The Placer herald., 1866-11-17
CHILLED SHOT.

Du'ldlnS, "hlcn appeared 80 recently AS Tue
close of last year, records his opinion that
east and wrought iron were not materials
calculate to make serious impression upon
armor plates, and that nothing had been
found to answer the purpose better than
hardened steel. The cast iron prepared by
Dr. Price, and the case hardened sho, pre-
pared by Major Paiser. Mr.. FairI'airn con-
sidered, might answer the purpose in some
cases. but he qneetioned whether this ma
tera. however well prepared, could be made
to hold together and not break in pieces
when the shot struck The plates. So he
came to tie conclusion that steel shot and
shell were the only Ir'jecti'es suited for At
tacking iron plated vessels. Mai IF Palliser,
hrwever, has recently succeeded in demon
straling mos, thoroughly and practically
dat Ivy this method Of chilling the shot
when cast, he ol tains metal possessing
hardness equal to that Of steel and
tonshness approaching very closely to that
Of wrought iron. He has thus solved one Of
the most impor,an, ques ions Of modern
gunnery-lhal Of penetrating armor With
shells which do not explode until they have
passed through the late and baclsng-or,
in other words, completely through ships
| side. Major palIissr is by no means the first
to accomplish this OF jet; the credi, Of that
is due to Mr.. Whi,worth, who Effected his
purpose with comparatively small projectiles
and low charge, Of powder Following the
la ter gentleman, others have done the same
thing, but two serious drawbaks to success
were always present, The shells for the
mos. part ex) ded backward on contact,
and being made Of see, were very expen
sive, their cost for large ordnance ranging
from Ct to e20 each rr'je tile. SO, on
the score Of inTperfaclion and Of costliness,
absolute saccess was not attained by any,
nor until Major Paliser had perfected his
chilled shot, which are both cheap and eff
cien,, was it considered attainable But the
question was set at rest by series Of ex
peiimeuts which were carried out last week,
ut SherburDess, with varions kinds of she'll
Theso experiments were instituted for the
purpose Of testing Mr.. Paiser's chilled
| shells against those of the best ste-l pro-
jectiles, and in their results proved mos,
valuable. The principle upon which Major
PaIiiSer manufactures these shells is worthy
of notice as being something mole than the
old process of chilling. AS the shells are
required for pa ticular purpose, they must
have something more than a mere chilled
surface; definite and carefully determined
hardness must bs impaired throughout the
metal. This condition is attain ed by a
selection and combination of those brands
of iron which have been found by expert
meot to chill to the exact extent required,
careful mean being observed between iron
which it is difficult to chill and that which
chi Ia too hard. Added to the principle of
manufacture is the principle Of construction,
which goes far toward the success OF the
projac,.e. The form given by Major PaIIi
ser Is such as will conver! the sudden shock
of impact AS much as possible iuto a uni
formly increasing pressure. In other words,
the proiectile has an elongated pointed
head which i AS essential an element in it
as is the perfect chill lug of the neral. Up
on the occasion in question the firing was
from an ordinary inch wrought-ron muz-
zle-load-r, With fulI batterlng charges Of %
lbs of powder and range of 200 yards
The shells we've directed against warrior s.
target, witch was built Of the ordnace
l-2nch plat. with l s inches OF teak back
ing aud an inner iron skin, he whole we'll
DTdCGtl Htltl etieHS nan WIG e" SCt
Was boted on Mr. Bascomb's plan of india
rubber pads, the other haf of the bolts be-
ing secured by MIR. paget's steel cup wash
ers At the CONFUSION of the experiments
il was found that Mr. Dascomh's system had
stood better han Mr. Pagels, but then it
appears that the shots almost Invariably
struck that part Of the target botea on Mr..
Page's principle while that portion fasten-
ed with Mr. Bascomb's washers was scarcely
touched. The experiments were commenced
by firing a steel shell on Mayor All
derson s plan, having a SER wed base, and
being charged with 3 lbs. of lose powder
The shell penetrated the the 4 l-2 inch plate
but did no more, except to explode back
ward from the face of the target. The mex!
shell, which was of the best STEEL of Mr.
Frth's passed through the plate and entered
The wood backing but i, exploded outward
as the first had done. The bird shell
struck on the edge of the hole made by the
first passing easily through aud exploding
ip lhe teak backing, which it set on fire.
Other shells were tried with similar results
in some instances, in Others they were even
less satisfactory, some Of Mr.. Frth's shells
bursting before they reached the target; a
few exploded in the gun. Three of Sir
VIII am Armstrong; conical headed shells,
made on the Belgian pattern, with sharp
cone were fred, and produced a similar eff
feet to those previously fired. After all the
stee! shells had been tried, Major PalIiser's
chilled-ron shells where tested, and the first
shot proved the superiority of the system
over all the Others The shell struck an
uniojured portion Of the target and went
through the plate and backing SO quickly
as not to explode until it had passed beyond.
The backing where the shell had passed
through was spIintered into fragments, and
had the object been the side of ship instead
Of a target, the results would have been
most damaging to guns crew at
Quarters. The CHARGE of the second Palliser