334 



NATURE 



{Feb. 13, 1879 



form of a hard, dry, and rough coating like emery paper, 

 and the friction in the bore is increased to a very large 

 extent." Thus it may readily be seen that under varying 

 circumstances the requisite conditions are very likely to 

 occur, and experiments should most undoubtedly be 

 undertaken to test the validity of this source of accident, 

 and we think that great credit is due to Sir William 

 Palliser for having been the first to point it out. Yet 

 another cause has been insisted on as likely to bring 

 about the destruction of some of our Woolwich rifled 

 guns. In a paper read by Prof. Osborne Re>Tiolds at the 

 meeting of the British Association at Bradford, it was 

 shown that the system of rifling employed at Woolwich, 

 giving a gradually increasing twist to the grooves, threw 

 a much greater strain on the gun than a uniform twist, 

 and rendered it impossible for the studs on the shot to fit 

 the grooves with accuracy throughout the whole length of 

 the bore. The objections raised by Prof. Reynolds have, 

 we believe, remained unanswered and perhaps unnoticed 

 now for five or six years by the departmental officers, and 

 during this time many hundreds of guns have been con- 

 structed on the condemned principle. Now that so much 

 public attention is being directed to the whole system of 

 gun manufacture as carried on at Woolwich, and the 

 criticisms adverse to its merits are so numerous it would 

 be well that the country should have further assurance 

 that the system is founded on a safe scientific basis, or 

 that the errors, if they exist, should be admitted and 

 rectified. 



It is admitted that with the increasing twist in the 

 rifling the shearing of the studs has frequently shown 

 that the projectile has some difficulty in centring itself in 

 the bore while the great wear in the steel tubes of the 

 guns occasionally used for practice on board ship points 

 to a short life for the gun, but we are not aware that the 

 destruction of a gun has hitherto been traced with 

 certainty to the jamming of the studs between two 

 grooves. In the event of this occurring it is shown con- 

 clusively by Mr. Longridge, in a letter inserted in 

 Engineering last week, that the strain would be far more 

 than sufficient to burst the gun. The bursting pressure 

 of the gases would easily split the tube and coils, or the 

 energy of the shot if only moving with a moderate 

 velocity would cause a longitudinal stress which the steel 

 tube would be quite unable to resist. 



It may appear to some useless to draw particular atten- 

 tion to the various CEiuses of this terrible accident that 

 have been suggested now that the report of the Committee 

 has been made known and has shown that all the suppo- 

 sitions are equally erroneous, but in our opinion it is of 

 the utmost importance that these dangers to which we 

 direct attention and which might at any time cause a 

 similar accident, should not be passed over and for- 

 gotten. 



CAPTAIN COOK 



IT seems on first thoughts rather a strange proceeding 

 to publicly celebrate the centenary of the death of a 

 great man, especially when that death was a murder. But 

 this is what the Paris Geographical Society have arranged 

 to do to-morrow in the case, not of any of their own 

 explorers or navigators, but in the case of England's 



greatest exploring navigator. Captain James Cook, who 

 was murdered 100 years ago to-morrow by the natives of 

 the Sandwich Islands. But we know that the generous- 

 minded Frenchmen do not intend to rejoice at the death 

 of this great man, as they would do were it his birth they 

 intended to commemorate. Cook, they know, was one of the 

 greatest of geographical explorers, and it is quite natural 

 and commendable that the Society, in their enthusiasm 

 for their science and its promoters, should wish in some 

 way to show their reverence for a man like Cook on the 

 centenary of his remarkable death. Cook, and with him 

 England, owed some gratitude to the French, whose 

 government of the time, though at war with this country, 

 generously gave instructions to their war-ships and 

 colonial governors, not only not to molest Cook in his 

 pursuit of knowledge, but to render him all reasonable 

 assistance. It is obvious that only about every third 

 generation can take part in celebrating the centenary of 

 a man's birth, and it is natural, therefore, that those of 

 the intermediate generation who count him among their 

 heroes, should take advantage of the occurrence of the 

 centenary of his death to show their appreciation of his 

 greatness. In Cook's case birthday and death-day were 

 only about half a century apart, the date of the former 

 being October 27, 1728. 



Why our own Geographical Society should have left 

 it to our French neighbours to commemorate so remark- 

 able an event in the history of geographical discovery, 

 we cannot undertake to say, though ^it seems to savour 

 somewhat of dog-in-the-manger that they have declined 

 the invitation to send an official representative. It would 

 surely have been easy for them to have organised some 

 kind of demonstration that would both have honoured 

 the memory of one of our greatest naval heroes and 

 most scientific of navigators, and at the same time have 

 proved both interesting and instructive to the public. 

 However, England will not be entirely unrepresented to- 

 morrow, as we understand the Admiralty are contributing 

 several original charts to the exhibition of the Paris 

 Society. Mr. Brassey, who has visited the spot where 

 Cook was killed, has sent to the Society a number of views 

 and documents to be exhibited. Mr. Jackson has also 

 promised to send valuable maps and manuscripts from 

 Cook's own hand. Researches will be executed in the 

 Archives to discover the original of the Ordre du Rot, for- 

 bidding French cruisers to molest Captain Cook's expe- 

 dition, and in spite of the declaration of war, to assist him 

 if necessary for the fulfilling of a mission interesting the 

 whole of mankind. 



We need not recount the claims of Captain Cook to be 

 regarded as one of the greatest, as he was one of the 

 most scientific, of navigating explorers ; probably there 

 are few of our readers who have not at one time or other 

 read some account of the voyages of Captain Cook. The 

 son of a peasant, he rose to his honourable position by 

 sheer force of genius and its invariable accompaniment, 

 hard work. To him we owe the discovery of the Sand 

 wich, and many other Pacific Islands. His enthusiasm 

 on behalf of science was manifested in his work at Tahiti 

 in connection with the memorable transit of Venus of 

 June 3, 1769. He gave certainty to our knowledge of 

 New Zealand, and left not much to be done to fill up with 

 accuracy an outline of the coast of Australia. He proved 



Ji 



