The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-11-22

The Great Naval Question Of De Z ).
Prom the New York Tribune. ~.
The Ericsson battery Passaic made Der hnal
trial trip on Saturday. She steamed eight Knots
an hour on her return up the river. Her de-
parture was taken from the Delemster Iron
Works, where she had come to have her boilers
cleansed. A large number of scientific officers
congregated at the Iron Works The following
gentlemen were on board:
Admiral Gregory, General Superintendent Of
iron clads.
Chief Engineer Sinners (the only believer in
the great ideal
Chief Engineers Lawton and Robe.
Capt Drayton, commander of the Passaic.
Firing commenced 1t halfpast l.
The first shot struck about 800 yards from
the vessel in the water. glanced of, and few
into the bosom Of the Palisades. Nothing broke
the turret Was there ~ strong and as solid a.
. rock. The concussion was not felt any more
than the Captain Of . 80 FOUNDER feels it on
board frigate.
The first fire resulted in no smoke to speak
OF, no inconvenient conclusion, and the com.
piets success Of grand ides The first charge
consisted OF 20pounds Of powder, and hollow
shot, $50 pounds. fred out Of the Is inch gun.
It recoiled II inches.
The second shot was fred out Of the l6.inch
gun, there being really no need of discharging
the ll-inch Tie first shot having proved the
practicability of the principle, the entire charge
of IS pounds of powder WAS now put in. Not
withstanding the success Of the experimental
FIRE, the timid ones still kept in the background.
Capt. Drayton pulled the trigger. Once moro
the echoes of the Palisades rang out. Tho re-
coil and smoke were reported Insignificant"
and the shot-a hollow one-buried itself again
in the beach. Cheers were loudly given for the
Psssaic The noise Is only troublesome outside
the turret, on deck, where no one has any busi>
ness to be. The recoil was . few inches greater
than at first owing to the compressers not being
properly frightened. t
At the third shot the composers were rights
ed, and there was even less recoil than at first.
A full S5-pound charge was put in, ar the 800
pound hollow shot The ball struck the water
as before, there being no desire to elevate the
gun, or to test any but the one great principle.
The facts established by the experiment are
as follows: t
lst-A gun may be fred inside turret.
2d-In order to appreciate the nature. of the
second result, it should be known that the
Armstrong guns in England have been condemn.
ed for use on shipboard, chiefly because sufi-
cient number of men could not be paced in the
turret to work them. Twenty-Five failed to do
it satisfactorily, and the Armstrong gun weighs
but fourteen tons. On Saturday, four men
worked l5.inch gun, which weighs twenty
tons. Next week Mr.. Whitney will put a To-.
O00-pound gun on board the Keokuk, which will
require twenty men, while the 42,eoo-pound
gun of the Passaic is moved by four.
1hird-The third result is a very important
one. It is the immobility OF the Passaic.-
Waves break on the iron margin Of the craft and
splash in harmless foam about her deck They
have 90 hull to strike-no high bulwarks; even
the turret presents an angle at every side. So
much for the results.
The following is a tabular recapitulation OF
the experiments:
Ball Charge Of
First shot, $50 lbs (hollow) 20 lbs. II inch.
Second shot, $50 lbs (hollow) IS lbs #. 10 inch.
Third shot, $50 lbs 35 lbs. 2 IT. inch.
After the trial, Chief Engineer Sinners re-
ported the result to Capt Ericsson. He said:
"Capt. Ericsson, allow me to congratulate you
on the signal service you have rendered to the
Government and to our country"
"What 2" asked the iron clad man, trying to
conceal curiosity and anxiety that almost
changed his entire appearance. ,.--.
"The experiment is thoroughly successful"
| This was said with emile.
"You are joking"
mo, not joking; am about to telegraph to
Washington what have seen, and that is the
grand success Of your grand idea"
Ericsson grasped his hand and REDEEMED like
child. II knew it all along, myself," he said,
'but all save you, Sinners, went against me-"
! The service preparations of this vessel are
now begun The experiment having demonstra-
ted the perfect success of the arrangement in
the turret, strong duty apparatus will be made
to supercede that which was temporarily got up
| for the trial trip.