MECHANICS AND USEFUL AKTS. 55 



Whitworth's system of construction the powers of even lighter pieces 

 of ordnance have "been surprisingly developed. But the great fact 

 which remains, after all our trials, is that the Warrior, if she were in 

 the middle of the Atlantic, would be absolutely impregnable ; and we 

 shall be doing the public a service, perhaps, if we recapitulate once 

 more the practical results which, up to the present moment, have 

 been actually established. 



" The sides of the Warrior frigate, the model English ship, are con- 

 structed of 18 inches of solid timber plated externally with 4^- inches 

 of iron, and backed internally with a skin of iron five-eighths of an 

 inch thick. Altogether, therefore, there are upwards of 5 inches of 

 iron and 18 of wood to be pierced by any projectile before the ship's 

 decks can be reached. The 'Warrior target,' against which our 

 experiments have been conducted, was so built up as to present a 

 fac-simile of the Warrior's broadside, and consequently a gun which 

 could pierce the target might be expected under similar conditions 

 to pierce the Warrior. Now, it-is true that this feat has been accom- 

 plished, but it has been accomplished only under conditions so lim- 

 ited as to render the result of little importance, except as indicating 

 what artillery may hereafter be made to do. The first gun which 

 succeeded in the attempt was a piece specially constructed by Sir 

 William Armstrong ; but, though it destroyed the target, it also de- 

 stroyed itself, being incapable of sustaining its own discharge. That 

 specimen, therefore, we may dismiss for the present from oui* consid- 

 eration. The Horsfall gun next drove its ponderous ball through the 

 target, and without bursting, after which a gun combining "in its 

 make the Whitworth and Armstrong principles, but served with a 

 Whitworth projectile, pierced the target not only with shot, but with 

 shell. These are the achievements which have produced an impres- 

 sion in favor of guns as against ships ; but that impression will be 

 likely to disappear after the explanation which we now subjoin. The 

 Armstrong gun was a 150-pounder, the Horsfall gun a 300-pounder, 

 and the Whitworth a 150-pounder. We do not know the exact weight 

 of the first of these pieces, but the second weighed 24 and the third 

 upwards of seven tons. Now, according to our present ideas, a gun 

 of 95 hundred-weight, or less than five tons, is the heaviest that can 

 be worked with success, or even safety, on board a floating vessel ; so 

 that not one of the guns which pierced the Warrior target can be 

 considered as a ship gun, and it follows necessarily that against all 

 ships whatever the Warrior is secure. As any gun capable of pierc- 

 ing her sides must be mounted on terra firma, so long as she keeps at 

 sea she cannot be touched at all. 



"Nor is this the only limit to the efficiency claimed for the gun. 

 The power of the Armstrong cannon was demonstrated only at 200 

 yards' distance. The Horsfall piece was tried with three times that 

 range, but at that distance it was found unequal to straight shooting. 

 The Whitworth gun did remain effective at GOO yards, but beyond 

 that range its powers have not yet been proved. We arrive, there- 

 fore, at the conclusion that a gun to be effective against the Warrior 

 must not only have a fixed battery to carry it, but must get the ship 

 within^GOO yards of its muzzle. How is this to be accomplished when 

 the ship is movable and the gun is not ? In point of fact, we come 



