The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-26 00:00:00

AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN GUNNERY.

We (Times) have received the following valuable
communication from a correspondent writing under
the signature of " Vulcan :"
" The progress made in the American navy in the
creation of an enlarged marine and in the intro-
duction of guns of immense calibre suggests an
inquiry into the operations of the authorities at
Woolwich—what are they doing towards the main-
tenance of that supremacy which has been the tra-
ditional boast of the English navy ? Are we to
continue to rely upon our floating castles with their
grim array of 68-pounders, or upon our new gun-
boats, armed with guns of no greater power, when
other nations are adopting weapons specified to
carry projectiles of 1351 b. each, capable of throwing
more metal than four 32-pounders ? The two great
exponents of opposite principles, Russia and
America, are devoting their attention to the manu-
facture of guns capable of throwing shot and shell
of enormous weight ; but no visible steps are being
taken by the English Government to keep pace
with her late foe and her giant son. An immense
steam battery is being constructed at New York;
and in St. Petersburg the Czar is engaged in the
erection of one of the largest forges, iron ship-
building yards, and engine factories in the world,
on one of the principal quays in the government
part of the city. The operations are being con-
cluded with the greatest secrecy and despatch.
That the works are on a gigantic scale will be evi-
dent to the least scientific, when I state that 14
steam hammers are being placed in the forge, for
the purpose of constructing, together with forgings
for marine engines for the Russian navy, monster
wrought-iron ordnance. The works are being
built chiefly by English mechanics, from one of
whom, just returned to England, this information
is derived. At the commencement of the late war
much was written and said about increasing the ca-
libre and power of our ordnance. Yon asserted that
large guns i f enormous strength and size could be
produced with the improvements for forging iron
introduced since the previous war. About this
time official circulars were forwarded to certain
iron manufacturers, inviting them to attend at
Woolwich Arsenal (at their own expeuse it was
distinctly intimated), to give the old select com-
mittee of artillery officers the benefit of their views
and experience upon the subject of the manufac-
ture of large ordnance, and more especially of
wrought-iron guns. Some complied. One firm,
which had some years before successfully made the
largest wrought-iron gun in existence, offered, at
their own risk and expense, to construct wrouc,ht-
iron guns of 12, 13, 14, or 15 inch bore, only stipu-
lating for payment in case they stood the requisite
proofs. This was too simple and practical a mode
to find favour at the Circumlocution-office, and a
civil letter was despatched to them, respectfully
declining their offer. Had the government accepted
that proposition, and cordially assisted in providing
suitable vessels for these proposed monster guns,
one or more would have been in the Baltic the
first campaign ; and what about Cronstadt then ?
This part of the question I leave for Sir Charles
Napier, Sir Robert Peel, and the Grand Duke
Constantine to settle in their own friendly and
pleasant way, merely suggesting that Cronstadt,
and perhaps the war, might not have survived the
first year of the contest,—such vast results might
have been attained by a single moderately sized
gunboat, with one gun dropping 3001 b. shot into
the forts at leisure, at a distance of between three
and four miles, where the little gunboat would
scarcely have heels seen, and, if seen, would have
been far beyond the range of the Russian guns.
But the opportunity was thrown away, and the
war prolonged. As I have said, the manufacture
of a monster gun was entrusted to an engineer,
certainly one of the most eminent in the country,
but, as such, having no experience in the practical
forging of large masses of iron, and a grant of pub-
lic money was made to him for the purgose of
building a manufactory for the special purpose of
making thisgun. This, of course, occupied consider-
able time. The war was going on, and the gun was
wanted ; yet nine months were spent in a maenifi-
cent experiment. At the end of that period it was
announced that the manufacture of the monster
gun was a failure, and there was no doubt about
the fact ; so far it was a failure. Redtape had
another triumph, having managed " how not to do
it ;" and wrought iron as a material for ordnance
was in imminent danger of being put back for ano-
ther score of years. This triumph was not of long
duration. The same private firm that 15 months
before had offered to construct monster guns on
the "no success no pay" principle—thinking, I
suppose, that it would be useless again to make
that proposition—now stepped forward and offered
to make a gun as large or larger than the one which
the government had tailed to construct and present
it, free of all cost, to the nation, with the single,
and apparently singular stipulation, that after due
proof at Liverpool it should be immediately used
against the enemy. Strange stipulation ! Could
it be that these hard-headed forgemen had an im-
pression that their present would not be acceptable
and that every exertion would be made by the Bar-
nacles to shelve it ? It appears something like it,
the monster gun was made, and proved by the
proper officer sent down from. Woolwich for that
purpose ; and, as your readers are aware, that
proof was satisfactory, not only to the crdnauce
authorities, but to all the naval and military offi-
cers present. The manufacturers, wishing next to
show its defensive capacity against the so-called
impregnable iron-plated floating batteries, forged
a large wrought-iron plate of exactly the same
strength and section as those which cover our
floating batteries, and set it up as a target, placing
it against nine solid baulks of timber end on, well
strutted and secured, and still more solidified by a
heap of sand. The first snot at pointblank range
knocked this plate to shivers, carrying large pieces
of the fragments, some of them several hundred
pounds' weight, 300 yards beyond the target. The
knowing ones said, " Sic transit gloria" of the
floating batteries ; that their brief sun bad sot ;
and that any hostile floating batteries wou'd find
the monster guns that would be mounted on all
our forts giving a very satisfactory account of the
non-resistance of those ugly tubs to the persuasive
arguments of 3001 b. shot. _

Nine or ten months have passed since the prov-
ing of the monstergun, and our Government know
no more about the power of such guns against the
floating batteries than was shown them so long ago
by a private mercantile firm at Liverpool Experi-
ments have been tried to test the range of the guy,
and it has been shown that with half the usual
proportion of powder from 10 to 15 per cent more
range has been obtained, and with much greater
precision of fire than can be obtained from the best
ordinary service guns, while it can be as easily
trained and worked as any other gun now in use.
The authorities do appear at one time to have
felt the expediency of testing the floating batteries
and of proving whether they are really the formid-
able vessels they have been represented. An order
was issued for the battery Trusty to be taken down
to Shoeburyness, and there to be moored at 600
yards' range from a battery of guns, of which it
was supposed that the monster gun would be one.
But, after preparing the battery at considerable
expense, the official courage seems to have failed,
for, after a valiant declaration from some officers
and men that they would sand by the Ship, the
battery was ordered back and the fittings to be.re-
moved.

_ .
The recent experiments at Woolwich ford the
Purpose of testing the power of resistance of timber
lined with 4-inch iron plates, of the same thickness
and strength as floating batteries, proved that
the
ordinary service guns would be of but little
use against these Batt. ries. Let us not, however,
forget the tremendous effects of the monster
wrought-iron min when tried, under the superin-
tendence of a Government officer, against a similar
target at Liver
ceases to be a toPIL The difference in the results
mind the difference in of surprise when we bear in
6811 s and a 3001 b shot, thet weight of a blow from a
1,500,
feet
tvelling at a velocity pro-
bably exceeding
I should not focrogt:toetetol:Teernsteicoonndtliat after the
monster gun was
ainiudiaperxreedr:tthLrii)vuegrh-
pool, it was i uti mated. to thema
len, when received at
an official quarter, that the
head-quarters, would he further outrance,
—i.e.,that this splendid and unique
be wickedly and wilfully burst, orlruaett weapon
wt°o"ll,',„l
burst (for it has been. tried at Slaoebuere- attempted
beyond the proofs which were pronoruYnuessdmuch
satisfactory by the Government officer pronounced quite'
question
of Liverpool), for the purpose of solving the
of how much wrought-iron guns would bear.
Against this the manufacturers very properly pro_
tested, declaring that the gnu was made for the
service of the nation, and not with the view of
baying scientific experiments tried upon it. Shortly
afterwards they again proposed in the proper quar-
ter to make, free 'of all expense, two more guns,
not so large as the moster gun, yet as large as any
of the largest in tile service, for the purpose of their
being tried a otr6rance, and of ascertaining what
they would bear before bursting. They sought in
the proper department for information as to the
most useful 'size and strength to make the guns.
In reply they received--the information, and
with it the thanks of the paid servants of the
nation ? Nothing of the kind. They received the
cold shoulder, in tha shape of an effective hin;
that their grawitous services were not agreeable to
the powers that be, and that it was not the pro-
vince of a prate firm to initiate any improvements
in those deptuctments of Government which are
under the bettign sway of thus Barnacles. There
fore, British public, be quiet ; allow the Barnacles
their usual inter-parliamentary slumber, for you

may rest content that when the people's represen- '
tatives again assemble some one will be found
bold enough to require a full, true, and particular
investigation into the relative merits of rnonsterguns
and armour-plated floating batteries.
Mr. Richard Waygood, of the Newington Iron-
works, in a letter to the above journal says,on read-
inga letter signed," Vulcan," I thought it my duty
to give you the result of my own experience with
the authorities at Woolwich.
At the commencement of the late war I noticed
in your journal the loss and destruction caused by
the bursting of the Lancaster guns, by killing and
injuring those who used them, besides the loss of
the gun itself, after the great labour and expense
of getting it in position. Having been in the habit
of strengthening cylinders of cast iron for hydraulic
presses so as to bear three times their original
power, I considered, and then matured, a plan by
which the same desirable object might be effected
on pieces of ordnance ; I suggested that a series of
wrought iron bands bored, heated, and shrunk on
the gun, which had been previously turned parallel
to receive them, would, if properly executed ac-
cording to a plan I laid down, add to the strength
of the guns nearly three times, without increasing
their size or altering their appearance. I immedi-
ately wrote explaining the method and its advan-
tages to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, who
took a very favourable view of it, and recom-
mended me to bring it before the authorities at
Pall-mall. I applied to them accordingly, ,offering
them the thing unconditionally without honour or
reward. After some considerable delay I received
a reply declining the matter. About six months
subsequently I accidentally met Captain Addison,
whom I had a few years before assisted to mature
a farnace for heating cannon balls, a machine now
in use. He at once saw its importance, and went
to Lord Panmnre' from whom he obtained an
order for me to be furnished with a gun for me to
operate upon. I then fetched a 12-pounder gun,
and carried out my improvements upon it.
On taking it to Woolwich it remained unnoticed
for nearly three months, but when it was tried it
proved my calculations were correct, as it bore all
the trials to which it was subjected ; and I am in-
clined to think they were rather formidable, as all
its neighbours, while undergoing the same ordeal,
went to pieces, including, I believe, the wrought
iron gun spoken of by your correspondent " Vul-
can ;" and they have still the gun in their posses-
sion, and, lam informed, uninjured. The last I
heard of it was that it was to be taken to Shoebury-
ness for lurther trial.

I was subsequently requested to attend the
" select committee" to give information. I attended
accordingly, and was examined (if you may call a
few irrelevant questions for about six or seven
minutes by three of the board at one end of the
room an examination), but the subject appeared
new to them, and the important and scientific
part of the matter was not touched upon at all.
As I expected, I received a letter from them refusing
its adoption. I certainly did feel regret at their dem-
sion, seeing that this very committee were at that very
moment autho!ising the expenditure of thousands upon
thousands in the manufacture of wrought iron conical
shells for the Lancaster guns, which are now only of
the value of old iron, without having a single gun in the
service from which they could with safety be propelled.
Any manufacturer who neglected to avail himself of
an invention which not only saved expense, but produced
a superior article would soon go to the rear. Oa what
principle I should like to know do these people act I I
am well assured that had my ideas been acted upon at
the first there would have been a considerable saving of
life and labour, besides a large sum of money in the
purchase of new guns, which they were at that time ob-
taining in large quantities, they having many thousands
lying at the arsenal only as old iron, which, at about
the fourth of the cost of new, would have rendered fur-
ther purchases untieceary, besides producing an " arm"
possessing a p. Ter of range unknown to the service or
that of any PJwer in Europe. This identical plan will
be sooner or later adopted, as no other will be found
possessing at the same time so great an increase of power
with so small a cost.

A ULF-INDICATING BALANCE
BAROMETER.

Monsieur Erie de Beaumont has received a letter from
Rome, dated Jan. 8, in which the writer, M. Secchi,
give, a description of a new construction of barometer,
hich possesses the advantage- of not being able to be
br.,ken, of giving the readings exact, which Aneroids
and others do not, and of recording those readings by
,elf-acting mechanism. The writer says that all improve-
ments hitherto have been limited to the employment of
large tubes to avoid the evils of capillary attraction, and
to the obtaining of greater exactitude in the readings.
All attempts to make the instrument graphic—that is
to say, self-acting to. record the different variations, and
to make the indications more minute—have not yet been
successful. The principle on which the new barometer
is constructed will be understood by the following
:statement :—Suppose the cuvette of a barometer to be
placed on a table and the glass tube so arrange I as to
admit of its being lifted by hand. The force that will be
required to lift the tube will be equal to the weight
of mercury in the tube, or, in other words, to the
amount of atmospheric pressure exercised on the mercury
of the instrument. We shall therefore be able to really
weigh the pressury of the atmosphere by attaching the
barometer (the tube only) to one end of a balance, and
weights to the other ; for it is evident that at every
change in atmospheric pressure a corresponding increase
or decrease in weight will have to be made at the other
end of the balance to maintain equilibrium. To ascertain
the value of absolute pressure on a unity of surface, itwM
be necessary to take into consideration the weight of the
tube, and also of the weight of that portion thereof which
is immersed in the mercury contained in the corvette,
and especially the internal sectional area. The knowledge
of the latter, so far from being an obstacle, is a positive
advantage in construetion; for, by increasing the sectional
area, the force that actuates the instrument will also be
increased, and willconsequently permit of more exact and
more minute readings. If the sectional arza be 10 square
centimetres, and the pressure varies by centimetres in
height, the weight to be planed at the other end of the
balance will be that of 19 cubical centimetres of tiler- I
curt', or 135 grammes ; while, if the sectional area had
been equal to 1 square centimetre only, the weight would
have been but 13.5 grammes. Starting from these ob-
servations, M. Secchi adopted the following construe' ion
for his barometer, which has been made and used in the
observatory at Rome. The barometrical tube is attached
to one end of a steelyard or balanced lever, which carries
at the other end a counterbalance weight and a pointer,
15 millimetres or, of an inch in diameter, which is
reflected in a mirror. The mirror alse reflects a graduated
scale, so that the variation of 1-10th of a line of the
pointer is indicated by a movement of six lines on the
reflected image. The writer enumerates the following
advantages peculiar to his invention :-1. As the atmo-
spheric pressure is weighed, and not indicated by the
height of the column of mercury, the tube may be
constructed of any non-fragile material, such as iron,
which does not amalgamate with the mercury, provided
the bore is of equal diameter throughout. 2. By
increasing the sectional area of the tube, the addition el
weight will give sufficient motive power to a pencil at-
tached to the other end of the lever to mark the varia-
tions of atmospheric pressure (after the fashion I presume
of the indicator diagrams of steam-engines). 3. By
the interventions of suitable gearing, the scale of obser-
vations may be augmented without inconvenience or
danger of exactness of the instrument. 4. The new
construction is independent of the form of the miniscus,
of the purity of the mercury, of its specific gravity, and
of the temperature and difference of gravity peculiar to
different latitudes, for all these qualities exercise influ-
ence upon the volume of mercury, and on the height of
the column of mercury In the tube, which has to be
measured to obtain the weight of atmospheric pressure,
whereas, with the new instrument the weight is given
at once. Another advantage of employing iron fcr
barometrical tubes is, that there is no danger to fear
from the adhesion of air or moisture, and that the mer
curt' may be boiled without fear of bursting. Iron baro-
metrical tubes will likewise permit of other fluids being
employed, and probably advantage -iusiy, instead of
mercury. The writer further states that he invariably
found his row barometer indicate variations of atmo•
spheric pressure before ordinary barometers did so, and
that by avoiding loss from friction, most exact instru-
ments may be prod. need. The perusal of the description
of this ingenious invention has suggested its application
to some practical purposes, which I beg to submit to I
the attention of your engineering and scientific readers.
The suggestion has for its object to construct—
Audible or Danger-Signalising Barometers, which, if
placed on board a ship, would tell the captain and whole
crew of the approach of storms ; or which, if placed in
mines, would warn miners and inspectors of the presence
of fire-damp, as well as indicate its precise locality. For
this purpose it would be only necessary to employ a
weighing barometer, the pemrer of which wee com-
posed of sonic suitable ceeductreg material, but insie
lated from the rest of the instrument. The pointer
should be in communication with one of the poles of
an electro-magnetic battery. The dial, over the
face of which the pointer would have to travel, should be
composed of glass, or other suitable non-conducting ma-
terial, with the metallic points inserted at those grada-
tions which indicate dangerous variations of atmospheric
pressure. These points would have to . pla.•ed cam I
municatiqn with the other pole of the battery. Ti.e reader
will see by this arrangement, that when the pressure of
the atmosphere shows the prreisenc of danger,. either at
sea. from storms or squall.
lan t io
contactofe awr
tuhr ret theed hydrogen
metallic
ndganaumzi nrtherBeolpitn:.italt:itnet hrtehw.
the
i e;
the dial, and so complete the electric circuit, which would
have the effect, by the intervention of the ordinary
well-known apparatus,. of sounding an alarm, either by
ringing a bell or exploding au
powder. The arrangement
may be varied to suit the
.tliftt ease, by making the
odfianiono-fcsoordeuetcoinugdumetaitilegriarals 80 1
thatat4,aL lyiulthoeddabne bgerrepaokiinntus
the electric circuit that would give the alarm. In the
case of ships, the barometer might be placed
cap-
lain,s cabin, with an alaruni there, and anothelnr on the
l
near the wheel. While in mines, a barometersh(oueeld".
be placed in every gallery, with an alarm to warn the
miners who might be there ; and it should also be in ein
communication with an alarura and corresponding dial
indicator at the mouth of the pit, so that the -over•
looker might at all times know the state of the atmos-
phere in every part of the mine, and be duly warned of
the first approach of danger.—Xining Journal.