The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-12-14


the new war frigates, nine, ten, and eleven inch
she'll guns are used. 1t was suggested by Com
mander Dahlgren, in 1850, that he could with
shell guns, " exercise greater amount of ord
nance power with given weight of metal" and
with more safety to thoee who managed the gun,
than with any other pieces Of like weight. On
this subject Secretary Dobbin says
II probably tue, ALI sed, that solid shot ara
driven by lager charge OF powder. their power 10
they entirely through her Tins exposing ner 70
the consequences Of swo serious breaches These open
yareo even drrpg an seson But II vessel is struck
and penetrated ny OF heee monster shes Viii ID
ries thin seH the Of explosion one can hardly
ceive Of the crashing OF rmbers havoc and
destruction which must Inevitably eneae And thus the
work Of one fhsi would DO mere fatal and DISASTROUS than
Respecting the weight of metal carried, he OBJ
eryes further:-
In many Of those most remarkable conflicts in which
the American nav its proudest trophies II Ia welt
eted 1T the superiority Of cabre Of gnns
,Tibuied v.ry much 10 the succes,ut overpowarug of
the formidable ary In consideration OF the CON
Jarattvs reDeth OF naval force becomes vastly
IN portsDt that should rc,ee the Inventive
md genius Of our oouusr, men, ADD strive not
merely keep pace WITH bot possole In al Of
others In The Character or our engines Of destruction in
But what would our Secretary say to the prac-
wrought ilon gun, manufactured by Messrs
Horsiall. at the Mersey Works, Liverpool? This
monster piece weighs q tons II hundred weight is
Is feet in length and carries solid shot Of $50 lbs
weight. "On referring to Sir Howard Douglass
important work on naval gunnery-the great
authority on all questions of artillery" says the
London Times" we fnd that the range of shot
exceeds by about 10 per cent the range of the
best solid shot guns in her Majesty's service, aud
by 20 to rs per cent those Of the eightand tennch
(shell) guns" In the trial of the gun there were
fifty rounds fired, with the solid shot Of $50 lbs
weight and so lbs Of powder at charge. There
were ten shots fred with the gun on a level, and
ten each at elevations of one, three, FIVE and
seven degrees, respectively. The trials were on
q level plain at Shoeburyness. A full record was
kept of the elevation Of the piece, the recoi the
time Of fight, the distance of first grace"
the defection-right or Leland the entire
distance, or extreme range, Of each
shot. The recoil was from three feet three
inches to four feet, usually from three feet six to
three feet nine inches. The DETECTION at the point
where the ball first struck the ground-the first
Craze uSuaiIy from TWO 10 TOUR yaIus, Sc
veral times within a yard, twice at twelve, once
sixteen, once twenty, and once twenty-six yards
from the exact line, and four times out Of the fifty
in exact line without any DETECTION. At the ex-
IRENE length of the range-the place where the
ball finally rested-once out Of the fifty shots II
was in the exact line as the gun was pointed; but
the balls were usually found from ten to twenty
thirty, and once over a hundred yardsout of line
The mean distance at which the first Craze" took
place when the gun was on level was 500
yards; at one degree elevation l,02sl yards; at
three degrees, 1880 yards; at five degrees, 2,433
yards, and at seven degrees elevation 2,9sS2
yards. So that elevatng the piece seven degrees
from horizontal line, the ball first struck
the earth at distance Of about 5000 yards,
or not far fiom a mile and three quarters.
The following figures are taken from the table
Of observations-the columns showing, first
the number Of shot, in the order Of the expert
ments next, the degree Of elevation Of the gun
the time Of fight of the ball to the first grace
in seconds and ffths, the distance of the fra
graza and the aytrayuo raura.