322 Mr. F. J. Bramwell. [Feb. 27, 



and is absolutely without flaw for 3 feet 6 incbes from the rear 

 end ; at this point some of the cracks can be traced, but it must bo 

 remembered that these are cracks which do not originate here, but 

 which terminate here, their point of origin having been far forward 

 or under the 1 B coil. 



The second of these photographs, Diagram (13), represents the 

 hinder part of the gun (but to a smaller scale), and — laid out in order, 

 so far as it has been possible as yet to determine the order — the frag- 

 ments of the 1 B coil, those of the front of the C coil, those of the 

 B tube, and those of the steel barrel ; from this photograph you will 

 see that the 1 B coil has been burst, not only in several places longi- 

 tudinally, but also transversely at about the middle of its length, or 

 just over the point to which in all probability the front charge had 

 moved at the time of explosion. You will also observe that the front 

 part of the steel tube remains as a complete cylinder ; this and some 

 of the pieces immediately in its rear are on the table, and you will see 

 from them that they have been ploughed into and deeply indented by 

 a cylindrical body of the bore of the gun. I have no doubt whatever 

 but that this body was the broken Palliser shell. 



I will now ask your attention to the third of these photographs, 

 Diagram (14), which shows the ruins of the rear shell, the Palliser, 

 which, with its gas-check, is on the table. The fourth photograph, 

 Diagram (15), exhibits the front part of the common shell, with its 

 gas-check, and part of the fragment. I much regret that some 

 extremely remarkable pieces of the rear of this shell have not been 

 included in the photograph ; they are however on the table and afford 

 very considerable information. I find I have omitted to state that 

 crusher gauges were put in the steel tube at its base, were inserted into 

 the base of the Palliser shell and into that of the common shell ; these 

 gauges, before being put in, had been set to show no pressure below 

 36 tons. The gauges at the base of the tube, and at that of the Pal- 

 liser shell, record that this pressure of 86 tons was not exceeded, in all 

 probability was not reached ; but the gauge at the base of the common 

 shell tells a very different story. I will ask you to refer to Diagram 

 (16), which shows a crusher gauge in its working condition, and then 

 to compare with it Diagram (17), which shows the change that had 

 been made in the gauge in the base of the common shell. The piece of 

 copper, the "crusher," was yielding under the pressure, and had already 

 collapsed as far as 40 tons, when the bottom of the shell was blown 

 inwards, and in being so blown in, was jammed between the walls of 

 the steel tube and the outside of the crusher gauge ; the pressure was 

 so enormous that the cast iron of the common shell has received on 

 it a print of the rifling of the gun, and the cylinder containing the 

 pressure gauge has been contracted upon the steel piston so as to nip 

 it and to stop its further descent, and has thus unhappily prevented 

 our obtaining the true record of the pressure which did prevail. It 

 has been suggested that this driving in of the base of the common 

 shell was due to a blow from the Palliser shell behind it, but most 



