68 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



batteries situated upon the same island projectiles weighing from two 

 hundred to three hundred pounds have been also sent into the city of 

 Charleston itself, a distance of ten thousand Jive hundred and sixty 

 yards (or six miles) and the place successfully bombarded. In 1861, 

 pending the preliminary operations of -the Confederate army before Fort 

 Sumter, the question was asked by letter of one of the best authori- 

 ties in gunnery in this country, whether it would be possible for the 

 Federal commander of the tort to bombard the city of Charleston 

 in the event of an attack being made upon him. (The armament of 

 Fort Sumter at that time consisted of the ordinary smooth-bored thir- 

 ty-two and twenty-four pounder siege guns, a few eight and ten inch 

 columbiads, and mortars.) The following was the reply to the inter- 

 rogatory : 



WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 1861. 



Yours of the 25th instant has been received. I am unable to enter 

 into the reasons on which the opinion is based, but believe that a 

 bombardment of Charleston from Fort Sumter by any ordnance now 

 there is out of the question. 



Thus it will be seen, that since the commencement of the American 

 civil Avar in 1861, a most remarkable progress has been made in the 

 character of the ordnance used in military operations, and results have 

 been -attained to, which the most sanguine of experts would have hesi- 

 tated to predict. 



English and American Views Respecting Heavy Artillery. The Lon- 

 don Saturday Review says, " On the question of the best mode of con- 

 structing heavy artillery, it is possible that we may also have something 

 to learn from the Americans. All the experiments tried in this country 

 have pointed at one broad conclusion : that the penetrating power of 

 a shot depends mainly on the charge of powder, and that it makes com- 

 paratively little difference whether the powder is utilized by impress- 

 ing a very high velocity on a moderate-sized bolt, or a lower speed 

 upon such masses of metal as are hurled from the Dahlgren guns. The 

 shot, after all, is only a means of carrying the force of the powder from 

 the cannon's mouth to the target ; and it is not surprising that the re- 

 sulting effect should depend more on the amount of the original impulse 

 than on the means employed for its transmission. Still, there must be 

 certain proportions between the charge and the shot which will pro- 

 duce the greatest effect; and upon this point English and American 

 views have long been divergent. Our artillerists have thought more 

 of increasing velocity, while the Americans have attached the greatest 

 importance to the bulk of the cannon-ball. It may deserve considera- 

 tion whether (especially for long-range firing) the Americans have not 

 come nearer than ourselves to the best model." 



The London Army and J\'ary Gazette also in commenting on the 

 reduction of Fort Sumter by the batteries established by Gen. Gil- 

 more on Morris Island, at a distance of 3,500 yards, says. 



" It may be concluded as certain that the guns used by Gilmore were 

 Parrot t's rilled ordnance. Their work has been effectually done. Had 

 such guns been available in the trenches before Sebastopol, the allies 

 would have made short work, not only of the Iledan and Malakoff, and 

 bullion <ln mat, but of the shipping and of the forts at the other side of 

 the harbor. It must not be supposed that Sumter was a flimsy, gin- 



