Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-07-27
TESTING A BIG GUN.

TESTING A BIG GUN.
n Hundred Ton Cannon Tried at WOOL
aUtch arsenal.
London News.
The first shot was fred from the first of
the 1OO-ton guns at Woolwich yesterday af-
ternoon, and was the occasion of much in
terest. 1t may be necessary to explain that
at the time when the special vote of credit
was passed in the spring of 1S78,it was dis
covered that Sir William Armstrong had on
hand at his Elswick factory four guns of 100
tons apiece, and that their ultimate destina-
ton was too doubtful to permit of their be-
ing diregarded, one such gun being calcu-
lated to destroy any armored ship at present
afoat. 1t YVES determined, therefore, to
purchase them, and they became the
property of the English nation, at cost of
s16, 1000 per gun when completed. The four
guns have now been delivered at the Royal
Arsenal, and it was one of them which was
put to the proof yesterday. It's conveyance
to the proof-butts below The arsenal was
source OF some anxiety, for it is question:
able whether SO heavya dead weight, stand
ing upon so limited a base, has ever before
been taken along railroad, and neither the
rails to the butts nor the bridge over the
canal were designed for such a task. The
royal engineers had, however, fortified the
bridge with two additional Orders and
packing of wood and iron, and the rails be-
ing mostly steel, were trusted to do the work.
Two locomotive engines-the "Gunner"
and the solver" belonging to the Royal
Gun Factories, suffced for the duty, third
he
railroad company, being not required. In
stead Of being on low sleigh, as most guns
proved at Woolwich are, this gun stood ele-
waited upon superstructure consisting of its
own service-carriage and the slide upon
which it recoils, the whole mass sting upon
two little six-wheeled bogie trucks, making
the total weight ITO tons. In the eyes of
the skilled engineers of the royal arsenal,
the passage of the gun was grand
procession, and the gun on its car, repre-
senting an outlay of 925,00O, seemed to
embody the triumph of mechanism. The
canal was safely crossed, the bridge CIV
ing barely three quarters of an inch under
the enormous load, and recovering its shape
Immediately afterward. Preparations were
Immediately made for the trial, but this was
delayed until o'clock for the expected ar
AAVoA VI q uCAUCI "a ku0 nIu6GIOuG uIlU,
who, however, did not appear. The gun
from which the 8l-ton guns were fred, and
partment of the butts, bay filed with sand,
was dat-headed projectile, weighing 2,O1O
pounds, or just about eighteen hundred
weight. Like the gun and carriage, it
was made at Elswick, and was
fitted up with a gas check, which is now
adopted generally instead of studs, to follow
the grooves of the rihing. It was made very
little less than the bore, which has caliber
of 174 inches, increasing to 1921 inches in
the powder chamber. The thickness of metal
at the muzzle is about five inches only, but
with wall of iron two feet five inches
feet six inches. In length the gun is thirty
six feet, of which the bore occupies thirty
three feet, and the total length of gun and
is forty-four feet. The experiment.
was conducted under the supervision
of General Ycunghusband, Il. A., the head
of the gun factories and president of several
scientific committees. Captain Morley, "a,
pIOO1-NudStST, UlfocCeO Inc lOaQ10g, ana
among the other officers engaged were Col.
Noble, r. E., inspector of works; Major F.
Ellis, secretary of the ordnance committee;
Captain O'Brien, r. E., and Mr.. r. s.
Fraser, deputy superintendent of the Royal
gun factories. The cartridge, consisting of
40 pounds of cube powder, strongly bound
in canvas and stiffened by wooden bands,
was rammed home, occupying five feet of the
bore, and then followed the projec-
tile, the length of which was two
feet, eight inches. Electric screens were
placed at intervals to measure the vel
ocity as the shot passed through them, and
crusher gauges were inserted both in the
base of the shot and in the base of the
chamber to record the pressure of the explo-
sion in those situations. The spectators
having retired to a prudent distance, the gun
was fired by electricity from the instrument
room and recoiled 3 good way up the plat
form, but suffered no damage either to itself
or carriage. The screens registered veloc-
ity of 500 feet per second, which is good
figure, but the projectile was found to have
broken up, which may have affected the re-
suit. The fragments of the shot and
the expansion of the sand did con-
siderable damage to the wooden enclosure
of the butts, which are, however, in dilapi-
dated condition. An impression of the bore
in gutta percha will be taken to ascertain if
the gun has suffered internal injury, but it
appears quite sound.