ORDNANCE. 



735 



by the ignition of the powder, and held there 

 by shoulders projecting from the iron itself, 

 and the rotary motion is thus imparted nearer 

 the centre of gravity than in the Parrott pro- 

 jectile. The Roberts projectile has a core of 

 iron tapering to a point at the posterior end, 

 with a shoulder near the anterior extremity, 

 and the soft metal (lead and antimony) which 

 forms the jacket is in sufficient quantity to 

 render the projectile cylindrical in form, and is 

 forced forward by the action of the gas so as 

 to check all windage and make the anterior 

 portion of the projectile heaviest. The inventor 

 claims for it better range, less deflection, no 

 danger of stripping, and economy of cost of the 

 missile itself, and of wear or injury to the gun. 

 His shell projectile, constructed externally in 

 the same way, is a percussion shell, for which 

 he claims safety from accidental explosion, and 

 certainty of explosion at the moment of impact. 



The attention of inventors has also been di- 

 rected to the adaptation of ordnance to firing 

 under water either from ships or from sub- 

 marine batteries, thus destroying the immu- 

 nity which war vessels were supposed to 

 enjoy from injuries by shot striking them far 

 below the water line. Experiments have been 

 made on this subject both in England and the 

 United States, and it seems to be demonstrated 

 that a ship of war could carry her entire arma- 

 ment below the water-line, and by firing under 

 water speedily sink any war vessel now afloat. 

 As yet no vessel has been constructed to do 

 this, but two submarine batteries, destined to 

 be navigated under water, and to make their 

 attacks upon ships of war without becoming 

 visible themselves, have been commenced in 

 this country, though neither is yet completed. 

 One of these was planned, and partly finished, 

 by the late Major E. B. Hunt, and it was from 

 the effect of the gases generated by firing 

 under water that he fell and met with the 

 injuries which resulted in his death. 



In Great Britain, the rifled ordnance most in 

 favor has been the Armstrong gun, "Whit- 

 worth's gun, and the Blakely gun. Other in- 

 ventors, especially Mr. Bashley Britten, Mr. 

 Lynall Thomas, Mr. Jeffrey, Mr. Hadden, Com- 

 mander Scott, of the Royal Navy, and Mr. 

 Westley Richards (the celebrated rifle manu- 

 facturer), have taken out patents for projec- 

 tiles. The Armstrong gun, though adopted 

 by the War Department in 1858, and being, to 

 the present time, with slight exceptions, the 

 only rifled cannon in either the army or navy 

 service, is not at all satisfactory, and will prob- 

 ably be discarded before long. The gun is 

 built up by a welded coil of iron, either with 

 or without an inner tube of steel, and hoops 

 of coiled iron are shrunk over this coil. It is 

 a breech loader, and the vent pieces are sep- 

 arate and must be lifted out or slid on one side 

 after each discharge. This vent piece is very 

 liable to get out of order, as its adaptation to 

 its place is a very delicate operation, and it, as 

 well as the breech screws, is often blown out 



or injured by the discharge of the gas at the 

 breech of the gun. The inventor has endeav- 

 ored to obviate the objections to this by fur- 

 nishing two extra vent pieces to every gun ; 

 but these prove insufficient. There is consider- 

 able emission of gas at the breech, and this 

 is sometimes attended with danger. The mode 

 of rifling is what is called the fluted bore ; the 

 number of grooves varying from eight in the 

 three-pounders, to seventy-six in the hun- 

 dred-pounder or seven-inch gun. The projec- 

 tile, which after almost innumerable experi- 

 ments, he has adopted, is nearly a plain cylinder 

 with almost flat or slightly rounded ends, 

 coated with lead, which in firing enables it to 

 take the form of the grooves,' and thus prevent 

 windage. Nearly 3,000 of his guns have been 

 manufactured by the British Government since 

 1858, at an expense of about 13 millions of dol- 

 lars, and in spite of his numerous improvements 

 and changes in them, his friend and assistant, 

 Mr. Anderson, now the superintendent of the 

 Government Ordnance Works at Woolwich, 

 states that " they are still very bad in many 

 particulars." The objections to them are that 

 they are weak and will not bear a heavy charge 

 of powder, that their range is not as long as 

 that of other guns, and their initial velocity 

 less ; that they are not superior, if equal, to the 

 old smooth-bore guns of even smaller caliber in 

 their power of penetrating iron plates at short 

 range, and that the projectile strips off its lead 

 almost at the moment of leaving the gun, thus 

 endangering in many instances the troops en- 

 gaged near it. These objections have proved 

 so serious, that Sir William Armstrong has 

 recently invented a new gun on the shunt 

 principle of rifling, that is, with two sets of 

 grooves, one for the admission of the projectile 

 (his new gun is a muzzle-loader), and the other 

 those by which, being rammed home, it must 

 pass out wben the gun is discharged, the latter 

 fitting closely, and having a shorter "turn" 

 than his previous gun, and the projectile being 

 entirely of wrought iron. This gun, of which 

 he has great hopes, has not yet been introduced 

 into the service. Sir William Armstrong has 

 also invented a shell built up of a great number 

 of segments of cast iron cemented together 

 with lead, and containing a bursting charge, 

 which has been highly extolled, but is said in 

 practice to be liable to burst prematurely. 

 Whitworth's gun is in an respects the most 

 original and ingenious application of the scien- 

 tific principles of gunnery to the construction 

 of ordnance yet attempted. He had become 

 distinguished as early as 1854 for the adapta- 

 tion of a new principle to the construction of 

 the rifle and its projectile ; and in 1857 com- 

 menced applying the same principle to ord- 

 nance, though in a desultory way, as he had 

 no intention at that time of becoming a manu- 

 facturer of cannon. The principles which he 

 applied to ordnance construction were the hex- 

 agonal form of the bore, and the rapid turn of 

 the rifling (one revolution in ten inches in his 





