The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-22 00:00:00

THE ARMSTRONG GUN v. JONES'S
TARGET.

!he trial betweetTtlaT*—se two celebrated champions
—one of attack and the other of defence—took place
yesterday at Portsmouth, under the superintendence
of Captain R. S. Hewlett, C. 8., commanding her
Majesty's ship Excellent. The same target was
tested yesterday that was pounded in Porchester
Creek by the Stork's 68-pounder on the 4th, 7th,
Bth, and 9th of August, 1860. No repairs of any
kind have been effected to the target since that
time, and the only alterations it has received to fit
it for the trial of yesterday has been the removal of
the old plates, dubbing off 11 inch of timber back-
ing to level it for receiving the new plates, and the
fixing the new plates in their proper position. An
examination of the back of the target showed that
not a bolt or nut was started in the slightest degree,
and that the framework of the target was as firm as
on the day it was first put together. The most re-
markable feature in connection with the removal of
the old plates was the very small amount of injury
the timber " backing" had received by the impact
of the shot upon the plates, and this is the more ex-
traordinary as, during the trial of the target with
the 68-pounder, 17 shot struck the plates within a
space of 5 feet by 21 feet, the visual area of which on
a vertical plate would be 3 feet. The target was
yesterday, as on the former trial, fixed on the
deck of an old Arctic vessel, the Griper,
and presented its armoured face at an angle of about
50 degrees. The armour-plates lie on 12 inches of
pine backing (on the last trial there was 131 inches),
which is bolted to a plate of sin. iron, that may be
called the skin of the ship, the whole being supported
on iron ribs and stanchions, and representing, so far
as a mere target can, a section of a ship's side on the
sloping, or, as it has become usual to term it, the
angulated principle. The four new platesmanufac-
tured for yesterday's trial are of rolled iron from the
works of Messrs. Beale, of Parkgate, Yorkshire, two
of them being of 41 in., and the remaining two of
51. Their edges are laid square with each other,
instead of being tongued and grooved similarly to
those of the Warrior and others of our iron-clad
'fleet. This absence of the supposed improved rule to
the edges of the plates it was anticipated by Mr.
Jones would preserve to the plates their natural
strength as plain metal slabs, and which there is no
doubt the tongue and groove tends to weaken. To
prepare the edges of the plates, however, to receive
the impact of the shot, strips of five-eighths iron are
let in the timber backing on which the edges of the
plates, where they meet, rest. The plates themselves
were hung in a peculiar manner, with the intention
that should any of the bolts be started or broken, or
the plates themselves destroyed, the inner skin or
real hull of the ship should not be injured in any
way, or caused to leak by the bolt-holes or other.
wise. The Griper was towed out of Portsmouth on
Tuesday morning, and moored in position on the
shoals to the southward of Southsea Castle, in readi-
ness for the practice of the following day. Yester-
day morning the practice was commenced from the
Stork, moored at 200 yards, from her Armstrong gun,
with a cast-iron bolt 12 inches in length and seven
in diameter, weighing 1101 b. (the established ser-
vice bolt), with a charge of 141 b. of powder. The
firing was first directed at the two 41-inch plates,
and No. 1 struck the outer plate in the centre—
a splendid shot for testing the powers of both gun
and target. The result was an indentation of one
inch only, with a circumference of 6 inches, and
without the slightest sign of fracture, surface or
otherwise. Other shots followed at the two 41 inch
plates, and the indentation varied from 1 inch to 11
inch. In the spot where two shots struck upon each
other's circumference, as in Nos. 7 and 11, a surface
crack extended from the centres, but only admitting
the point of a penknife and extending apparently
about one inch in depth—the first layer of metal.
At length, however, by good gunnery, aided by
extraordinary luck, a line was drawn from the
bottom of No. 2 plate from the right of the target
(the inner 41 inch) to rather more than half-way
up the outer edge of the outer 41-inch target, shot
after shot being planted across that corner of the
target on which the two plates stood in a most un-
precedented manner, and apparently sufficient to
cut that portion of the target off from the main part.
An after examination of the target showed that six
bolts had struck the target within a space—mea-
suring from the centres—of 21 inches by 12, and
three of these, all within an inch or two of the same
spot, and consequently pounding each others' work,
were close to the edge of the inner 41-inch plate.
The result of this tremendous hammering might
naturally have been expected to be such that the
plate would have been driven clear through the
target ; but, on the contrary, the plate was merely
driven in upon the pine backing to a depth of 31
inches beyond the original level of the plate, and
fractured at right angles, but not entirely
separated from the main body. The result of 16
shots on the two plates was the displacing, or rather
separation, of the left hand corner of the inner 41-
inch plate, but the target was not penetrated. The
success ef the target as opposed to the 100 pounder
Armstrong is altogether unprecedented in gunnery
experiments of this kind. The quality of the metal
of which the plates were manufactured, it is only
just to Messrs. Beale to say, was never before
equalled by either themselves or other makers of

ti plates supplied to Portsmouth. The 51-inch plate
had but one shot fired at it, and that made an in-
dentation of only yof an inch. It is proposed by
Captain Hewlett to place the 54-inch plates verti-
cally, and then renew the practice at them from the
Arm strong. The following is an accurate return of
each slot and its effects :
No. 1, Depth, lin. ; indentation, 61in. diameter;
n) era cks; two bolts broken ; four slightly started ;
no bol As through the skin started ; the shell of the
vt ssel .quite sound.
No. .2. Missed the target; flew over.
No. 3. Indentation, 1 kin. deep, Gin, diameter ;no
cracks:; four of the bolts through the armour plate
slightl2 l started.

No. .1. Tore away logs in front of the target, and
buryinp,• itself below the right hand armour-plates
having• pierced the 11,1 plate fixed for securing the
founda Lion of the target.
No. Indentation lin. deep, 6in. diameter; two
slight cracks from the bolthead fin. deep; two
more bolts flown, from which and repeated blows
the plate started in, at the top.
No. 6. Indentation &in., 6in. diameter; cracks
none ; on the 51in. plate five bolts through the
ar mour-plates slightly started.
No. 7. Indentation 1 1-16 in., 6in. diameter ; no
cricks, the plate about the shot bulged iu about half
an inch.

No. 8. Indentation lin., 6in. diameter; no cracks,
grazed the edge of 51 plate.
No. 9. A miss through the Griper's side.
No. 10. Indentation 11-in., 6in. diameter; on
bolthead (two fuses hung fire).
No. 11. Indentation 1 5-10 in., 6in diameter ;
four cracks from the centre of No. 7 shot; sin.
from the centre of No. 7 to the centre of No. 11.
No. 12. Indentation lin., 6in. diameter.
No. 13. Indentation, 1 yin., 6in diameter ; no
cracks.

No. 14. Indentation, 6in. eliameter, causing
cracks in No. 5.

No. 15. Indentation, 33-In., Glio. diameter; on
and above No. 3 ; broke an is regular piece of plate
Sin. by qin., and divided the welding to the extent
of about 2ft. This made the fi.9th shot (on the se-
cond plate from the left) within lft. 9in. by lft.
from the centre of the extremes; 'The top edge of
the seco Plate started 2in.
No. 16 Missed the target, st ruck the Griper's
side, making.a large hole in the d eek.
No. 17. indentation, the
dia;,n eter ; no cracks.
No. 18. 2-in. indentation, Mn. a`iameter ; four
small cracks the indentation, two i n the bolt.
No. 19. Missed-the armour-.,plate s, dams the
framework of the target. ng
No. 20. II; in.indentation, gin . diameter ; no
cracks.

No. 21. Above and slightly to
the left of No.
11 shot.

No. 22. On Nos. 15 and 3, Carrying away the
armour plates in irregular piece 3 between shots 15,
22, 3, 21, 11, 7, crushing the e arfarce of the 12 inch
Wooden hacking, but not in any way breaking
through the same or damage :LT the shell of the
vessel in the slightest degree.
Mr. Jones's principle has p rvved so satisfactory