The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-11-02

~ HiO'o'iS VI lllG oItI plllil
: tive custom when marriage was al
act of capture. ". Y. Ereninq P0sl
Firing Shells from the Eight,
one Ton Gun.
THE correspondent of the Londol
Daily NeaDs, writing from Shoebury
Oct. 4, says: The great cannon mad,
It's first acquaintance with live shell
this morning, when practice bega1
early in order to make up by day:
hard work the time lost by delays anC
misadventures yesterday. The exper,
iments began with shrapnel shell, con,
tanning bursting charge of foul
pounds of powder behind about 1,OOC
four-ounce balls, and headed in lightly
with wooden cap, easy to be blown
Off. 1t may not be generally known
that the idea of these projectiles origi-
mated with Gen. Shrapnel, r. A., at
the siege of Gibraltar in 17S1. The
original "shrapnel" was a common
spherical shell filled with bullets, and
having only small bursting charge to
open the shell and scatter the bullets
as soon as it reached within pistol shot
of the enemy. They We're used with
destructive effect in the PeninSular
war, and have since been very much
improved. In the elongated shrapnels
now fired the bursting charge, being
behind the bullets, drives them for
ward at an accelerated velocity in a
conical cluster, and its practical effect
is to carry the muzzle of the gun for
ward and fire a shower of caSe-shot.
The first round to-day, with a COM
pound projectile Of this description,
weighing three parts of a ton, was
looked for with interest. The gun
was elevated to an angle of about
three degrees, and the time fuse set to
explode three seconds after leaving
the muZzle. Accordingly, at 1,2OO
yards, the shell was seen to break into
a white cloud, sharp bang came back
like an echo of the gun, and then the
sea for two, three, or perhaps five
hundred yards further on rose in innu-
merable fountains, sparkling beauti-
fully in the sunshine wherever a shot
or Il fragment fell. Three times the
gun fired shrapnel with equal success,
and then, as it was high water, with
the tide over the rails of the platform,
it was decided to fire the common
Shell with the POttman general service
fuse, but without bursting charges,
work they have to do. High tide is
preferable for this experiment, as the
shells are more easily recovered from
the sands when they fall upon deep wa
ter. The muzzle of the gun was,
therefore, raised to eight or nine de-
grees, and five rounds fired at ira
jectory, which lodged them at a con-
venient distance of about five miles,
where they marked their descent by
throwing columns of water several
hundred feet in height. Common shell
are the longest of the elongated pro-
iectiles for the eighty-one-ton gun,
measuring with the gas-check rather
more than four feet, owing to the
greater space required for the bursting
charge, which consists of fifty pounds
of powder. All the projectiles weigh
alike, LOO pounds, and all are fired
with the service charge of $40 pounds
of powder. The projectiles fired TO-
day are probably not those which
would be used with most effect ON
service, as their lower power of pene-
tration renders them of little value
against armor plates, which only the
hard-headed Palliser can pierce; but
against unarmored ships or ships thin
ly plated the common shell may render
a good account. The chief use of the
shrapnel is against the personnel of
the enemy, and it has been sug-
gestively described as the "man-
killing" type. After five rounds
of common shell, which appeared
to stand well. the remaining
two shrapnel were fired to complete
it's series, and then came the trial of
the case or canister shot, an introduc-
tion strongly against the wishes of the
artillerists, but conceded at the earnest
desire of the royal navy, in which
branch of the service cease is held
in high and traditional esteem. The
long iron box was accordingly brought
down to the gun and rammed home
against the cartridge. The contents
| were 1 $50 balls of eight ounces each,
and 800 or 400 smaller bullets to fill
| the lnterstices- When the gun was
| fired the water rose in foam over the
whole area between 100 and 1000
yards from the shore, while through
| the midst of the cOmmOtiOn something
probably the gas check-was seen
plowing straight ridge far out to sea.
The second round had more remark
able effect. The tide was rapidly fall
! ing, and about thousand yards out a
large flock of seagulls were gathered
on sandbank right in the line of fire.
The gun, which was at an angle of two
degrees only, discharged its hail-stOrm
right through the midst of them, and
as the flock rose at the appalling sound
some half-dozen of them fell-the first
victims of the monster gun. Aftel
this exhibition of a ritled gun firing
small shot, like a smooth-bored fowl
ing piece, the experiments closed, and
three more case-shots which were
ready were returned to store. At d
cursory examination, the rifed tube OF
the gun did not present any evidence
of being injured by the rafting of the
case-shot against its sides but skilled
mechanic from the royal gun factories
will take impressions of the bore In
gutta-percha, and the effect of the two
rounds will then be positively known
| E,,,,oo~ I1rivaro;f1y in GpnfI