The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-09 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

MANCHESTER, SATURDAY.

The various sections resumed their sittings this
morning. There was a large attendance of ladies
and gentlemen in all the rooms.

MECHANICAL SCIENCE.

This section was occupied during the whole of
its sitting with a series of papers, or statements,
and discussion, relative to the best mode of con-
structing armour that should be as nearly impene-
trable as it could be made ; and, on the other hand,
of making projectiles that no armour would be
strong enough altogether to resist. Mr. Bateman,
the president of the section, was in the chair.
The first paper read was by Dr. EDDY, on " A
proposal for a class of gunboats capable of engag-
ing armour-plated ships at sea." He considered
that: there was some ground for apprehending that
the heavy armour-clad ships we were engaged in
constructing at such a great expense might be as-
sailed with some chance of success by vessels much
inferior in size and cost, but specially designed for
this service. He wished to elicit the opinions of
those who were most competent to form a judgment
on the subject. Before engaging in an expensive
rivalry by building ship for. ship, just such huge
vessels as our neighbours were building, we ought
to satisfy ourselves whether, at much less cost, and
in much shorter time, we could not construct a fleet
of such ships as would paralyse those monsters, if
not destroy them, and which, if numerically supe-
rior, would be a more reliable guard for our shores
than a few large ships, however formidable those
were in themselves. The first condition for such
vessels as he contemplated was a clear superiority
in speed over the enemy. Any invention for offence
or defence that seriously reduced the speed must be
fatal to its success. A second indispensable condi-
tion was such an amount of protection as would
enable a small vessel to come to close quarters with
a large ship and strike home without getting the
Worst of it. Granted superior speed, and he main-
tained that small vessels could do anything with
an opponent of vastly superior weight, if able to
approach her without being crippled or destroyed.
If it were impossible for a single vessel ever to
get this opportunity, still it might not be impossible
for one out of two or three to engage the monster.
Might not a flotilla of comparatively small but
active vessels have an advantage over a squadron
of line-of-battle ships ? Whatever steam power
and consequent speed were given to a heavily
armed vessel, a superior rate might be given to
another vessel the armament of which bore a smaller
proportion to her size ; therefore the weight of
metal and speed were, eceteris paribus, in inverse
proportion to each other. By reducing the arma-
ment to a very few guns—two or four only—of the
powerful kind now manufactured, he thought the
required speed, say 16 knots an hour, might readily
be obtained. He would plant the guns so as to fire
rapidly and simultaneously, with a concentrated
force, on any point all round. (Dr. Eddy's paper
detailed the appliances by which he proposed to
carry out this object.)
Captain BLAKELY, R.A., read a paper entitled
" Artillery versus Armour." After thanking the
section for the attention which they had ever paid
him he recounted some of the advances made in the
construction of artillery during the past year.
Those views on the strength of cannons which he
had so long advocated had lately been acknow-
ledged to be correct by both the Spanish and ,
English Governments, and that, too, after a very
long series of experiments, He exhibited a draw-
ing of the new Spanish rifle gun, and explained its
construction. The diameter of the bore is between
six and seven inches. More than half the gun is
of cast iron, the outer portion of the breech only
being formed of rings of steel. The extensive ex-
periments to which he (Captain Blakely) had re-
ferred were made to determine the proper degree
of tension for those rings, because on that point
depended the efficiency of the gun. If the rings
were too tight they burst before the central
part ; and if they were too loose the central
part burst first, and perhaps left the rings whole.
Captain Blakely added that, in his opinion, a great
number of costly experiments might have been
spared had Government placed a little more faith
in his calculations, which were not only made by
himself, but by Dr. Robinson, Dr. Hart, and Mr. J.
Longridge. As to the material of which the gun
should be made he spoke with diffidence, disagree-
ing entirely from Sir IV. Armstrong. Sir 'William
had said he could get no steel to answer, and there-
fore preferred wrought iron. He (Capt. Blakely)
had made many dozens of guns, both of steel and
wrought iron. He had used the latter, of various
makers, and steel from very nearly all the steel-
makers in Sheffield, Leeds, and Liverpool ; and,
without exception, he had found all the steels bet-
ter adapted for the manufacture of guns than the
wrought iron. Sir W. Armstrong had alluded to
the construction of guns with wire in a way which
left the impression that Sir William had hopes an
efficient gun could be produced of that material.
He (Capt. Blakely) had not the slightest doubt of
it. Mr. Longridge had made several very good guns
Di' it. If it were so easy to build a 6001 b. gun of
solid hoops, it would be equally easy, by using wire,
to make one that would throw a 6,0001 b. shot, or
even a 60,0001 b.

Mr. FATRBAIRN, the President of the Association,
made some observations on the results of experi-
ments on targets at Shoeburyness. He said the Go-
vernment of this country had appointed a commit-
tee, of which he had the honour to be a member, to
investigate not only the sort of plates that ought to
be used in covering the sides of ships of war, but
also the quality of the material which ought to be
employed for that purpose, that the best iron or
steel might be selected, and that the greatest pos-
sible resistance might be obtained to penetration
from shot or projectiles of any kind at high veloci-
ties. The committee had been sitting for many
months, and a great many experiments had taken
place at ShoelJuryness at which he was present.
Those experiments generally indicated that although
we had very good iron in this country ; yet, from
what 'Lie could learn of the quality of the iron used
in (-Aber countries, ours was not quite so good. We
Fad iron as good as any other country in the world,
. _

but we had not yet arrived at that point of menu-
factare which should insure uniformity in the tex-
ture of the iron, and in the strength of the parts.
31e believed we should soon arrive at that point,
mad that the ironmasters of this country would be
table to manufacture plates of good quality, and also
'calculated in every respect to fulfil the purposes
they were intended for--powerful resistance to shot
ad any description whatever. It would be the duty
of the committee to do everything they possibly
would to defeat Sir W. Armstrong—(hear, hear, and
laughter)—and prevent him penetrating their
plates; and no doubt Sir W. Armstrong would take
All possible pains to smash them up as fast as ever
le could. From the experiments that had been
amide, it was found to be necessary, in order to give
the greatest possible resistance to shot, not only to
put on plates, but to have sufficient resisting power
behind to withstand the deflecting of the plates
from the velocity of the shot. Where there was a
backing of teak or oak, whenever the shot did not
go right through, the plate was indented into the
wood, so as to prove very injurious, by breaking the
bolts and attachments. His opinion was that the
wood was totally unnecessary ; that it was better to
have iron entirely. He hoped the Government
-would consent to have another target made on the
principle that the attachment should be much
etronger and better than it had ever been before ;
and at the same time, that there should be bolts
which would not penetrate through the plates, to
be screwed in about 12 inches apart, that the attach-
ment might be secure, and the resistance as perfect as
it possibly could he. With regard to penetration of
heavy shot at high velocity, an experiment had been
made to ascertain the exact velocity of the shot, and
he believed that the velocity of most of them was about
1,100 feet per second. With the target that had been
used, and the strongest gun, an 120 pounder, at 800
yards, the shot had never penetrated the plates, but
made indentations, and the shot usually slid off at
a certain angle, which was nearly always the same.
All the plates were laminated. What was required,
in order to gi„ the greatest resistance to pro-
jectiles of great velocitY, would be to have the
plater as nearly as Posaible homogeneous, provided