1864. ] Tennent’s Story of the Guns. 365 
for the supply of arms to the State, and winds up with the patriotic 
declaration that “the abiding interests of the country will henceforth 
require that the man who reaches the high eminence of giving his 
name to the arms under whose protection the nation reposes, should 
hold it by no other tenure than that of uncontested superiority.” 
And we trust the author will permit us to add, that the triumphant 
candidate may rest assured that his services will be as highly esteemed 
by the nation as are those of the man who, through the prompt appli- 
cation of an arm which he acknowledges to be imperfect, did much, at 
a period of pressing danger, to save his country from a serious 
infliction, and who at the present moment takes a very high rank 
amongst the scientific men of his country. 
There are three conditions which our manufacturers of ordnance 
and of iron are endeavouring at present to fulfil, in order to secure a 
gun that will have a reasonable chance of success in action. 
First, a sufficiently extensive range, with accuracy of aim; secondly, 
convenient proportions; and thirdly, a suitable projectile. 
For an attack upon forts, especially where these are rendered un- 
approachable through natural or artificial obstacles, or where the attack 
if made without due care, might involve the destruction of property or life 
which it would be desirable to spare, the first condition is indispensable, 
and the author of the work we have just noticed tells us that Mr. 
Whitworth’s rifled ordnance has carried off the palm in this respect, 
one of his 12-pounder guns having projected a shot nearly six miles. 
We believe that no new feature of importance has transpired in this 
respect since the work was published, and we therefore pass on to the 
consideration of the second and third objects. 
Until very recently the greatest desideratum has been, and we 
believe at head-quarters it is still, to obtain a convenient ‘“ broadside 
gun” which can be easily managed in a heavy sea, and will do execu- 
tion at between 200 and 2,000 yards against an enemy similarly 
armed and heavily plated. Such guns we have in our 68 and 110- 
pounders, and here again Sir James Tennent awards to Mr. Whitworth 
the credit of having constructed the first that could send a shot through 
armour-plate 41 inches in thickness. This he effected with an 80- 
pounder gun, a charge of about 12 lbs. of powder, and a cylindrical 
bolt of “ homogeneous metal,” driving his shot at a range of 200 yards, 
through the armovr-plate of the ‘ Trusty,’ a vessel specially devoted to 
such experiments.* 
But now we have a hint from the heads of the departments as to 
the cause of the want of co-operation between Mr. Whitworth and 
* We are however informed by a good authority, that the first gun which ever 
penetrated a thick armour-plated target was made at Liverpool for the United 
States Government. This gun projected a missile which (in America) pierced 
a target plated to the thickness of 6 inches, and built up of 3-inch plates. The 
backing was 3 feet of solid oak, which the missile also penetrated, lodging in it 
so deeply that it was never recovered. The gun weighed 7 tons 17 ewt.. with a 
bore of 12 inches, and carrying a spherical shot of 212 lbs. Mr. Whitworth’s gun 
and the “ Monster gun” were subsequently tried on the same day at Liverpool, 
and we believe that both were equally successful. 
