The native American., 1840-09-19
aSee exhibit, marked A.
WASHINGTON ARSENAL, Dec. 9, 1888.


WASHINGTON ARSENAL, Dec. 9, 1885,
DEAR SIR: have received your note of Yesterday,
asking for statement of the views entertained by
me, when, in the line Of my duty, some months sincc
presented to the honorable Secretary Of War an APP
plication from you for authority to manufacture a
lwrought-iron cannon.
| Though do not precisely see the reason or scope
Of this inquiry yet, you say in speaking of your
self and the Secretary, his whole conduct to me has
commanded my confidence, respect and gratitude
and as there cannot, in my mind, be shade of mpro-
prety in acceding to your ro4uest, therefore
at once, and with pleasure.
In Europe in this country, the defects of the two
metals, brass and cast-iron, always used in the mate
rial Of cannon had been long observed. 1t was per-
ceived by areriss that the first OF these having the
required tenacity to present due resistance to the
action OF gunpoWder was yet greatly deficient in the
two other necessary qualities hardness and strength
and that the latter (castiron) though sufficient in
hardness, very deficient in the two other most
material qualities of enacity and strengths so that
the unavoidable consequences of these defects Of the
metals in se was the much greater additional weight
in brass and castron cannon, than would have been
necessary if the three qualities Of tenacity STRENGTH
and hardness had been combined in greater perIec-
on and thus, the great objects of mobility and cee
rty in field artillery we're not obtanabe to the extent
desired The batteries moved slowly and heavily in
consequence Of the weight of the cannon; and every
increase in CELEBRITY, SO important in war, was only
attanabe at the expense Of the strength Of the can
non But this was not all the defects Of these me-
tails could not be remedied by the great addition
al weight given to the guns; for the bores Of brass
cannon fred rapidly in warm seasons or climates
are soon ruined by the Judgement Of the shot, which
destroy all accuracy in firing, while their vents are
also enlarged and ruined And the cast-iron cannon
though they preserve their bores admirably while they
last and their vents tolerably, yet they ,riH BURST
and as, from their brittleness, they may fly into
Thousand pieces, they often kill many men, But these
bnrsngs are not only terrible, but impossible to be
ioreseen, when they happen; and as they give
nj Tho fbayf Hast
of the soldier in this weapon Of war.
Artlllersts who had seen the above enumerated de-
fecs in artillery, very clearly that there was
but one known metal which could afford to cannon
the necessary lghtness strength and durability and
that that wrought-iron, in which there was near
Iy the same hardness as in cast iron much greater
strength, and incomparably greater tenaci.y. They
saw, too that il had equal superiority over brass
having much greater strength, tenacity, and hardness
and accordingly the attempt to make field cannon OF
wroughIon in Europe and in this country, has been
frequently made, but always with i'll success the eff
forts OF the experlmenters having been always fruit
less IN practical results. They fruitless (when
attempts were made to shcathe with this metal the
bores Of brass cannon) principally in consequence of
the different degrees of expansion Of the two metals,
when the guns were heated by firing, Joined to the
difficulty OF giving due resistance and sodity to such
a structure, subject to such powerful action. And
when the gun was made entirely of wrought-ron the
failure arose, principally, from the unaloidably i'm
perfect weddings in the large Of iron necessary
to be used; so that these imperfect weddings, or
flaws, were burst open by the action of gunpowder
BUTT was observed in addition, that the due exact
ness Of the bore with respect 10 the exterior dimen
sions $50 necessary in poinng,) and the geometrcal
form Of the exterior ITSELF were alike unattanabe
| When, therefore, | heard that You had trumphcd
over these obstacles, and made a small wrought-iron
cannon, OF every necessary gcometrica exactness,
joined with great strength, and an astonishing small
thickness Of metal (three-fourhs of an inch which,
too, had sustained, uninured, much heavy firing, 1
felt sensible pleasure at the prospect that this long
agitated artillery problem might at length be solved
and artillery, in consequence greatly improved
did not indeed, look at the advantages or dsadyan-
tages Of loading particularly at the beech confident
was that il the gun could be made ut all it could
be made according to that the old principle Of con-
sruction and that either might be adopted as Interior
experiments should dictate.
| Whether, therefore, the wrought-iron Gun were
made with closed breech, at present used, with
an opening and closing one, to allow of loading
and sponging at the breech; or with brcech move-
able upon pivot after the manner OF some Small
arms, appeared TO matter of little consequence
in the first experiments; since, in the success Of any
ono OF the three cases, the problem would be equally
solved, aHording wroHght-iron cannon OF geomeri-
cal form, capable of resisting The explosion OF arti-
iery and Of loading at tho muzzle in the ordinary
manner; for TIC mere capacity Of loading at thu