The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1840-08-14 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

PERKINS'S PATENT STEAM GUN.—We had on Wednesday night an opportunity, with some other gentlemen, of seeing this extraordinary and ingenious engine of destruction in operation, at the Shooting Gallery, in Tarlton-street ; and could not, in common with all who were present, withhold our astonishment and admiration of its wonderful effects. The principle may be applied to artillery. Our first impression was that such an " internal machine," which appears suited to riddle the bodies of a whole regiment of men with balls in a few minutes, should, by general consent of all civilized nations, be excluded from the field or the fleet, as being altogether too murderous to be tolerated. As, however, nations cannot be brought to court mutual annihilation, (the better part of courage, after all, being discretion,) on second thoughts, we regarded it as an invention which, if brought even partially into practice, might keep belligerents at so respectable a distance from each other, that it would eventually reduce rather than increase the fatalities of modern warfare, in the same manner as " the villainous saltpetre, (lug from the bowels of the harmless earth," supersede the more deadly conflict in which foe met individual foe, with deadly steel, and the arrow left more carcases in the field than the bullet. Be this as it may, Mr. Perkins's steam gun cannot be regarded as other than an important discovery in the application of steam to projectiles, inasmuch as, independent of war, it may possibly be applied to useful mechanical piirposes. The steam apparatus consists of a furnace, on which is placed a coil of tubing 80 feet in length, and containing circulating hot water. In a long horizontal elevated iron case above there are four tubes of larger diameter, through the centre of which the hot-water tube passes, and joins both ends of the coil of tubing. The steam thus generated passes into a chamber above, from the top of which it is conducted to the breach of the gun. The gun is almost 6 feet long, and of small rifle bore. Just over the breach, and screwed into it, is an upright pipe or hopper, from which, by turning a tap below, the balls drop one by one into the breach, and a valve being instantly opened by a handle close by, the steam rushes in with great force, and " fires" it off with a loud report. One individual turns the tap and opens the valve, and if this be done with dexterity 600 balls may be discharged in a minute. By keeping the tap entirely open a whole volley of 60 balls may be discharged as fast as the drop into the breach. The force with which these are projected is such that, after passing through a thick board at a considerable distance, and striking a plate iron behind it, they fall to the floor flattened to a substance even thinner than a sixpence. The principle of which Mr. Perkins has availed himself is the elastic power of steam. The explosive power of gunpowder is much greater, but is sooner expended, being more instantaneous. In other words, the explosive force of a charge in a fowling-piece is over at a distance of say three feet from the breach. But the elastic power of steam is so great, that it follows and propels the ball until it leaves the gun,—thus making up for the sudden and explosive power of powder, by continuity and rapidity of pressure. The steam gun is exhibited in aid of the funds of the Salford Mechanics' Institution, by the directors of which it was purchased from Mr. Perkins. It is well worthy of a visit, and its operation is fully explained by a gentleman who superintends its working.