The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-20 00:00:00

MUNITIONS OF TVA R.

Report to the Government of the United States on the
Munitions of iVar Exhibited at Paris, 1867. Lon-
don : E. and F. N. Spon, 48, Charing-cross.
Lieut.-Colonel Charles B. Norton and W. J.
Valentine, Esq., United States Commissioners,
have published the report to their Government on
the munitions of war at the Paris Exhibition of
last year. This book is well got up, containing 80
illustrations, and being printed by the authority of
the Secretary of State is therefore in every respect
an official report. The Commissioners modestly
express their sincere regret that the Government
had not commissioned officers of the regular army
to fill a position requiring science, research, and
technical knowledge, and they admit having made
a liberal use of the official documents within reach,
and of the published accounts in the leading scien-
tific and other journals of different countries, be-
lieving that they could thus obtain a more complete
view of the entire field. After dealing fully with the
war materials exhibited, the Commissioners
feel it their duty to notice important improvements
elsewhere, and such events as the English trials of
the Rodman gun at Shoeburyness, which occurred
while they were writing their report. The success
of the 15-inch smooth-bore gun against the 8-inch
Warrior target, which fairly established the supe-
riority of American ordnance, afforded them much
gratification. It is true that fuller experiments
must qualify the decision, yet enough remains to
justify the Commissioners in the high ground they
have taken. The first chapter is devoted to cart-
ridges. It commences by remarking that most of
the rifles exhibited were invented to suit the
cartridge, instead of the cartridge to suit the
rifle. The American is a simple metallic cart-
ridge, consisting of the shell, the fulminate,
the charge of gunpowder, and the bullet. The
Boxer cartridge for the Snider rifle is a
compound metallic cartridge, for, though like the
American, formed of four parts, they are com-
pound in themselves, really consisting of fourteen,
some, the Commissioners think, unnecessary. A
report of General Hay's is given, and though the
defects he describes have been since overcome, the
Commissioners deem it " strange that the British
Government should persevere at great expense in en-
deavouring to improve a very faulty cartridge, when
a superior article is. already in the market and suitable
to the regulation arm. " We allude to the cartridge
lately invented by Mr. Daw, of Great Trinity-lane,
London, a compound cartridge, and which, among
recent inventions, is svorthy of special men-
tion, as containing some peculiarities of a novel and
ingenious description. The cartridge is composed of
four parts, two of which are compound. The bullet,
as in the Boxer, has the wooden picket through
half its longer axis, and the clay plug in the base
for expansion. The shell is also of brass and in
three parts, retaining the copper cap for the fulmi-
nate in the centre of the base. In almost all other
respects the cartridge differs materially from the
Boxer. It is much shorter than the present service
cartridge, and the inventor consequently claims for
it greater facility of extraction from the regulation
arm. The cylindrical portion of the case is com-
posed of a little over one fold of thin metal, which
being united is perfectly gas-tight, and from the
slightness of this one fold of little or no weight, and
of great flexibility and toughness. The latter is a
marked advantage over stouter metal, as the case,
on the ignition of the charge, cannot fail to take the
form of the breech or chamber in which it is enclosed,
and cannot impede in the least the extraction of the
shell after the explosion, as the sudden alteration of
the temperature, after the gas leaves the barrel,
causes a slight contraction of the metallic shell. It
is waterproof as well as gas-tight, requiring no
paper covering or lubrication, as, in addition to the
shell being joined by cement or solder, it grips the
bullet closely above the cannelures, or grooves, and
thus the projectile, with the powder and fulminate,
are held together in one compact body by the slight
shell. The weight of sixty rounds of this cartridge
is 51b. 11oz., the weight of bullet 465 grains, that
of shell and fulminate 105 grains, and the charge
of gunpowder is 65 grains." The Chassepot cart-
ridge consists of six parts ; the priming, the pow-
der case, the powder, the pasteboard wad, the ball
case, and the ball, and is not, correctly speaking,
a metallic cartridge. That of the Prussian needle
gun is peculiarly its own, and being made for the
gun can only be used iu it, or in one having a
needle arrangement, to reach the fulminate
through the powder. It consists mainly of
four parts, not enclosed in a metallic but a
paper cover, the powder—the fulminating cap
—the carrier wad—and the bullet. The lat-
ter is of an acorn shape and weighs about an
ounce, the charge of powder being 76 grains. The
Commissioners consider that the requisites de-
scribed by Captain O'lrea in his paper read before
the Society of Arts in London to make up a good
cartridge are combined in the American with the
exception of a sufficient charge of powder, a defect
easily remedied. The thin cylindrical case
of Mr. Daw's cartridge possesses some ad-
vantages over the heavier shell of the Ameri-
can, but Mr. Daw's is a central fire car=
tridge, and therefore unsuited to magazine arms.
The Small Arms Committee awarded to Mr. Daw
the first prize of £4OO for his cartridges, which,
though noticed in a foot note, was granted after the
report had been written. But it is evident, from
the tone of the American Commissioners, that they
agree with the committee in estimating Mr. Daw's
as the best cartridge ; at any rate, after the Ameri-
can. " Like the Boxer," they say, "it is uncertain
whether Daw's cartridge can be refilled after firing,
an advantage possessed by the American which,
combined with its simplicity and cheapness, gives it,
in our opinion, the first place among the many
cartridges that have come wider our observation."
This interesting work will furnish the subject of
further remarks hereafter.—Anglo-American Times.

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Metropolitan Free Hospital, Devonshire-square, City,
during the week ending Aug. 16, was—Medical, 940; sur-
gical, 810—total, 1,750, of which 818 wore now cases.
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