Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-30

principle and design. The French is cylin- | drical in form, exactly like those carried on
 board numerous ships of war. The armored
 ring protecting the guns is of wrought iron
 sixteen inches thick, with a flat roof six 1 inches thick The special feature claimed by the constructors is the mode of firing, which is electric and automatic. There are no sights either on the guns or on the tur- 1 ret, and the firing is carried on by contact l points which can be moved along a gradua- l ted arc inside. The turret makes a whole | turn after each salvo, the loading being eff l fected in the meantime, so that, as soon as 1 the position at which the contacts have been l adjusted is reached, the guns are automati- l cally fired.
 l The German cupola is of a new form It resembles rather fiat umbrella, and the l whole of the supporting structure is con- 1 tained in a single chamber and occupies lit ] tie height. The leading principle consti- I tutes something of 8 new point of depar- | ture. The umbrella-shaped armor plates are supported on central pivot and steadied in l position by four legs carrying trucks provi ded with spiral springs. The guns have no reeo1 proper and firing, therefore, the shock expends itself in imparting vibratory | motion to the whole structure, which shakes much as mushroom may be supposed to do in gale. The armor plates have a thickness
 of eight inches, and for the purposes of the experiment were partly compound and part ly wrough iron. Not only does it offer target which at moderate ranges could be rendered nearly invisible, but wherever struck it presents very obGque surface, ca pablo of deaeeting shells coming at any req sonable angle.
 The guns in the Fren ch turret were of the 'EDe Bauge" type; those in the German tur-
 ret were Krupp's, both being practically the
 same calibre-six inches. Precisely similar
 guns were used for the attack, and neither
 can be considered as in any sense equaling
 n ila
 they clearly fall far short of the ordnance
 which the next ten years of artillery prog ress will produce. This was the more unfor-
 tunate, since, on the one hand, it may req sonably be contended that greater results
 might be obtained i'll attack by siege guns already existing, and on the other hand the
 non-recol principle of the German turret
 lies open to the objection that it is conceiva-
 ply inapplicable to more powerful guns.
 The attack was commenced at one thou sand metres range, and both turrets re- ceived an amount of pounding probably rep resenting a siege of several years duration
 The French turret had the advantage of be- ing turned backward and forward during
 part of the time, which insured a greater dispersion of the blows, while in the case of the German turret, the greater part of the
 projectiles struck on g single plate. At the end both were so nearly preached that sin gle shell striking either at the weakest point would have entered with ease. Many small
 bolts and rivet heads were detached in the German turret, while the French turret re- ceived no interior damage both were able to turn as easily as before, and their guns were repeatedly fired without any difficulty. In the firing at the ernbrasures the wrought iron plates of the German turret behaved admirably, defeeting all the projectiles and proving that hit in the immediate neigh borhood of the port entailed no danger to the guns.
 Throughout the experiments, in fact, the curved wrought-iron plates took their pun ishment well and while the steel faces of the common plates showed a tendency to strip off and to crack under repeated blows, the softer material succeeded in turning the excellent Krupp steel shells so that the damage was inconsiderable. The principal fact brought out by the expert ment is the great advantage of the curved wrought-iron plates; but whether the pecu- liar principle adopted by Messrs. Gruson is applicable to heavier guns remains uncer- tain. The decision which has now to be taken will affect the question of cost of the defence of Bucharest to an important ex- tent, and this consideration may lead to reopening of the question of the necessity for so large provision of turrets.