72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



from the 95-cwt gun, at a short range. The first shot would not penetrate 

 through the iron plate, but it would fracture it, and on three or four striking 

 the plate in the same place, or in the immediate neighborhood, it would 

 smash to pieces. As the results of the trial affected the steel plates, it proved 

 that a steel-clothed ship could be far more easily destroyed than a wooden- 

 sided one, and that on the smashing in of one of the steel plates, the 

 destruction of life on the armed ship's decks, supposing the broken plate to 

 be driven through the ship's side, would be something dreadful to contem- 

 plate, from the spread of splintered material. At from 600 to 800 yards, 

 iron-clothed ships would be in comparative safety from the effects of an 

 enemy's broadside. But it must be borne in mind that the effects of concen- 

 trated firing have yet to be ascertained on the sides of an iron or steel 

 clothed ship; and account also must be taken of the damage the wood-work 

 forming the inner sides of such a ship would receive from the driving in of 

 the broken plates, and which, so far as the present experiments have illus- 

 trated, would appear to prove that an iron or steel clad ship, on receiving a 

 concentrated broadside from a frigate armed in a similar manner to the 

 Mersey, and struck near her water-line, must sink then and there, with her 

 armor on her back. 



JAMES'S RIFLED CAXXOX AND PROJECTILE. 



A new projectile, invented by Hon. Charles T. James, of Rhode Island, 

 and which is intended to be used in connection with a rifled cannon, is a cast- 

 iron cylinder, surmounted by a solid conical (canoid) head. The diameter 

 of the cylinder is '02 of an inch less than the bore of the gun; its length is 

 nearly equal to the calibre of the gun; while the length of its conical head 

 is about one inch greater than that of the cylinder. The cylinder retains its 

 full diameter for a quarter of an inch of its length at each end; then, for its 

 intermediate length, its diameter is shortened one-half an inch, forming a 

 recess in its body, which loss of diameter and external surface of the cylin- 

 der is replaced by a compound filling of canvas, sheet-tin, and lead. 



The rings at the end of the cylinder, formed by shortening its diameter, 

 constitute the bearings of the projectile, when introduced into the gun for 

 loading. The solidity of the canoid is continued into, and thereby forms the 

 solid portion of, the head of the cylinder. The base of the cylinder has a 

 central cavity or opening of 1'95 inches in diameter, which extends into the 

 body 1*5 inches, and from which (like mortises in the hub of a wheel for 

 spokes) there are eight rectangular openings, enlarging as they approach the 

 circumference, in the recess of the body of the cylinder. 



When the charge is fired, the gas evolved by the burning powder, in its 

 effort to expel the projectile and to escape from the gun, is forced into the 

 cavity and through the rectangular openings against the compound filling, 

 which is thereby pressed into the grooves of the bore, and by its firm hold 

 in them, the rifle-motion is imparted to the projectile. The canvas and tin, 

 in the order named, constitute the exterior of the filling, and are moulded 

 in the recess to the body of the cylinder. This is done by enveloping with 

 canvas the strip of tin, which must be equal in length to the greater circum- 

 ference of the cylinder, and in width equal to the length of its recess. The 

 strip of tin, when covered with canvas, is formed around the cylinder op- 

 posite the recess, and firmly secured there by an iron collar clamp, after 

 which the space between its inner surface and the body of the cylinder is 



