The banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1844-1847, 1846-07-22

must obtain at least two.thirds of the
votes minus his own. If As Cardinals
are assembled, he must have 80 votes,
and there be 46 the majority must be 81.
If the conclave be composed of 81 mem
bers, the election will be completely
canonical, if one of the candidates has
3S votes, without reckoning his own"
THE GREAEsT IRON Gun EVER CAST
YET.-Yesterday afternoon another
stupendous piece of ordnance was cast
at Algers's boundary, South Boston,
which. when finished, will exceed Cap
tain Stockton's celebrated "Peacema-
ker" by 5000 pounds in weight. The
arrangements for the operation were
commenced in the morning, by filling
the furnaces with metal and firing up.
The quantity of metal used was about
46, 900 pounds, and the amount of coal
consumed in reducing it to the requisite
state OF fusion was eight chaldrons. AT
six o'clock, P. M, repeated experiments
having been made with it in small
quantities, the metel was pronounced to
be in fit condition for use, and the
grand operation of casting was COM
menced. The two furnaces were tap
ped, and the boiling and blazing liquid
gushed forth, rushing and leaping
through the iron canals, which emptied
into the sides of the mould, sank twelve
feet into the solid ground. The flaming
streams continued to run for fifteen mi
nutes down through the iron flask, or
shell Of the mould, the metal in the
meantime bubbling and revolving as it
rose in the inner shaft of sand, which in
fact formed the actual mould for the
cannon. The metal having reached
the level of the mould, supplementary
or cap mould was put on, and filled with
some tons of metal poured into it from a
crane ladle.
The object of this addition is to give:
by means of dead weight above, steadi-
ness to the process of chrys,alization in
that portion of the mass out of which
the cannon is to be turned. Ten days
will elapse before the metal will have
become sufficiently cool to admit of the
removal of the flask, by digging away
the compact ground in which it stands
EMBEDDED; and then, in the space of five
weeks, the gun can be finished and got
ready for mounting on Fort George, in
our harbor, for which it is designed.
The casting was done under the per-
sonai supervision of Mr.. Alger and Col
Bomford, the inventor of this piece OF
ordnance, to the first specimen Of which
Thomas Jefferson, in 1909, gave the
name of the Columbiad"
The weight of the gun, when finish
ed, will be $4,000 pounds. Length
ten feet; diameter at the base ring, SO
inches; length of chamber, l3 inches
length of bore, 9 feet inch; diameter
of bore, IL inches. Weight of round
shot which it will carry, $50 pounds
weight of shell, 1sO pounds. Range O
shot or shell, 1-2 miles-being Ia O
a mile greater than the recorded perfor
nance of the largest and latest invented
mortar in England, and half mile be
yond the reach of any gun in the castle
of San Juan de Ulloa, at Vera Cruz.
The cost of this immense instrument
for harbor defence will not exceed
$17O0; or one sixth the cost of the
wrought iron gun procured in England
by Captain Stockton.
Boston Post, July7.
Correspondence of the Baltimore Patriot
MATAMOROS, June FL.
GENERA1 Ia WEnA hauo soon