The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-19 00:00:00

EXPERIMENTS AT ,VIOEBURYNESS.

The experiments, so far as the Plymouth Breakwater
Fort target and the 15in. iron plates are concerned, closed
on Thursday afternoon, and on Tuesday next others not a
whit less important will be made. The . firing commenced
with the Woolwich 12in. gun, from which a shell was fired
with a 761 b. pellet charge On the portion of the target
where the extra sin. plate was fixed. It struck fairly,
penetrated more than sixteen inches, and, aided no
doubt by the effect of shots fired on. Wednesday, created
a series of cracks, extending altogether to a length
of nine feet. Towards the edge the plates were
much fractured—indeed, but for a firm nine inches
at the top of the enormous piece of plate, would have been
scaled completely off. Inside a holt was driven in 3
inches, the large horizontal. bar (161 in. by sin.), close to
the roof, was broken completely through, and the- angle
iron was much bent. The Rodman gun, still at a 200
yards range, was engaged with a full charge of 84A1b.
The 4501 b. ball bit the top of a bolt in the upper
plate, driving it in at least 7 inches, and crack-
ing the plate itself slightly. The indentation
was but tei inches, and within very little damage
was perceptible. Another shell was next discharged
from the 12-inch gun with tremendous effect. Striking
the curved plate that crowns the shield, it shattered it
generally, and, detaching a fragment that would weigh a
ton, whirled it round upon an obstinate bolt that acted
as a pivot, and lodged it upon the top. The charge was
ordered so as to make the actual range 1,000 yards.
Viewed from the exterior this was one of the most
telling shots fired, and from within the point of the
shell could be seen amongst the wreck, while the
daylight which it had let through revealed also s)
broken bolt. Keeping to the long range, a shell war
now fired from the 10-inch gun. It caught the corner of
one of the plates on the curve, and smashed off a piece
about a foot square, besides dislocating some iron washers
at the back, and giving the arch over the porthole a scrim
shaking. The same missile was-then fired at the 200 yard:
range, but instead of striking the plate at which it was
aimed, it cannoned against thegranite-work at the bottom,
and glanced upon the ironwork only to star it. The
shell was once more fired, but at 1,000 yards range;
full at the target, and the force loosened some joints
and did considerable damage otherwise. Leaving the
Plymouth target, the eommittee proceeded to test the
granite basement upon which the costly fort is to be
reared. The American gun faced it at 200 yards, and
with full charge sent the ball into it where the test was
good. The height of this granite work is 4 feet, its thick-
ness is 14 feet, and behind that there is a bed of concrete
22 feet through. The shot sent the granite flying in alj
directions, pulverising heaps of it as fine flour, and it pene-
trated the granite and forced the concrete out into the inte-
rior. The Plymouth target, which has an area about as
spacious as the side of the house, presented a melancholy
appearance now. It was marked with eighteen missile.%
two of which had gon, through ; others had wrought deep
saucer-like indentations ; others had shivered the five-inch
plates, and strewn the heath far and near with the frag-
ments, and the white powder from the destroyed granite
base, to conclude the picture, had whitened the surface,
as if for the express purpose of showing how ghastly were
the cracks that radiated around several of the apertures.
That laminated armour plating will not stand battering as
the solid rolled slab does is evident, but whether solid
armour will efficiently check missiles like the deadly shot
and shell of the Woolwich gun can only be determined by
experimeutalising upon a target similar to that whose con.
demnation will assuredly be asked for. The trials yet to
be made iiiebele an experimental structure faced with iron
of different thicknesses, and a peculiar gun shield, "from
which much is expected, manufactured by Mr. Hughes, of
the lillnall Iron Company's works. e

A NovEn WAG ER. few evenings ago a
number of genllcmen a'. the Sllip Hotel; Greenwich, steed
watching from the winds the 2arnbols of some boys,
who dived into the river in search of c-ppers which the
gentlemen threw into.the water, when a wagtr was made
baween twO of them for Rzo and dinner for the lot that
one of them, dressed as he was in tight-fitting-coat, could
not swim to a certain point and back. The gentleman
who undertook to perform the feat descended the stairs
leading to the water's edge, and placing his gold watch,
which was the only article he was permitted to divest him-
self of, in the hands of a friend, he deliberately walked
into the water and swam to the point stipulated and back
amid the plaudits of hundreds of persons, who quickly con•
gregated to witness so novel a spectacle. The wo,rx wa4
won, and the 00 paid. When the dinner wet QQMO
off
he not been aunt4inich