Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1854-12-21

the efforts made by those papers TO mislead, can
only cause laugh among those who do know, at
these same knowing editors who do not knoss'
From the Montreal Gazette, December Q.
The Lancaster Gun How 1t differs from
the Ordinary Cann0n-Its merits and de-
fectss .,ry.
Among our extracts from English papers in a
recent issue, our readers may have observed a
paragraph upon the subject Of this new arm, and
as public writer has shown SO much ignorance
while processing to instruct others, it has occur
red 10 US that brief description Of this pow
erful instrument of death and the principle OF its
construction would be acceptable to many.
The writer in question commences by saying :
"The object of boring the Lancaster into an clip
sis Is to prevent the ball from taking rotary mo-
ton, and thcreupon he raises the question whe
ther the ellptical ball, in passing through an clip
teal bore, being prevented from taking rotary
motion, has not dangerous tendency to burst the
gun. So far from his premises being correct the
very reverse is the true state OF the case. The
ellptical bore Is intended to give the ball rotary
motion for in this motion Of the ball upon its own
axis consists the superiority Of this gun over the
ordinary cannon. It is well-known fact that 1t
il impossible to east balls or bullets in such way
that one side win not be heavier than another and
ii is also wellknOwn that this circumstance defects
the projectile from its right line.
With small arms this difficulty 10 overcome by
the groove in the rifle barrel which, being spiral,
acts upon the soft substance Of the leaden bullet,
and gives it rotary motion before leaving the
muzlc Of the rifle, which continues until the ball
is stopped, BY this means the heavy side is alter
nately turned in all directions that any tendency
in one direction Is Immediately counterbalanced
by revolution of the bullet which changes the
position Of the heavy side, and the result Is that
the ball flies in direct line. Now, however well
this plan may answer for small arms and leaden
balls, the groove il impracticable for cannon and
cast-iron balls, and it has long been problem to
discover some means of making rifed cannon.
The Lancaster gun processes to have accom-
pshed this by means Of an elliptical bore, out OF
which is to be thrown an eiptcal projecte, either
shot or shell Without plates We may not be able
to make all our readers understand our explanations,
but we hope most of them will do 50. The gun is
large, because it is at long range that it's great
precision of aim tells best over the common gun,
and its appearance is that of an ordinary large can
non, except that the mouth instead Of being circu-
lar, is elongated like egg, having axis longer
than another We viii suppose that the mouth is
the largest up and down--that Is, that the longer
axis is vertical that the fattened ball fitting it
would stand on its edge; but the bore winds grad
ually from the mouth to the breach Of the gun, so
that when the ball is driven home to the proper
position when the gun is loaded, it will have turned
one-fourth around, and viii lie horizontally-that
is, at right angles to the longer axis of the mouth
of the gun, and ON its side. When the gun is
fred the ball must make one revolution for every
four lengths of the gum and thereby counterbalance
any imperectlon in its shape which would other
wise defect it. Several of these guns have burst.
This is perhaps attributable to the fact that they
are used at very long ranges, and were probably
overloaded although il is quite possible and in fact
probable, that forcing the ball to take rotary mo-
ton would increase the resistance offered 80 much
as to increase the risk Of bursting. Experience
win soon test the question. We may remark that
the srme principle has been applied to small arms,
and decided advantage is claimed for the Lam
caster over the common rife.