The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-01 00:00:00

TILE WHITTP OBELI G UIV.

The following letter appears in a contem-
porary :
Sir,—The 'results of the experiments recently
made with my rifled cannons at Southport have
elicited notices and comments which I think re-
quire me to make some explanation.
My rifled guns have not been made expressly
with the view of obtaining great range ; that is one
of the advantages they possess, but it is not obtained
at the sacrifice of others.
They are all adapted, not only for firing solid
shot, but also for hollow shot, which may be filled
with molten iron, and for every description of shell.
The capacity of the shell is easily increased by add-
ing to its length ; and, as my guns are rifled
throughout and require no chamber, shells of any
length may be fired with any requisite charge of
powder.
The tables'of results published in the newspapers
were in some instances arranged by the gentlemen
oruer • outMa- numtiers pretixCd do not iiimbittU
the order in which the shots were fired.
This arrangement may have produced an im-
pression that the ranges in certain cases gradually
diminished. This was not the case, in some series
the longest ranges were attained by the last :shots
fired, and the piece, as it was warmed by the dis-
charges, became clearer than it was after the first
or second shot.
The fact that the ordinary cast-iron service guns
which I rifled as an experiment in 1858 proved too
weak to be used as rifled pieces has been much
d welt upon ; and it was, perhaps, an error of judg-
ment to apply my system experimentally to the
cast-iron blocks without strengthening them. I
may mention that the service cast-iron 68-pounder
rifled by me, when tried at Portsmouth in 1858,
propelled my flat-fronted shot through one of the
4-inch wrought iron plates, and also through the
ship's side on which they were firmly bolted, the
range being 450 yards. In no other instance, I
believe, has a single shot been driven through the
4-inch plate. The experiment was not repeated,
as the cast-iron gun burst.
All the guns, however, which I have myself
made are ready for any proof and any comparison
that may be required. Their streiiigth is such that
they can be elevated on their carriages, and be
fired, if necessary, as mortars, at any angle, with ,
the largest charge of powder that can be consumed
in them. _ _

The 3-pounder was repeatedly fired at an angle
of 33 deg., and attained a range of more than five
and a half miles, without doing the piece or its
carriage the slightest injury.
These guns being stronger than is practically
necessary, there would be no gain in adding to their
strength, though I coukl do It if it were requisite.
The material of which the cannon is made is the
same as that used for my rifled musket barrel—
homogeneous iron. To obtain an extreme proof of
it strength, I loaded one of the barrels with a
leaden plug, so long that a full charge of powder
was unable to drive it out. On firing the powder,
the plug remained in the barrel, and the gases of
the explosion all came through the touch-hole, leav-
ing the barrel uninjured- This experiment was re-
peated four times with a similar result. _

The brass howitzer guns which I rifled for the
Government in 1856 stood every proof to which
they were subjected. I could not now improve
upon them as muzzle-loading guns, and feel confi-
dent that they are as efficient as any rifled cannon
of like calibre that have been made. In fact, of
the rifled cannon, as of the rifled musket, con-
stracted on principles which I have adopted, it may
be said that, practically, they must all shoot alike
—a result which necessarily follows accurate mea-
surement and workmanship in making them.
I have had no wish to make a special gun, any
more than to choose out special experimental re-
sults. Records of all the shots fired during our
late experiments were taken by disinteresteespec-
tators, and have been published in several journals.
The merits of the system have, I believe, been
thoroughly tested, and may now be fairly judged.
The practice with the smallest gun, the 3-pounder,
proved all I wished to establish in point of range ;
it was therefore not requisite to surpass it with the
heavier cannon fired at a high elevation.
Of the durability of my guns I can speak with
the utmost confidence. Being made of the harder
and tougher homogeneous iron, they must be more
durable than forged guns, made of comparatively
soft and fibrous wrought iron. From one of them
upwards of 1,500 shots have been fired,
iefiyanayt,
high elevations, without the gun
exhibiting
injury or sign of wear.
The breech-loading arrangements are so simple
that they are not easily injured.
The guns fired at Southport had all been stand-
ing on the open shore exposed to the action of the
sea air and drifting sands for some weeks, most of
them during the whole winter.
The relative merits of my own and other systems
are best compared by appealing to practical results.
These show that the system of construction which
enables the simple hard metal projectile to be fired
gives better results, and is capable of a more ex-
tended,application, than the construction which re-
quires the compound projectile and soft metal coat-
ing. In oilier words, the system of rifling by me-
chanical fit is capable of doing much more than that
of rifling by the I%.ffee of the explosion.
The latter is a construction of which I cannot be
said to have approved, otherwise I should have
adopted it. Among other objections to the use of
the compound coated projectile, one of great im-
portance is, that it involves an arrangement which
is complicated, whereas the shaped hard metal pro-
jectile is far more simple, and may be produced at
less cost. Sithplicity of arrangement and construc-
tion is the special object I sought to obtain, know-
ing that in this as in all other improvements based
on mechanical principles, that system is the most
perfect which is reduced to its simplest elements.