MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 109 



elevated. The range attained to in this instance was between four and 

 five miles. 



The Ames WrougJit-Iron Rifled Gun. In the United States, as in 

 England and other nations of Europe, from time to time, a new type of 

 cannon is introduced; for the purpose of more completely fulfilling the 

 requirements of this arm of national warfare. From the history of the 

 past, and the experience of the present century, these requirements have 

 been thus defined : The greatest possible accuracy of fire, range, and 

 strength in a given weight, with the Least amount of recoil. 



To obtain these results, England has had the Lancaster, Whitworth, 

 Blakely, Somerset, and Anderson guns, with others of less pretentious 

 caliber. The United States have had the Stockton, Dahlgren, Parrott, 

 Sawyer, Wiard, and Rodman guns, with others of less notoriety, none of 

 which have filled the measure of requirements of range and of strength 

 in their fabrication, being, with few exceptions, made of cast iron. Those 

 of wrought iron, with one or two exceptions, were of the tube and coil 

 construction, which, from not being welded solid throughout, have failed 

 to meet these conditions. 



During the past year, however, a new description of gun, made of 

 wrought iron, has been manufactured for the U. S. Government, by 

 Horatio Ames, Esq., of Falls Village, Conn., which promises to be an 

 improvement over any description of large ordnance hitherto constructed. 

 Mr. A., about the commencement of the Rebellion, received an order from 

 Government f >r a battery of 50-pounders, of wrought iron, and there- 

 upon devoted an extensive establishment to the exclusive business of 

 manufacturing ordnance. He conceived the idea of forging his guns solid, 

 leaving but a small hole at the center for removing the scale or impuri- 

 ties worked out of the metal under the hammer. Experimental investi- 

 gation he very soon saw, although an expensive school to learn in was the 

 only one which could be relied on to remove all doubts of success in 

 furnishing the essential requirements in forging a superior gun, which 

 could not be burst by the usual methods of firing excessive charges of 

 gunpowder, even though the windage was closed by rifling the gun. 



The 50-pounder battery was duly completed, and, although considered 

 perfectly successful, the guns were too small to take the place of Parrott 

 guns before Sumterand Charleston. Another contract was therefore given 

 in 1863 by the War Department, for a battery of 15 guns of not less than 

 100-pounders, capable of sustaining a charge of 25 pounds of powder. 



With the latitude thus afforded, Mr. A^ies at once proceeded to adapt 

 his forges, furnaces, and machinery for guns of 7-inch caliber and 150 

 pound projectiles. 



With a ripe experience in making and forging iron, added to the prac- 

 tical lessons secured in forging the 50-pounder bat ery, he cut loose from 

 the trammels of precedents, und developed hi! own resources which have 

 proved quite sufficient to produce a gun from the best Salisbury iron, per- 

 fectly solid in every inch of its length and circumference, 14 feet long and 

 28 inches in diameter, weighing 20,000 pounds. 



One of the distinctive features of this gun consists in its being molded 

 solid throughout. The great difficulty hitherto, has been to obtain solidi- 

 ty around the bore of wrought-iron guns. The ordinary process of weld- 

 ing up the gun in ring sections from the breech to the muzzle, molds 

 the outer surface first, leaving the forger in doubt as to the perfection of 

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