New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-05-14
INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Az AntABLE InPLEMEsT.-Things must be mend
ING in England. They cant be as bad they were
in the DAYS when Daniel Doyce snubbed by the
Circumlocution Office for boring them with useful
invention, and Arthur Clennam aterward for taking
up his cause. An inventor has been rewarded NUM-
fcently and the Fountain of Honor has overlooked of
i,s own accord 10 refresh and encourage him. The
Queen herself of her own grace, and by her own
personal and special desire laid the honor of knight
hood on his shoulder and the simple member of ma
chine.making firm, as we gather, up Sir William
Armstrong And more than that, he is to receive
~ GO per annum for ten years and his former part
ners-for whose society presume he has grown too
great-are to be guaranteed against loss i'll the
Government should not order enough of their pleasing
inventions 10 remuuerate them for their outlay. The
pretty thing which Sir William has devised and which
has SO pleased her Majesty and her loyal Commons is
new description Of great gum one of the chief viz
tues of which is that il is so small. Queen Anne had
her Pocket-piece which may still be by the
rous, but that Wa mere clumsy curiosity, of which
no earthly Use could be made Queen Victorias
Pocket-piece on the other hand, is light, airy and
graceful, agile in its movements as serpent, and
deadly and distant in the death it deals a bassk.
This interesting novelty is rihed cannon, which is
TO restore the Artillery the relative rank among the
agents Of destruction from which it has been thrust by
the improvements in the smaller arms. The Enfield
and Mimic rAes have put the Of the great lum
bering field pieces out of joint. eld-pece, it seems,
cannot be relied on for anything like accuracy at a
greater distance than thousand yards, while marks
men armed with the MIME the Enfield can pick off
the cunners serving them at twice the distance.
single officer in the Crimea, one occasion, COM
PEELED the withdrawal Of two guns from com
handing position by keeping up constant fire on the
men in charge of them, his men loading the
pieces for him. The invention Of Sir William Arm
strong increases the efficiency of over those
now in use in the same degree the Mimic rife is
surer and Of greater range than the old Brown Bess
The Armstrong gun consists of steel tube strength
eued by spiral strips OF rolled iron laid alternately in
opposite directions, and rifed in peculiar manner
the number Of grooves being much larger than in
common rihed guns 1t loads at the breech and is
slightly wider there, so the prCjectile may be little
larger tlan could enter by the muzzle, which of
course saves the rindage and greatly increases the
deadly accuracy Of the aim and the fearful extent Of
its range The most important part OF the invention
however was that of the projectile which has over
come the difficulty supposed to be nsuperabe in the
way Of using rifed cannon. Lead balls are too soft
and lose their perfect sphericity in their journey
through the grooves. Iron the other hand is too
hard and refuses accommodate itself to their gentle
solicitation. Sir William, by happy marriage of the
wothe ball being of cast iron coated with lead and
by making the prcjectile somewhat larger than the
muzzle-has produced hybrid of the most satisfsc-
tory description and the most surprising efficiency
The experimental gun, which was made to show
what ii could do, was light ield-piece carrying
fve-pound ball. At 800 yards it hit the target
five feet wide by seven hgh-every time, after it had
got its proper elevation and the elevation from
teal line drawn through the center Of the target
ices than foot. An ordinary sx-pounder being en-
tirey useless at this distance, and the DETECTION
of balls marked in the practice of heavy ordnance be-
ing noted in yards and NOD in inches the range and
accuracy of thiz gun something amazing. Gen.
Peel stated, in moving the Army Estimates, that the
range of AL lsponnder, of Armstrong; construction,
with charge Of FIVE pounds of powder, Tas htie
more than fre miles and a quarter! And a. to its
accuracy he stated that 1000 yards it a. to
compared with the ordinary gun Of the same weight
q; COO; while at 600 yards it a. 81 to l. weigh
ing, all the while, only onethrd as much Nor does
this exhaust the catalogue of the virtues of this charm
ing continuance II unites the delicate reserve OF the
,he with the robust bluntness Of the cannon ball by