The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-07-28

inches in thickness carried down five
feet below the water line; the turretS
have armor averaging thirteen inches
thick; while the wall or breast work
around the inclosed space ON deck is also
formed of armor plates Compare this
with the fve-lnch armor of the once
mighty Warrior and DIinotaur, and we
see what a stride has been nude; no
wonder that such ship displaces nine
thousand tons of water! Two guns of
thirty-hve tons were planned for each |
turret; but by introducing hydraulic
gear for moving the turrets and their |
contents, thirty-eightto guns have been |
introduced-the heaviest adopted down
to the time at which We are writing, with
tWelve-inch bore, carrying a seven
hundred-pOund shot. The Thunderer
and Devastation are sister ships (if such
savage monsters deserve to be called by
50 gentle name as sister,; and with
alterations gradually made, they are
approaching the maximum of twelve
inch armor at the sides, fourteen-inch
armor around the turrets, carrying two
guns in each turret, the guns thirty
eight tons weight, twelve and half
inches callibre, firing shot of eight
hundred pounds.
And now, what do We hear? Woolwich
pooh-poohs her own INTERPOLATION
infants and is bringing others into
existence more than double the weight
namely, eighty-one tus-a hundred and
eighty thousand pounds of iron and steel
in each gun If told.hat these will cost
five thousand pound, per gun, need we
marvel?
When any thing goes wrong in life, we
are prone to ask who's to blame and
when told that the INTERROGATION gun
is now looked down upon, similar
question suggests itself to the sorely
perplexed tax payer who has to provide
the money for all these luxuries. The
truth appears to be, that armor plate
makers can now go very far beyond the
twelve inches of thickness that was lately
their maximum and that unless armor
is eventually to defeat guns and shot,
| the WolNich Infants must be more
brobdingnagian than ever. And so we
come to the InncxIbe, destined to be
released iuto.the watei by the fair hands
of princess. This mighty ship will be
/ double screw, doubletrret, with a load
displacement exceeding eleven thousand
tons. The length between the perpen-
! diculars, three HUNDRED and twenty feet,
and breadth seventyfive feet (almost
equal to one fourth ofthe length). Each
turret will carry two guns of eighty-one
tons, twenty seven feel long, and sixteen
inches bore, firing 3 shot of twelve
hundred and fifty pounds Those in the
secret assert that sub a shot, coming
from such a gun, and fred with the
improved gunpowder BOW manufactured,
will have an impact ofmomentum equal
to the whole ramming force of the Iron
Duke that ran down the luckless
Vanguard. The steel tube that forms
the innermost part of each gun excels in
size every single piece until now made,
being twenty-five inches external
diameter When coil upon coil of tough
iron have been wound round the middle
aud breech of this steel tube, the exterior
diameter will vary from twenty-five
inches to six feet. Thegovernment pay
Messrs. Firth OF Shefieldsixteen hundred
pounds for the solid mas, Of steel to make
one inner tube, the boring out being
done at Woolwich. Itwas last September
that the first of these huge guns was tried
in the marshes at Woowich how long a
time must elapse before all four will be
ready to be mounted in the InfeXible,
the future must show.
When we are told that the original
estimate for the hull and the engines of
the Inilexible was FIVE hundred and
twenty thousand pounds, and that the
armament and yttingsare not included !;
and when we bear in mind that the
actual outlay always exceeds the
estimates in these mntters-we may
guess, if we can, how TAR this ship will
90 to affect the pecketsof John Bull.
Have we even now come to the end of
this costly contest between the attacking
and the defensive power of ships of war,
this rivalry between guns and armor
plates? Engineer and naval constructors
do not believe in any such finality.
/ Their fertile brains are teeming with
new schemes-more especially on the
part of the makers of great guns, who
manifest an increased confidence that
they can more than keep pace with any
| increase i'm the thickness of armOr plates.
Russia has established a naval arsenal at
Nicolaieff, near the mouth of one of
the rivers flowing into the Black Sea,
where iron clads of the largest dimensions
can be constructed; and she has also
provided herself with factory in which
great guns and ponderous armor plates
can be fabricated. Indeed, we owe to
Russia (tor good or for bad) the incentive
to the planning of the eighty one-ton
gun. The Peter the Great IAN apprOpri-
ate name for the cars mighty ship has
been planned to carry twenty-inch armor,
at a time when shot from our thirty
fve-ton guns could only penetrate
fourteen-inch plate. What was to lie
done? Woolwich was consulted, and
replied that a gun of something like
eighty tons weight would be required to
carry shot which would pierce twenty
inches of armor. There was no existing
furnace that would heat, no existing
steam-hammers that would forge the
masses of iron necessary for such a
mighty gun. New furnaces and new
hammers were thereupon set up at cost
which we are afraid TO mention ;
the guns are being made, and per
ehance-who knows?-may one day
try their strength against the iron
sides of Peter the Great. Russia
has already vessel carrying guns ex-
ceeding our Devastation and Thunderer |
guns namely, the Admiral Popof, the
strange circular ship, with six keels,
eighteen-inchi armor, and two guns of
forty-two tons each.
Sir w. G. Armstrong is trying his