The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1862-06-19
The New Grea, Gun e England.

The London Times Of recent date contains an
account of experiments at Shoeburyness, with a
gun of large size and great calibre- This gun,
says that Journal, :" showed at every discharge
that our best and hitherto considered inyulnera-
BILE forms of iron-sides were, 50 40 speak, al
most as easily penetrated by a shot as 1t the
targets had been Of timber The Times adds:
After all our labor and all our expense, after
having made beyond comparison the finest and
strongest iron frigates in the wor- we now find
that opposite a large muzzle-loading gun, the best
of our iron-sides can be Us easily riddled and sunk
as wooden sailing vessels. This discovery, only
made on Tuesday afternoon last, rs due to the
keen and wholesome rivalry between the War
Office and the Admiralty, the former striving to
devise irresistible artillery, and the latter to
build invulnerable iron ships. There has been
an immense variety of experiments on every con-
ceivable form of target, and upon every possible
combination of iron and wood. iron and india
rubber, iron and wire, iron and hemp, and every
section of the American Monitor has been erected
and fired at at ShOeburyness, and proved to be
as vulnerable almost as timber, and, that no
chance may be neglected, a target is being made
of railway bars, dovetailed and riveted together
in the same ingenious manner as the coating OF
the Mrrimac, and this beyond a doubt, with
much the same results that attended the MonaOr
target During a recent experiment, a target
exactly of the came materials and strength as the
Warriors broadside, was subjected during the
whole of one day and part of a second to a most
hAtr wv ~
off in hail iron s~plinters. The targets grew
almost red-hot ia parts, but no missile passed
beyond lis iron armor. The Warrior, therefore,
and iron ships, were justly deemed invulneIable.
Sir w. Armstrong has a letter in the Times,
explaining the principle which has rendered the
last experiment successful in penetrating and
smashing iron plates. The smooth bore gun has
a velocity excelling that of the ritie gun by more
than a quarter. A smooth-bol, gun has been
made by Sir William-length u ;cct. weight IL
tons-and it was tried against the Warrior tar
get on Tuesday, in presence Of Dukes of Cam
bridge and Somerset, and other high officials of
the Admiralty and War Offices. The first shot
weighed 156 pounds, and was fired at a distance
of 200 yards, with a charge OF 40 pounds of
powder. This solved all d. Ibts. The iron mass
was shattered into crumbs of metal, and the teak
splintered into fbres literally as small as pins.
An increased charge was next tried. and the shot
passed not only through the plates, teak and the
inner skin, but buried itself IL the massive tim
bers that supported the target. These two shots
were quite conclusive US to the power of the gun.
Sir W. Armstrong says that a gun of IL tons
weight, fred with n charge of so poonds of pow
der, will break through the side Of the Warrior,
or the strongest ship afioat.
The Times concludes that no weapon of offense
or defense seems now left 50 effective as q large
and very swift steam-ram.