The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-21 00:00:00

EXPERIMENTS IN THE MARSHES.

WooLwicis, Nov. 19.—Major-General Parker,
C. 8., Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Military
Academy - Major-General J. J. Lacy, Director-
General Of Artillery ; Colonel F. Campbell, Colonel
H. W. Gordon, Colonel C. Cruttendeo, Lieutenant-
, Colonel Chalmer, Assistant Director-General of Ar-
tillery ; Lieutenant- Colonel Hardinge, K.H., Major
Dupuis, Royal Horse Artillery; Captain and Adju-
tant Brandling, and Captain Boxer, Royal Artillery,
assembled to-day at two o'clock, r.ai., in the Marshes
to witness experiments with Quartermaster Free-
burn's fusees. Experiments had been made on many
previous occasions with Quartermaster Freeburn's
fusees, and as they bad proved amongst the best
submitted to the Select Committee, the trial to-day
was made with the view of testing whether the work-
men could make them 'equally well on Mr. Free-
burn's plan as he could himself, all the former
trials being made with fusees made by himself.
Fifteen shells were fired during the experiments, ten
32-pounders, and five 8-inch or 68-pounders.
The first and second rounds, from two 32-
pounders and one 8-inch gun, were fired with
metal fusees which bad been made upwards of 12
month ago. The first shell struck the bulk- head, but
did not explode ; the second, an 8-inch shell, and the
third, a 32-pounder, were very good explosions on
striking the bulk-head. The fourth, a 32-pounder,
appeared to have burst at the mouth of the gun, but
the report from Lieutenant Lascelles, in charge
of the range detachment, stated its having
struck near the top of the bulk- head without
exploding. The fifth and sixth were good. The
other nine shells fired were all fitted on the spot with
the wooden fusees made in the Royal Arsenal by Mr.
Carlyle and the usual workmen of the fusee depart-
ment, and burst, with one exception, on passing
through the bmk-head, the failure of the one which did
not burst being caused by its passing through an open-
ing made in the bulk-head by a previous shell, and en-
tering the mound to a considerate extent, the fusee was
extinguished. Ore of the 8-inch shells struck the
ground short, and afterwards buried itself at the
bottom of the bulk head, and did not burst until after
the next shell had been fired, when it exploded with
tremendous effect, tearing the massive timbers into
hundreds of fragments, and scattering them about,
besides breaking and twisting the numerous bolts
with which the wood was held together. The wooden
fusees are evidently the best and most economical,
the brass fusees being very expensive, as
they must be adjusted and held to the shells by
screws. Lieutenant-Colonel Hardinge, of the La-
boratory Department, some time ago suggested and
fitted several shells with wooden fusees made without
screws, the threads of which were liable to become
unfit for adjusting in the shells when expanded with
water or contracted in dry warm weather. The
Lieutenant-Colonel's plan is extremely simple, being
merely to make the mouth of the shell concave and
the neck of the fusee convex. In that form two mo-
derate blows with a woden mallet are sufficient to drive
the fusees home at the time they are required for use,
and they are safer and less liable to fall out from the
shell during its flight than any plan previously
tried. The whole of the wooden fusees fired to-day
were on the plan described, and afforded abundant
evidence of its superiority and simplicity under every
circumstance, and freedom of liability of danger to the
persons firing with them. The quantity of bursting
powder in the shells fired to-day was 21b. to each
8-inch, and 11b. to each of the 32-pounders, and the
charge to each gun at each round 81b. There were
18 shells altogether brought for experiments, and it
was intended to fire the two last 32-pounder shells
with charges of 61b. to each gun, but, in consequence
of an interruption by so many vessels passing on the
river after the first 15 rounds had been fired, the
other three were taken back to the practice lobby, to
be fired on a future occasion.

STATE OF TRADE.
(From the Manchester Guardian.)
MANC ti ESTER, TUESDAY.—The commercial advices
from the East have been but very imperfectly known,
by electric telegraph, during the principal hours of
business to-day. The Bombay market is reported as
dull in our staples ; but we have accounts of an ani-
mated demand for yarns and goods at Calcutta, and
of some iudications of improvement in China. The
consequence is a rather active business in suitable
yarns for both quarters, on somewhat better terms
than were previously obtainable by the producers.
In other description., however, a general quietness
has prevailed. Although the danger of war in
Germany appears to be passing away, yet the confi-
dence of the merchants is by no means restored ;
and their purchases continue to be comparatively
trifling, being confined to the execution of small
orders. Besides the evil of uncertainty still hanging
about the differences betwixt Prussia and Austria,
there is the serious check given to industrial occu-
pations by the calling out of the land wehr, to inter-
rupt, for a time, the regular course of commercial
transactions between this country and central Eu-
rope. Under these circumstances, warps and pin '
cops have rather suffered in price ; and low numbers
of amle, as well as water, have had a droopine.
teniency. But water twist above No. 16, is firm.
Low counts for home manufacture steady ; and there
has been rather more inquiry for them and for me_
dium numbers, though the purchases have proved