New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-05-05
ON RIFLED CANNON-M.

We now come to the description OF the two klads
of aiding rifed cannon which at tue present
moment cont nd for superiority in England, and
which both invented by civilians, certainly surpsss
in efficiency anything hitherto produced BY profess
sional artlle rists--the Armstrong gun and the
WbityOrth gun.
Sir William Armstrong; gun had the advantage
Of priority, and of being praised by the woos press
and oficisl world of England. It's, undoubtedly,
highly Effective machine Of war, and far superior
to the French riHed gun; but whether it can beat
Wh,tworth's gun may well be doubted.
Z Sir VIM Armstrong constructs his guu by wrap
ping, round tube Of cast steel, two layers Of
wrout ht-iron tubes in a spiral form, the upper
layer laid on in the opposite direction TO the lower
one, in the same way gun barrels are made from
lay ers of wire. This system gives very strong
and tough material, though very expensive one.
The bore 10 rifed with numerous narrow groves,
one cose to the other, and having one turn IN the
lergth of the aun. TIE oblOns-cy lindro-og'rsl-
shot is of cast-iroD, but covered with mautle Of
lead, which gives il diameter somewhat larger
than the bore; this shot, along with the charge is
introduced by the breeeh into chamber wide
enough to receive it; the explosion propels the shot
nto the narrow bore where the soft lead s pressed
into the grooves and thus does away with all wind
age while giving the proectile the spiral rotation
indicated by the pitch of the grooves. This mode
of pressing the shot no the grooves, and the coat
ing Of soft mater al required for it, are the charac-
teristc features Of Armstrong; system; and If the
reader will refer to the principles of rhed ordnance,
as developed in our preceding articles he viii agree
that, in principle, Armstrong is decidedly in the
right. The ,hot being larger in diameter than the
bore, the gun is necessarily ereech loading, which,
to us, also seems necessary feature in all riiled
ordnance. The breech-losdipg apparatus itself,
however, has nothing whatever to do with the
principle of any particular system of Iifing, but
may be transferred from one to the other; We
leave it, therefore, entirely out of our consider
alton.
The range and precision attained with this new
gun are acme thing onderful The shot was .hro Un
to ,ome $500 yards, or nearly five miles, aud the
certainty with which the target was hit at 1000 or
5000 ards much exceeded wnatthe DID, smooth bore
guns could show at one-third Of these distances.
Still, with all the putting Of the English press, the
scientifically interesting deta Is OF all these expert
mems were studiously Kept secret. IL was never
stated with what elevation and charge these rsasss
were obtained; the weight Of the shot and that OF
the gun itself the exact lateral and longitudinal de-
yiatons, &C., were never par'icularized. Now, at
last, when the Whitworrh gun has made its appear.
aDce, we learn some details of one set OF expert
ments at least. Mr. Sidney Herbert, Secretary OF
War, has stated in Parliament that l2-pouadsr
gun Of cwt, with | ID OF. of powder, gave a
an extreme lateral deviation of three, and an OK
IRENE longitudinal deviation Of 65 yards. at eight
degrees elevation, the range was 2, 1871 yards; at
nine, above 5000 yards; the dovis,ions remaining
nearly the same. Now, an elevation of seven to
nne degrees is thing unknown in The practice Of
instance, do not 90 beyond four degrees elevation,
at which the ~ FOUNDER aud 8 pouader give a
range of AGO yards. Any higher elevation 10 field
guns would be- useless, from giving TOO bisd a line
ofllebt, and thereby immensely reducing the chance
of hitting the mark. But we have some expert
ments quoted 10 SIR Howard Douglass Naval
Gunnep) with heavy ship euos of nooth bore at
higher elevations. The Etgl'sh long 32.poundsr at
Deal III 1882 gave ranger, at degrees, OF 3 23l to
1913; at 9 degrees, from 2,495 to = 652 yards
The French 36pounder in 1916 and AZ, gave
ranges, at degrees, Of 2,270; at 9 degrees,
of 1886 yards. This shows that at equal eleva-
tions the ranges Of red guns not so very supe-
Iior TO those of smooth. bored cannon.
The Wbitworth gun, in almost every respect, is
the opposite Of the Armstrong gum Its bore is not