90 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



same in both cases. The cost of the French weapon considerably 

 exceeds that of the Prussian, and the Chassepot is, in a'ddition, a 

 more difficult gun to make. To all the comparative information 

 which has been published about the French and Prussian guns 

 must be added the following from the " Journal du Peuple : " At 

 500 metres the Prussian weapon gives only negative results, while 

 at 1,000 the Chassepot, in the hands of good marksmen, hits the 

 target with great force. We call attention to this point, for in 

 the war of large bodies of sharp-shooters (the only system which 

 we ought to adopt), an arm which is not reliable over 500 metres 

 cannot reach the reserves of tlie first front, which escapes the 

 effect of the enemy's fire. The drawbacks of large bullets have 

 been noticed, the principle being this, that with needle-guns the 

 firing is rapid, and, therefore, a great amount of powder is burnt ; 

 consequently, the cartridge-box must be well stored. Now there 

 is in the weight of ammunition allotted to a foot soldier a total 

 .which cannot be exceeded, namely, 10 pounds. What will hap- 

 pen ? With that weight of cartridges the Frenchman will have 

 twice as many shots to fire as the Prussian. Nothing is more dif- 

 ficult than to replace, during fire, the ammunition by a fresh dis- 

 tribution. Thus, the retreat of a division may depend on its 

 finding itself in face of an enemy which has still 20 or 30 car- 

 tridges a head to fire. It will be seen that the winning of a battle 

 may depend on the projectile adopted. Van Nost. Eng. Mag. 



PROJECTILES. 



An extremely satisfactory result, as far as the navy is con- 

 cerned, was lately obtained at Shoeburyness. A target repre- 

 senting a portion of the deck of an iron-clad ship, protected by 1- 

 inch iron plates, was fired at by the 9-inch muzzle-loading rifled 

 gun, the projectile being a Palliser shell, the charge the full batter- 

 ing one of 43 pounds, and the distance 100 yards. The target 

 was so arranged that the projectile struck at an angle of about 8 de- 

 grees from the horizontal, so as to represent the angle of incidence 

 of a shot fired direct at about 2,000 yards, or that of a projectile 

 fired at 100 yards from a higher level ; such, for instance, as that 

 of the " Monarch's" battery as compared with the "Captain's." 

 It was found that at this angle the projectile did not enter the 

 ship, but, after ploughing up the woodwork of the deck, rico- 

 chetted off it, and went away screaming and whistling up into the 

 air until lost from sight. One of the disadvantages urged against 

 a low freeboard is thus disposed of as far as 9-inch guns are con- 

 cerned. The " Monarch," however, is armed with 12-inch guns, 

 and it would be interesting to ascertain whether the above results 

 would hold good in the case of the larger calibre. It seems de- 

 sirable also to ascertain the actual angle at which a projectile 

 fired horizontally will penetrate a ship's deck protected with as 

 much iron as is admissible in its construction. Ships' decks may 

 often be subjected to a plunging fire from elevated batteries such 

 as those on Stradden Heights or Gibraltar. Van NostrandSs Eng. 

 Mag. 



