52 YEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



the merits of tlii3 rifle is that of General Hay, the Director of mus- 

 ketry instruction at Hythe. After admitting the superiority of the 

 Whitworth to the Enfield in point of accuracy, General Hay said (at 

 the meeting already mentioned) there was a peculiarity about the 

 Whitworth small-bore rifles which no other similar arms had yet 

 produced — they not only gave greater accuracy of firing, but treble 

 power of penetration. For special purposes, any description of bullet 

 could be used, from lead to steel. The Whitworth rifle with a 

 bullet one-tenth of tin, penetrated thirty-five planks ; whereas the 

 Enfield rifle, with which a soft bullet was necessary, only penetrated 

 twelve planks. He had found that at a range of S00 yards the 

 velocity added ti> the hardened bullet gave a power of penetration in 

 the proportion of 17 to 4 in favour of the Whitworth rifle. This 

 enormous penetration is of the highest importance in a military 

 weapon in firing through gabions, sand-bags, and other artificial 

 defences. General Hay thought the merits of the small-bore had 

 never been sufficiently understood. It has recently been stated that 

 the small-bore Enfield beat the small-bore Whitworth ; but nothing 

 of the kind has, General Hay states, taken place. It was also proper 

 to state, he said, that the exact bore of the Whitworth rifle has been 

 adopted at Enfield without acknowledgment ; even the same twist 

 has been given to the rifling, one turn in twenty inches, still the 

 penetration of the Whitworth Was two-thirds more than that of the 

 Enfield. " Mr, Whitworth has solved," said General Hay, in con- 

 clusion, " the problem he undertook, viz., how to project, to the best 

 advantag", a given quantity of lead with a given quantity of gun- 

 powder ; and there is no gun in England at this moment which will 

 fulfil that condition to the same extent as the Whitworth rifle." In 

 reply to a question from the president (Mr. Bidder), he said the 

 Whitworth small-bore rifle, filed with common sporting powder, 

 would never foul so as to render loading difficult. He had himself 

 fired one hundred rounds one day, sixty rounds the next, then forty 

 rounds, and so on ; and left the gun without being cleaned for ten 

 days, when it fired as well as it did on the first day. 



With these facts before us, proceeding from the very highest 

 authority, it will be impossible, we submit, for the War Department 

 to continue the manufacture of the Enfield arm to the exclusion of 

 the Whitworth. Every soldier in the service costs the country from 

 50/. to loo/, for his education, and 50/. a year for his maintenance ; 

 and to hesitate upon a question of five or ten shillings, or even ten 

 pounds, in the cost of the weapon to arm the soldier, certainly 

 appears, as Mr. Bidder remarked, to ce carrying economy in the 

 wrong direction. — .Ifcchanics Maya:inc, May 11, 1860. 



ckkat BXFBBIMBHTB WITH tiik whitworth gun. 

 In the spring of last year, the following important results were 



obtained in experiments made on tin- Bonthport beach. The spot 



selected as the site of the guns is known as Ainsdalc Point, which is 

 between three and four miles from Southport. Thence, there i; a 

 clear and practicable range of 10,000 yards (or nearly six miles) 



