The southern enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1854-1870, 1855-01-05
sHtarrgting HlisreIhanp,
The Lancaster Gun.

Our readers have probably noticed in the
| letters from the Crimea accounts of the Ian
caster gun, which has proved to be q most
effective weapon against the walls of Sebas-
topol, although il has not been altogether a
safe gun for those who handled it, two or
three Of them having burst. The Montreal
! Gdzette gives the following description of
| its operations:- ., r. - .,..-...a
| "ltis we'll known fact, that tits impossi-
BILE to cast balls or bullets in such u way
that one side will not be heavier than the
other, and il is also well known that this
circumstance defects the projectiie from its
right line. g..
| With small arms this difficulty is over
come 10y the groove in therihe barrel, which,
;aeii,iiG aeiiiiiG spiral acts upon the soft substance
Of the leaden ulas+aaaa gives si.,s it rotary
motion before leaving the muzzle ofthe rifle,
which continues until the ball is stopped
By this means the heavy side is alternately
turned in all directions so that any tenden.
cy In one direction is Immediately counter
balanced by a revolution Of the bullet, which
Changes the heavy side, and the result is that
the ball flies i'll direct line. Now however
well this plan may answer for small arms
and leadcn balls, the groove is impracticabIc
for cannon aud cast-iron balls, and it has
long been, problem to discover some means
OF making ritied cannon. ....
I The Lancaster gun. processes to have &C
complislied this by means of an eliptcal
bore, out of which is to be thrown an elliptic.
al alprojectile, either shot or she'll. Without
plates we may not be able to make all our
readers understand our explanations, but we
hope most of them will do so. The gun Is
large, because il is at a long range that its
great precision of aim tells best over the
common gun, and its appearance is that
OF an ordinary large cannon, except that the
mouth, instead ofbeing circular. is elongated
like an egg, having one axis longer than
another We will suppose that the mouth
IS the largest up and down-that is, that the
longer axis is vertical so that the fattened
ball fitting it would stand on its edge but
the bore winds gradually from the mouth to
the breach OF the gun, so that when the ball
is driven home to the proper position when
the gun isloaded, it will have turned one
quarter around and will lie horizontally. that
rs mt right angles to the longer axis of the
mouth Of the gun and on its side. When
the gun is fired, the bali must make one rev.
olution for every four lengths of the gun, and
thereby connterbalance any impertectisn in
its shape wlIich would otherwise defect it.
Several of these guns have burst This is
perhaps attributableto to the fact that they ave
used at very long ranges, and were probably
overloaded, although tits quite possible, and,
in fact, probable, that forcing thebali to take
arotary motion would increase the resist
ance offered 50 much as to increase the risk
OF bursting, Experience will soon test the
question. We may remark that the same
principle has been applied to small arms, and
a decided advantage is claimed for the Ian
easterove the common gun