366 Reviews. [ April, 
themselves. During a recent discussion in the House of Lords, the 
Earl of Hardwicke referred to this gun,* and recommended that such 
guns should be supplied to the service. The reply of the Duke of 
Somerset was that they had been anxious to have such guns, but that 
Mr. Whitworth was not able to deliver them, and subsequently Earl 
de Grey and Ripon informed the House that a committee was appointed 
in 1863, on which Sir William Armstrong and Mr. Whitworth were 
respectively represented ; that the instructions of this committee were 
shown to both gentlemen, and that a certain number of guns was 
ordered from each competitor. 
‘‘The guns so ordered were 12-pounders and 70-pounders. In a short 
time the 12-pounders were delivered, but Mr. Whitworth’s 70-pounders 
had not been sent in yet, and from the time when it closed its evidence 
the committee had done nothing except repeatedly calling upon Mr. 
Whitworth to produce his 70-pounders. That was the reason why the 
inquiry had been stopped. Mr. Whitworth himself aecounted for the 
delay by alleging the difliculties he experienced in getting the steel which 
he required.” 
The supporters of the gentleman last named maintained until 
recently that it was only a shot such as we have described, a flat- 
fronted cylindrical bolt of homogeneous metal, which would penetrate 
armour-plates of great thickness, and as far as the substance is con- 
cerned their views are pretty accurate. Indeed in the debate just re- 
ferred to, the Duke of Somerset is reported to have said, that “if they 
fired with a cast-iron shot, the effect was trifling. Indeed they might 
almost as well fire mud at the target, unless the projectile was of a 
very hard substance.” And he further told their lordships that “no 
sooner had they obtained a hard projectile than not only Mr. Whit- 
worth’s, but Sir William Armstrong’s gun would fire a shot that would 
penetrate an iron plate.” 
He referred also to an experiment that had been tried a few days 
previously, and of which the details were published in ‘ The Times.’ 
They prove most satisfactorily that the form of the shot is by no 
means so important a matter as it has been stated, provided the ma- 
terial be a suitable one, and that at close quarters an ordinary smooth- 
bore gun will answer every purpose. 
Being the last experiment that has been tried at the time we write, 
we will give our readers an account of it, as received from an eminent 
and experienced eye-witness. 
The trial was made in Portsmouth Harbour in the month of 
January, in the presence of many able scientific men, both civil and 
military, and the object aimed at was the side of the Target-ship, 
‘Monarch.’ The gun was a plain muzzle-loading, smooth-bore 110- 
pounder, weighing six tons, and having a diameter of six inches 
throughout ; in dimensions and outward appearance it resembled the 
old 68-pounder service gun (95 ewt.); it was made at Woolwich, and 
was called an ‘Armstrong.’ With a charge of 25 lbs. of powder it 
projected a spherical shot, weighing about 100 Ibs., at 200 yards 
* He called it a 70-pounder, but we presume it to be the same. 
