The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-02 00:00:00

which it is hoped may increase her rate of steam
power. The officers and crew were provided with 3
days' provisions, in anticipution of a prolonged trip.
The war department steamer Lord Panmure,
Muter-Commander Spriddle, yesterday completed
the landing of :a heavy cargo of returned army
stores at Woolwich arsenal from Devonport, con-
sisting of 3,000 quarter-barrels of ammunition, 400
chests of small arms, transhipped from her Majesty's
ship Medusa, Commander Potter, from Dublin, for
conversation on the new system, and a number of
Armstrong guns of various calibres to be re-sighted
and repaired. The Lord Panmure afterwards com-
menced shipping stores,including guns, Pallisser shot
and shell, &c., in readiness for an early departure
for the west.
A large amount of miscellaneous army stores, ex
the Star of the North, from New Zealand, were yes-
terday landed on the gun wharf at Woolwich, con-
sisting of petards, brass guns of the old pattern, shot,
shell, ammunition, &c., condemned as useless for
further service.
Active preparations were yesterday commenced
in the departments of Woolwich Arsenal for the
transfer to the shipping wharf of many of the model
guncarriages and other ingenious objects in the pro-
duction of which the mechanics of the establish-
ment excel, for transport to the Paris Exhibition.
A number of non-commissioned officers, being a
proportion from each of the brigades belonging to
the regiments of mounted and dismounted artillery,
yesterday reported themselves at Head-quarters,
Woolwich, having been detached from their divi-
sions for the purpose of going through the usual
course of gunnery and laboratory exercises—namely,
from January to April at Woolwich, and from
April to the end of the year at Shoeburyness. The
regiment consists of A, B, C, D, E, and F horse
brigades, 25 brigades of field and garrison mounted
and dismounted Artillery, one brigade of coast
Artillery, and the Depot. The whole of them are
expected to pass through the course of exercises in
rotation.

The captaiu's good-service pension of £l5O a
year, vacant by the promotion of Captain Astley
Cooper Key, has been awarded to Captain John B.
Dickson.

Capt. Henry Phelps is appointed to her Majesty's
ship Orontes, and to join on the 4th of January,
when that ship will be re-commissioned.

Yesterday, Major-General Sir Robert Walpole,
K.C.8., relinquished the command of the Chatham
district, on the completion of his period of five
years' staff service. On giving up his command,
Sir Robert Walpole issued the following divisional
order to the troops :
" Major-General Sir Robert Walpole, being about to
leave Chatham, desires before quitting the command of this
district, to thank the officers commanding corps, the heads
of departments, and the officers of the staff for the support
they have rendered him in promoting the efficiency and
carrying on the duties of this command. To the officers
generally, the non- commissioned officers, and priyato sol-
diers the thanks of the Major-General are also due for the
manner in which they have performed their several duties,
and for their general good conduct, which has materially
assisted him in maintaining that discipline and good order
which is essential to the wellbeing of the service.
"By order of the Major-General commanding,
" W. W. LYNCH, Major of Brigade."
Major-Gen. Sir Robert Walpole is succeeded at
Chatham by Mtr-Gen. Freeman Murray, who
will assume the command of the district to-day.
An order has been received at Chatham directing
Ensign J. E. Curtis and Ensign J. Grant, 45th
Regiment, to embark for Bombay to join the ser-
vice companies of that regimens.
Yesterday the whole of the shipwrights employed
on the iron-clad ships building at Chatham-dock-
yard discontinued working extra hours until further
orders, in accordance with directions to that effect
received from the Admiralty. The effect of this
order will be the retarding of the completion of the
iron-clad frigates beyond the time fixed for their
being launched.

Major-Gen. Stisted, C. 8., who has just been ap-
pointed to the command of the Montreal district in
Canada, entered the army in 1835, and as a subal-
tern £aw a good deal of hard service in the Affgha-
nistan war. He was wounded at Ghuznee, and
afterwards took part in the Beloochistan campaign.
Having obtained his brevet as Colonel, he went in
1856 with the 78th Highlanders to Persia. For his
services at the battle of Khooshab he obtained the
Companionship of the Bath. Major-Gen. Stisted
also took an active part in the suppression of the
Indian mutiny. He was present at the battles of
Bithoor, Mungulwar, and Alumbagh, and succeeded
Neil i❑ the command of the Ist Brigade at Luck-
now until the arrival of Lord Clyde. In April,
1858, he served in the force under Lord Clyde in
the campaign in Rohilcund, and led the 2d Brigade
at the capture of Barcilly.

Lieut.-Gen. George Saunders Thwaites died on
Sunday last at the advanced age of 88. He entered
the army in 1795, and was actively employed up to
1817. He served in the expedition to the coast of
Holland in 1796 ; in the East Indies from 1799 ;
then on marine duty on board her Majesty's ship
La Forte, till wrecked in the Red Sea. During the
campaign of 1801 in Egypt he volunteered to cross
the desert of Suez with Col. Lloyd's detachment,
with which he joined the Grand 'Vizier's army on
the advance to and surrender of Cairo. Ile served
with the 48th Regiment from 1811 to 1813 as Capt.
of Light Infantry in the Peninsula, including the
siege and storming of Badajoz in 1812, the battle
of Salamanca (wounded), the advance to and occu-
pation of Madrid, battles of Vittoria and the Pyre-
nees (wounded in command of the light companies
of the brigade), besides minor affairs. He has
achieved the Sultan's Gold Medal of the Order of
the Crescent, and the silver war medal with five
clasps, for Egypt, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria,
and Pyrenees. The deceased general's commissions
bore date as follows :—Second-Lieut. September 12,
1795 ; Lieut., December 23, 1795 ; Capt., July 2,
1803 ; Major, June 4, 1814 ; Lieut.-Col., July 22,
1830 ; Col., November 9, 1846 ; Major-Gen., June
20, 1852; and Lieut.-Gen., February 13, 1861.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Capt. Frederick W. Sidney to
the Challenger, additional, for surveying services ;
Commander Henry F. Nicholson to the Victory, for
service in the Royal Alfred ; George M. Blyth,
paymaster, to the Princess Royal, for disposal ; and
G. W. D. Simmonds, paymaster, to the Fisgard,
additional, for services in the Crocodile.

French Academy of Sciences.

At the last sitting the President announced that
he difference of longitude between Newfoundland
and Valentia, Ireland, that is, between the two ex-
treme points of the new Atlantic cable, has at
length been ascertained by Mr. Gould, entrusted
with this duty by the Coast Survey-office of the
United States. The following is the result :—Longi-
tude of Heart's Content Station, Newfoundland,
calculated from Valentia Station, Ireland, 2 h. 51
m. 56.5 sec. ; time employed by the electric fluid in
its passage through the cable 35 minutes. The
observations are to be repeated, but are not likely
to modify the above results very materially. The
Astronomer Royal on the other hand has de-
termined the exact longitude of Valentia
Station from Greenwich. A paper wazo re-
ceived from M. Comaille on the comparative
value of the hen and duck as egg-producers.
His observations were limited to three hens and
three ducks, all fine animals, hatched at the same
time in the mouth of February. During the
following autumn the ducks laid 225 eggs ; they
recommenced laying in February, and continued
to do so until the middle of August. The hens
laid no eggs during the autumn, but began in
January and left off about the middle of August,
The totals of each at the end of that time were:
—The hens, 257 eggs ; the ducks, 617. M.
Comaille next examined the nutritive value of
each kind of egg, and found them nearly equal
in that respect. Hence the duck is more pro-
fitable than the hen by far. A paper was also
read from M. Preterre, in which the latter ad-
vocated protoxide of nitrogen, commonly known
as laughing-gas, as an excellent anaesthetic.
This opinion met with opposition from M. Chevreul,
who stated that Proust and Vauquelin, having in-
haled some of this gas, found it exceedingly irri-
tating., M. Dumas, on the other hand, pointed to
the great difficulty of gettin it and
danger that would arise from its g being pure,
mixed the
with
even a small quantity of the deutolide,

Converting

.eechloaders.

Our readers are no doubt aware that the Enfield
rifles are now being converted into breech-loaders,
in accordance with the determination of Govern-
ment to change the arm which our soldiers possess.
It may not be so well known that a portion of the
work is being done in this district, Birmingham
has been so justly celebrated for the manufacture of
guns and rifles that it would be something astonish-
ing if in any great work of the kind she had no
share. Some few months ago we mentioned that
an order had been received by the Birmingham Small
Arms Company (Limited) to convert a number of
Enfield rifles into Snider breechloaders. This was
done with a celerity which is most creditable to the
company. The order was received on the 24th of
July; and by the end of October 700 rifles, finished
in accordance with the pattern gun, were completed
and forwarded to Canada. The difficulty of accom-
plishing this work was very great. Patterns had to
be made of the new parts, dies fashioned, tools in-
vented, and, more difficult still, new machinery
constructed for the more rapid carrying on of the
work. Yet all this was done, and the first order
completed in the very short space of three months.
Those who are uninitiated may think that this job
must have monopolised all the skill and all the in-
dustry which the company possessed. This is not
so, however. The company had on hand at
the time the pattern gun was received an order
for 30,000 rifles for Turkey. It is impos-
sible to go through the factory and see the long
succession of machines in every department without
feeling that the process of manufacture is only
limited by the extent of the order, and that the
power of production is incomprehensible. In this
extensive and beautiful factory every appliance that
can save labour and multiply production, and every
variety of labour that the human mind can de-
vise, will be found. The men who are engaged about
the machines occupy the position that all men should
in the world of labour. The steam hammer, trim-
ming machine, drilling machine, screwing machine,
barrel-cutting machine, and many others, do the
hard, the dirty, the sinew-wearing work, while the
men look on and direct the labour. As you go
through the extensive, lofty, w ell-lighted and well-
ventilated work-rooms, you feel the men's labour
is dignified, and that the discoveries of science have
happily ameliorated the toil that skilful workers in
the same trade once had to undergo. This company
does not exclusively depend upon the manufacture of
rifles, or their conversion, for existence. They culti-
vate with much success another, and, we think, a
higher branch of the trade—they manufacture the
machinery and tools which produce the very work in
which they are now engaged. An order for the con-
struction of rifle-making machinery is received as
thankfully as one for the production of a few thou-
sand rifles. This department will, perhaps, show
how complete the factory is. It does not depend on
any other manyfactory for the supply of anything
which it uses in the gun trade. Machinery of the
most complex character is made there, and tools of
every kind are turned out by the hundred. The
variety of machines in daily use is interesting to
note. There are knives at work shaving iron as
easily as a man would pare cheese ; little, round,
finely-pointed tools that bore a straight hole through
a block of iron more swiftly than a waiter can drive
a cork-screw into a cork ; cutters that put the thread
inside the barrel of the rifle more readily than a
sportsman could untwist the loosest screw ; and
give blows mightier than the cons-
number of men or horses could
that a
oft
any
biped powermers
produce. With such servants as these, that obedient to the gentlest touch of the human handare
it is not to be wondered at that an immense amount
of work can be got through in a short space of teeth
loader work of converting an Enfield into a breech
loader may seem at first thought to be a very
simple process, involving but few operations.
breech old barrel has
•
to be shortened, and the
breech action put in. This action is contained
in two parts ; the shoe, in which the cartridge
or placed, and the breech block, in whichthe
needle
or piston. works. Yet, few as they are, these parts
require upwards of 100 different
plete the transformation. processes to com-
We are not going to
weary our readers by attemptino• t describe even
o
one-fourth of these ope ra ions,
general descrip-
be altogether un-
b °ut a
tion of the chief processes may not
interesting. The rifles that
are sent to the factory
have never been in the hands
they
of our soldiers ' •
come direct from the stores.
As 80011 as they are
received the first thing is to strip th • e rifle. Every
portion is taken away from the stock
trigger. First of all the
pull of the trio. geris exceptinglight_
the
ened, and then the stocks are laid up
in the racks
until the barrel is converted.
The away, and a piece cut off hammer is t k a en
the end to fl t a ten it. T
almost wholly obliterates the chhis
q ngeueri
diamond-shaped cutting in the top of the hammer ' that rough
by which it is laid hold of
with the fingers. The
operation of rechequering is rformed by boys,
ends after a little practice, showsconsiderable a t'
tude at their work. Leaving the lads tapping•l).l-
- with
their little hammers as they chequer, we pass •
the long machine-room. here the barrels are short-
T
he barrel having been fixed in its place, a wheel
armed with sharp teeth cuts off the requ•
rod length,
which met
asures about 21 inches. This Operation is
a i
done so well that no mark of any kind, not even a
scratch, is left upon the barrel, and consequently
the process of re-browning is avoid de• After this
the barrel is fixed on the " barrel- I,
chine, which performs several very important ope-
.
rations. It would be tedious to
describe them all, millino.
separately. They embrace facing
tiering, screwing, and gauging. No harm has yet
'
cham-
been inflicted on the barrel, which is now almost
ready for the breech action. The barre is passed
to the hands of the breecher, who brings the barrel
and the breech action to their rioht °sit
Finally, the barrel is handed to a man who')ions.
recesses
the action for the insertion of the cartridge. Then
it goes to be proved by the Government offini„is
in the proof-house, near the factory. B t
u Nve have
only followed the barrel in its progress towards
complete conversion. The most important part of
the work remains to be seen ; this is the construction
of the breech action. To explain the component
parts of this, which is the soul of the gun, we shall
have to make use of some technical phrases. The
breech action is made up of two parts—the shoe and
the breech block. The shoe is that part into which
the cartridge is first placed, the barrel being
screwed on to the end of it. The breech-block is
that portion which contains the needle, or, more
properly speaking, the piston, and which falls into
and fills up the shoe. Tbis breech action is made
out of Marshall's best iron. Two men, with a forge
and steam hammer, were at work in one of the
shops fashioning the iron. Bars of iron were red-
dening in an intensely bright flame, fed by anthra-
cite coal. The hammer was fitted with two dies.
These were the breaking down die, by which
the shape of the shoe was roughly outlined in
the red hot metal ; and tho finishing die, which
completed the form. When the shoe is cool it is
passed to another steam hammer, where the surplus
" flash" left by the steam hammer is cut off. Now
the shoe is of the exact shape required, but many
things have to be done before it is completed, be-
cause it is still one solid lump. It has to be pierced
from end to end, screwed at both ends, sized, faced,
counter sunk. Upwards of 25 distinct and separate
operations are gone through before the shoe is ready
to be screwed on to the barrel. The manufacture
of the breech block is on a plan precisely similar to
that by which the shoe is produced. First of all the
block is struck by a steam hammer in a solid mass,
and it is then passed from one machine to another
until finished. From first to last upwards of 30 dis-
tinctoperations aregone through before it is finished.
When the parts are completed and put together each
gun is sent to the proof-house, where men sent
down by Government prove them. A double charge
is put in and :fired. The best testimony to the
character of the work is evidenced by the fact that
not one breech-action has been injured in any way
by the test out of many thousands that have been
proved.

In the outline we have given of this work we have
omitted mentioning many operations, and the con-
struction of the minor portions, such as the extracts,
the hinge pin, the piston, the nipple, and the spiral