds each,when the damage
was inspected and the attack resumed with segment
shell, with percussion and time fuses, and so on
again at a range of 900 yards. It is, of course,
quite needless to particularize the individual shots
of each gun; it is enough to say that with all
three, and with the Armstrong shunt gun and
the Whitworth most especially, the practice was
almost marvellous. Front where the guns were
stationed the openings of the embrasures were like
mere specks, like the mathematical definition of a
point having no dimensions; yet shot after shot
was sent through them at almost every round, in a
way that made officers stare and ask each other how
long a work could be defended under a fire from
many such pieces, The old fault of the Whitworth
hexagonal shot, however, was sometimes shown
when sufficient elevation was not given to the gun
and its shot touched the ground in or near the'
abbatis in front of the work. When it did so its
peculiar hexagon form made it screw itself up out
of the earth almost, to judge by the sound, at
right angles with the point at which it entered
and go " whirring" up into the air high over
the battery. After the solid shot firing was over
an examination of the work showed that the aim
had been too true with nearly all the guns to have
done much damage to the work itself, as the best
laid shots had passed through the embrasures.
Where they had struck the sides, however, the
balance of mischief was certainly in favour of the
Armstrong guns, bath of which h-d ripped the turf
revetments, whereas the holes made by the Whit-
worth were mostly clean cut. One of Whitworth's
shot had passed along a gun so evenly as to groove
it where it touched, and cut clean pieces out of its
ornamental mouldings near the breech.

With the shell firing the practice of all was really
wonderful as to accuracy. The two time shells of
Sir William and that of Mr. Whitworth. burst
almost in a line full in front of the embrasures.
Mr. Whitworth's shell has, however, only just been
completed, and more practice is evidently wanted
to insure its perfection, :as one of the time fuses
was put out by its touching the ground in front in
consequence of the gun being laid too low, and one
of the percussion fuses failed to explode on striking,
while none of Sir William's missed bursting,
though not always with the same precision as
to place as the three we have alluded to. These,
however, as regards Mr. Whitworth, are compara-
tively minor matters of detail, which no doubt Col.
Boxer, who has made his shell, will be easily able
to rectify with more practice in its use. Mr.Whit-
worth's shell contains contains 72 pieces, a few seg-
ments, but the great majority having ordinary
leaden bullets. Sir William's shell contains about
the same number of pieces of iron segments, but the
bursting charge of Sir William's is nearly twice as
great as that of Mr.Whitworth's. An examination
of the battery after the shell work had been gone
through showed all the dummies at Mr. Whit-
worth's embrasure to be uninjured by his shells,
while the dummies at the two embrasures opposed
to Sir William were badly hit—one in particular,
having a large hole through its chest
and half its gun head gone. The figures
at the part at which the breech-loader of Sir
William was levelled were most punished of any,
showing that the confidence of its friends in its
power of firing shell had not been ill-founded. The
targets placed at some little distance in rear of each
embrasure, to certify by holes to the effect of the
shell after it had passed the work, were in favour of
Mr. Whitworth, his target showing 17, either per-
forations or hits, while one of Sir William's showed
only six, and that which collected the splinters of
the shell from the shunt gun only one. The para-
pets and embrasures were more cut about by Sir
William's shell, and, as we have said, his missiles
did execution among the dummy figures of the
gunners. One curious fact, however, was brought
out by these experiments, which speaks volumes
against the use of either Sergeant-Major Jones's
or Captain Tyler's plans of iron bands for
gabions. This was that one of the wooden gunners
was badly hit on the chest by an iron splinter
from one of these bands, and the piece left pro-
trilling from the wounded wood. Other pieces,
also, were scattered inside the work—not many,
certainly, but enough in size and number to prove
that the use of these gabions, unless where no
wooden ones can be got, as was the case in the
Crimea, where they were invented, is to be avoided
wherever possible.
After this the guns were moved up to a range of
900 yards from the battery, and the pieces, which
had hitherto been laid with such accuracy by Major
Milman, were given over, by request of the compe-
titors, to their civilian assistants. The result by no
means justified the wisdom of the alteration which
Sir William and Mr. Whitworth had made, for, to
judge by the loose and almost wild firing which
now often took place, one would have fancied that
the guns had been moved 1,000 yards further off, in-
stead of 400 yards closer into their mark. It was
attempted to account for this by saying that the
extreme dryness of the keen east wind dried the
fouling of the guns into comparatively hard ob-
structions, but the opinion of nearly all on the
ground was simply that the pieces were not as well
laid as they had been before. Except for this im-
portant difference as to accuracy, almost all the re-
marks we have made on the trial at 1,300 yards
apply to this at 900. The Whitworth shot when
it struck the ground in front again turned up clear
over the battery, appearing to confirm all that has
been urged against this form of projectile by its
opponents, that it cannot be relied on for a plung-
ing or ricochet fire. In all other respects the result
was N ery similar to the previous trial, though the
earthwork was, of course, more cutup. Sir William
again punished his dummies severely, and again
Mr. Whitworth failed to injure his, though the state
of his target behind the battery showed that his
shell only requires that adjustment which can be
gained from practice alone to become formidably
effective.
After this Sir William Armstrong's 600 pounder
was fired agrinbt a box target. This target had
an outer plate of 61 inches of solid iron, backed
up by 24 inches of teak, lined with an inner skin
of iron 1 inch thick, making 71 inches of iron and
24 inches of teak in all. " Big Will" was loaded
on this occasion with only 701 b. of powder, but with
a conical steel shot of 6121 b. weight. The result of
the contest, therefore, excited not the least interest,
as this gun only a few weeks since, when loaded
with 901 b. of powder, smashed up one of the best of
John Brown's 11-inch plates with a steel shot of only
3501 b. weight. The gun was beautifully laid as to
accuracy, though as the distance was only 200 yards
there was little merit in this. When the signal was
given it belched forth its cloud of flame and smoke;
running slightly backward as it did so, and sent its
shot smash through the target, from which the
massive splinters flew like chips. It, of course,
went clean through the mark. The outer plate,
though one of the best specimen of John Brown
and Co.'s manufacture (which is almost equal
to saying the best plate that can be made), was
where the shot struck driven in before it bodily,
through teak and inner lining, and everything—in
fact, that part of the target was destroyed—and no
more remained to be done. With this last tremen-
dous exhibition the experiments of the day ended,