98 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



navy 9, 10, and 11-inch guns and Parrott rifles, in pivot, are now 

 used ; 15-inch guns for the turrets of the monitors, and bronze howit- 

 zers and rifles for deck and boat service in shore. The armament 

 of a first-rate ship-of-war in the American Navy is now 150-pouuder 

 rifle and one 11-inch smooth bore, in pivot, with 42 11-inch smooth, 

 four 100-pounders, rifled, and four howitzers in broadside. The 

 armament of vessels for other rates is in proportion. A first-class 

 monitor carries four 15-inch guns in her turrets. The iron-plated 

 boats on the Western rivers cany three 9-inch, four 8-inch, two 

 100-pounders, one 50-pouuder and one oO-poueder. 



The value of pivot guns over broadside, was illustrated by the 

 fight between the Keursarge and Alabama, where all the damage was 

 done by the former arm. A mixed battery of both is however the 

 most perfect. 



During the past year, experiments have been quietly and system- 

 atically made with both shells and shot, from smooth bores and rifles, 

 of all the heavier calibers. The power of the guns belonging to the 

 navy, and in common use in the batteries of our ships, have been 

 fairly tested against both solid and built-up plates, and the conclu- 

 sion reached is wholly in favor of the guns and their solid projectiles, 

 the spherical shot 'for smooth bores being, however, immeasurably 

 superior to the elongated rifle shot in every form. No manner or 

 thickness of iron or steel armor that could be carried on the hulls 

 of sea-going ships will resist the impact of solid spherical shot fired 

 from the heaviest calibers of the navy, at close range, with appropri- 

 ate charges of cannon powder. It was generally accepted as an 

 established fact that it was impossible to cast a spherical shot of large 

 diameter which would be solid throughout. It is now known, how- 

 ever, that it is easy to cast a 15-inch or 20-inch shot which will be 

 perfectly sound and solid from circumference to center of figure, and 

 one of the former has resisted, without breaking, 222 continuous 

 blows of an, 8-ton steam hammer. 



For small arms for the use of the Navy, breech-loaders are alone 

 recommended. The following curious fact is stated in this connection, 

 as illustrative of how much ammunition is wasted in battle, and 

 how many muskets in the hands of incompetent or cowardly men 

 are actually useless. On the field of Gettysburg there were 

 27,574 guns picked up, and of these 24,000 were found to be 

 loaded; of these about contained two loads each, | from three 

 to ten loads each, and the balance one load each. In many of these 

 guns from two to six balls have been found, with only one charge of 

 powder. In some the balls have been found at the bottom of the bore 

 with the charge of powder on top of the ball. In some, as many as 

 six paper regulation caliber 58 cartridges have been found, the car- 

 tridges having been put in the guns without being torn or broken. 

 23 loads were found in one Springfield rifle-musket, each load in 

 regular order. 22 balls and 62 buckshot, with a corresponding quan- 

 tity of powder all mixed up together, were found in one percussion 

 smooth-bore musket. In many of the smooth-bore guns, model of 

 1842, of Kebel make, we have found a wad of loose paper between 

 the powder and ball, and another wad of the same kind oil top of the 

 ball, the ball luuing been put into the gun naked. About 6,000 of 



