The daily gazette., 1881-08-05
Weapons Exhibited at AN EngIfsh
school of Gunnery.

school OF Gunnery.
Yesterday the Secretary of State for
War, Mr.. @. y. Trevelyan, member Of
Parliament, repfese9ting the Admiralty,
and the 0ffictaf chiefs Of the various de-
partments In the War Office and the
Admiralty, visitodfhe School of Gunnery
o. Shosburyness, and witnessed the
working OF the weapons which there un-
derg0 trial. Nearly every class of run
was tried, including heavy siege guns,
light field guns, machine guns, ID esiR ina.
ted to make three men more formidable
than twenty armed with rifles, the Nor.
denfeldt One-inch bore machine gun for
sinking torpedo-boats, and also light and
heavy ships guns, the latter including
the powerful Aston gun ON the Arm
strong principle and with breech- loading
gear of late design. On entering the
War Ofice grounds the party was con-
Quoted TO earthworksin the marsh raised
under the direction Of Major Hime, r.
E., and here were siege guns of different
callbre, fitted with selt-eleyating appar-
atus, upon the principle of Major Mon
crieH, whereby the recoil force is stored
to serve the purpose OF raising the weap-
on to the firing position. The siege guns
attacked with common shell and batter
Ing shell some parallels 1000 yards distant,
behind which were placed dummy"
soldiers. After the work with the siege
artillery, represented BY an 8-inch muz-
zle loading howitzer, rif1ed field ar illery,
breech snd muzzle-loadiDg, vas brought
Into action, and bred common, ring and
shrapnel shell into the works. The par
allels were then visited, and the "dum-
mics" weres seen to be very much injured;
the earthworks, too, had been much
broken up. The next work was with
the machine guns-a tive-barreled Gard
ner OF the ordinary rifle 40 bore, o two
bafreled gun of similar bore, a one. barrel-
ed gun, aud aten-barreled Gatling This
last worked stifiy, while the Il We -barreled
jammed twice. The two barreled Gard
ner has been favorably reported upon
by the committee on machine guns who
made the trials last winter, and the
weapon certainly worked well; but the
superiority Of two -barreled machine
gun whioh would require three men to
work II over three magazine guns in
skilled hands would not be very great.
The four-barreled Navy Nordenfeldt tor
penetrating torpedo-tOats was tried
against haif-inch steel plates, and passed
through them very cleanly. Mr.. Child
ers was much interested in this gun, of
which there are about 400 in the Navy,
and Mr.. Nordenfeldt explained Its work
ing. The largest piece Of ordnance fred
was the Aston gun designed for naval
use. This weapon Is q feet 8 inches In
length, and takes 285 pounds of prismat-
10 powder. 1t Is loaded at the breech.
The recoil is received by hydraulic buff
ers, and altogether the large piece of Or
dnance presents many ingenious me-
chanical arrangements. The gun fred
shot and shell well, and the work, as
seen from the shore, both In the battery
and at the range, was exceedingly inter-
esting. The 25-pounder breech- loading
gun, on q naval carriage, was fred at
1000 yards range; the same gun, on the
Albini carriage, at 1000 yards, and the
S-inch Armstrong at 1000 yards. After
visiting the other batteries the party re-
turned to town by special traip.-London
Times.