The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-27 00:00:00

GUNS.

tl rti tai:, 1.",=1 .3 t • ti 7,1 t 3 .
Calibre of ."' . .0 o Sap .0-7, 4al pi 44., 12 c 4
Gun. EC.. Ea. E,.., w..,,44 c..,...cp
02 012 -",2.. -0 ,-.9p.: 1',..44.9,
zal '..9,1 k-. ...s. _',PP A. g 14,G34:1
g
-----
6 pounder 49 44 5 0 0
12 pounder 464 152 312 0 14 120
25 pounder 325 253 72 0 0 195
40 pounder 221 48 173 0 2 285
100 pounder 563 329 231 0 4 050
T0ta1.... 1,622 826 796 0 20

* The Government being guaranteed against injuries at
proof.
The above table extends over the whole period
that has elapsed since the adoption of the gun, and
I proceed to make some comment on it.
I will, however, first speak of a gun said to have
burst, though bursting is not the proper term to give
to the fate which befell it. It had been used for
drill the night before, and left by mistake with the
drill or practice shot still in the muzzle. On the
next day the gun was loaded at the breech, and
fired in ignorance of the oversight, when the muzzle,
as a necessary consequence, was blown off at the
point where the practice shot rested. Both shots
were recovered, bruised and fractured by the colli-
sion, showing plainly how the fragments of the one
had acted as wedges to jam the other. These cir-
cumstances were notorious at Shoeburyness, where
the accident happened, and it is remarkable that
the occurrence should have transpired in the Me-
chanics's Magazine shorn of its explanation. As
the muzzle of any gun that human ingenuity ever
invented would have been blown off under similar
circumstances, I think I may fairly conclude that
the 40-pounder lost its muzzle without losing its
honour.

I pass to the guns entered in the table as returned
,o Woolwich for repair. The number is taken from

a full official report dated the 20th inst., and now
before me. I see by it that the guns hero entered
as returned for repair were not all of thew guns

that required it. One 100 pounder, for instance, was
returned for repair, but needed and underwent none.
Six of the 12-pounders were China guns, and they
were condemned to receive :rebrowning, cleaning,
and three new drip-pans ! One 40-pounder gun

required only cutting or facing of the screw, and so
forth. In fact, three, or, at the very utmost four

only of the guns were in such a state as would have
prevented their continued use in action, and one of
these was in that condition from having had its

screw injured in an experiment by the Ordnance
Select Committee to try the effect of firing the gun
without closing the breech.
A 25-pounder, injured at Shoeburyness, is not
included in this list, as it has not yet appeared at
Woolwich. This gun was well known to have a
cross flaw within six inches of the muzzle, and it
was a question whether it should bo fired in that
condition; but since no accident worse than that
which happened could be anticipated, it was taken
for an experiment at Shoeburyness by the Ordnance
Select Committee. At the third round the six
inches of muzzle fell off, but the practice was not
stopped, and as the gun shoots as well as ever the
committee have retained it for other experiments.
11. I now come to the statistics regarding the
vent-pieces.
Before entering on this branch of my subject I
may remark generally that the vent-piece is not
expected to have the same durability as the gun. It
is separate from the gun, and contains the vent
or touch-hole, which is the most perishable part of
all ordnance. Every time the weapon is loaded
the vent-piece is removed; two of them are attached
to each gun, and if one is injared by casualty or
wear of the vent the other is ready to replace it.
A list of injured vent-pieces is, therefore, not a list
of accidents. The list below comprises not merely
broken vent-pieces—indeed, a wrought-iron vent-
piece has never yet been known to break—it is
made up of vent-pieces worn in long and honourable
service, as well as of those broken, bulged, cracked,
flawed, or rendered unserviceable in any other way.
At the same time I can afford to confess that I have
had some difficulty in determining the material and
pattern of the vent-pieces for my larger guns. I too
hastily deferred to the general preference for steel
over iron, and have since learnt, by vexatious expe-
rience, the uncertainty and unfitness of that metal,
as now manufactured, for purposes of the kind. It
will be seen by the table below that tho injuries
there entered have chiefly occurred to steel. Where
otherwise, they have been confined, with one ex-
ception, to the 40-pounder; a proof that the fault
was one of pattern and not of principle. I have,
therefore, for some time been occupied in settling a
stronger pattern for the 40-pounder vont-piece, and
as it is precisely one of those questions which pre-
sents no radical difficulty to an engineer I think
the public may safely leave the matter with the
authorities and myself.

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VENT-PIECES.

Number Number rendered
ly. CULVERWELL'S LAST NEW WORK, Issued Number Unserviceable.
OURSELVES. Calibre of Gun. (Two to each blown .A.
Price Is., by post ls. td. ; of Mann, 29, Cornhill. Gun ~._________..-
away.
On Spermatorrhcea, Syphilis, Stricture, llmmorrhoids, Issued.) Steel. Iron.
Gleets. &c. --- -
Marriage : Impediments removed, and Healthy Offspring 6-pounder... 10 2 o o
secured. I`2-pounder... 621 2 8 0
Dr. C. may be consulted daily till 12, at 25-pounder... 144 0 3 o
The Post-office Turkish Baths, 10, St. Martin's-le-Grand ; 40-pounder ... 316 1 9 ?'
and from 1 till 9 p.m. at 3, Great Marlborough-street, W. 100-, ounder ..• 408 0 4 1
TI
R. CUINERWELL'S NEW POST-OFFICE _
... _.. .. . . _ Taal 1,502 5 24 8

—...._.
Dr. C. may he consulted daily till 12, at
The Post-office Turkish Baths, 19, St. Martin's-le-Grand;
and from 1 till 9 p.m. at 3, Great Marlborough-street, W.
11)R. CULVERWELL'S NEW POST-OFFICE
TURKISH BATHS, 19, St. Martin's-le-Grand.
2s. till I, and ls. lid. from 5 till 9 ; Sundays, is. till 1.
An ESS NY on TURKISH BATHIN , gratis.
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himself regenerated and new made, It iS pal coming put cf it
Twkioli 13Atli."—Eira, Oct, 13,1881.

A few ret
which, like

tarks are necessary as to this table,
he former, extends over the whole

existence of the gun in the service.
First, as to the vent-pieces " blown away."

I have taken their number from the official re-
port ordered by the Director of Ordnance, and dated
the 14th inst. The report itself concludes as fol-
lows :—" There may be more" (i.e., cases of vent-
pieces blown away), " but as they always arise from
carelessness, the facts may not have been noted."
Some few other cases, indeed, as I myself know, have
occurred—chiefly during practice by recruits. From
the reason above suggested, they seem never to have
been forwarded to she Government, and -I have not
included them in the list. The two 12-pounder
vent-pieces entered above are those reported to
have been blown away in China on August 11 and
September 2,1860 The number ha been (labia