The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-26 00:00:00

-
• -Ai( • -
:43,4-•
, r _
.
, $f 0
0,0 app
• : -35
;•!#)-i'''
11146-/'
altifri.-I,fl- ..fpm✓ . ' •
.
• A , L'inow.
,
iPa'• ./F) ' "i-
-.• .• 4', 4 'zee - qhf,.„..\_, 0_
azi'V • RO T. "'At

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

quence of this trifling deficiency the guns so made
at Woolwich mostly burst in proving. Low Moor
was courteously invited to impart its secret, which
Low Moor, with the utmost sagacity and prudence,
as courteously declined to do. So the Government
set to work to analyse ores, &c., with a view to dis-
cover a secret of manufacturing skill, and much of
which was also mainly due to the peculiar coal
used at Low Moor works, which made' their cast-
ings almost equal to the best charcoal iron. It is
needless to say how utterly the attempt to pierce
this secret by merely analysing the iron failed, and,
the factory being at last discovered to be nothing
more than a most costly and unproductive experi-
ment, the Government very wisely determined to
put an end to it at once. The gun foundry accord..
ingly disappeared from among the large items in
our army estimates, and the whole place was given
over to Sir William Armstrong.
Under his care, and backed by the zealous sup-
port of the permanent heads of the War-office, the
whole of the immense plant and machinery, steam
hammers, turning lathes and boring machines were
at once converted at small expense to assist in the
various processes by which the Armstrong gun is
brought to perfection. So carefully and economi-
call v_.,_has this been done that every single portion of
the machinery is now converted to its new purpose
at the cost of only a.few thousand pounds. Thus
then, as we have said, with this old plant renewed,
Woolwich ought this year to turn out at the least
1,000 heavy Armstrong guns and Elswick 650—an
immense addition (when the range and accuracy of
this formidiable artillery are considered) to the de-
fences of the country. In the meantime the War-
office is turning its attention towards devising sonic
method by which the immense store of old iron ord-
nance may be utilized to a certain extent by rifling
them after the manner of the French. How the
French have managed to succeed in this process it
is difficult to say, inasmuch as all the guns that
have been rifled in England (and they have been
rifled after every known conceivable plan) have all,
without a single exception, burst before their ex-
perimental trials were concluded. These repeated
mishaps turned the attention of inventors in another
direction, and it was sought to devise some method
to strengthen the cast-iron muzzle-loading guns
now lying in thousands in all our arsenals, so as to
enable them to bear rifling, and the immense addi-
tional shock created by the increased resistance to
the projection of the conical shot. To this end a
number of cast-iron guns of the ordinary size have
been hooped round with rings of wrought-iron,
shrur kon while hot. The effect of these two inches
of wrought-iron outside the cast has been literally
to increase the strenth of the gun more than four-
fold. Thus, a 96 cwt. 68-pounder from Low Moor
not unfrequently br'aks at the proof charge of 281 b.
of powder and one shot. A gun of exactly the same
size and weight, only partly constructed with hoops
of wrought-iron, bears a 281 b. charge of powder,
and blows out a long iron roller weighing no less
than five cwt. without bursting, and when they
have burst under this tremendous test it has always
been exactly at the spot where an opening or
fissure was left between the wrought-iron hoops
in rolling them in. There experiments have led
the Government to require certain results from
all inventions for rifling our common iron ord
nance, such as strength, comparative lightness,
accuracy in aim, and length of range, though the
latter is very wisely placed far subordinate in im-
portance to accuracy. There are now six new in-
ventions under the consideration of the War-
office, which all profess to attain, and which all do
more or less attain, these essential conditions—viz.,
a gun of Sir William Armstrong, one by Comman-
der Scott, R.N., ono by Mr. Whit‘Aorth, one by
Mr. Lancaster, one by Mr. Bashley Brittain, and
one by Mr. Jeffries. Which will be the invention
eventually chosen we, of course, cannot pretend to
struggle
uggthl
eo
rests
t is
betweeng generally e r
i‘a lry.
lunderstood
h tii tanadt the
s
ir
William. The former gentleman has himself in-
vented a breech-loading cannon which for strength,
simplicity, range, and accuracy is said to surpass
even the Armstrong ; but this point will be set at
rest in a few days, when a public trial of the gun
will be made near Liverpool.
But, whatever plan is adopted for the conversion
of the iron ordnance into rifled cannon, it is known
that it must be based upon the principle of hooping
it with wrought-iron. The War-office, therefore, is
taking time by the forelock, and, pending the de-
cision as to which of the many plans is best, is
erecting a splendid range of foundries at Woolwich,
for the purpose of working in the wrought-iron
bands, while a large number of lathes have been
constructed to be ready to proceed at once in turn-
ing the shot or shell, which, of course, will be of
wrought-iron, and made with mathematical accu-
racy as to size. All these efforts are very praise-
worthy on the score of economy, and also as intended
rapidly to place at the disposal of the country a
large store of the most formidable kind of guns. But
it is a more than doubtful question how far these cast-
iron guns are capable of being rifled at all, and it is
well known that even with the addition of strength-
ening hoops only the solid 68's and long 32-pounders
can be so treated. There should be no mistake on
this head—that we, for the sake of a little economy
in working up these old guns, should produce an
inferior article at a very superior price. The gun
must be above those suspicions of bursting which so
unpleasantly attach to all cast-iron guns which have
hitherto been thus tinkered, else our soldiers and
sailors will be more afraid of their own ordnance
than of the enemies'.

Of these two greatest breach-loading guns which
have yet been constructed—those of Armstrong and
Whitworth—the latter, it is said, cannot be burst,
while it is certain that no one has ever yet succeeded
in bursting the former. So immense, indeed, is the
strength of the Armstrong gun, that a piece of iron
cut from it at any part bears a tensile strain of no
less than thirty-three tons to the square inch. It
iasnd
a gun
which,otmere if such strength
economy
as thisan dwhich
consumptionis re q tiired,
of a large store of very second-rate material is the
only object in view, it is doubtful that we may get.
The IN ar-office may depend on one thing—that the
only great danger they have to avoid is making
anything approaching to a second-rate weapon
from merely economical motives, no matter how
great the inducement or how reasonable the hopes
of bettor results. Let them seek only to attain the
best weapon which can be obtained under the cir-
cumstances, and both the public and our naval and
military service are sure to be satisfied. Judging
of the future by the past, and looking to the im-
mense results the War-office has already achieved
with the Armstrong gun, the matter may be con-
sidered to be in the best train, and we have not the
least doubt but that the decision it arrives at will
be one which the country and the services will en-
dorse. A few weeks will at the latest determine
what kind of rifled cannon, in addition to the Arm-
strong, will be used, when our readers may depend
on having early and accurate information on the
whole subject. The attention of the public cannot
be too often or too strongly directed to this ques-
tion of the improvement of our ordnance--a ques-
tion not inferior in national importance to the
volunteer movement which this journal has done so
much to originate and forward. The Government
should neglect no effort to get, if possible, even a
better gun than Armstrong's, and, if that is not to
be accomplished, they must turn their energies to
seeing that the country has an abundance of the
artillery which their experience has proved to be
the best.-7inies.