526 Modem British Ordnance and ^Ammunition. [October, 



These principles govern their form. Next as to their con- 

 struction. The so-called chilled Palliser-shot or shell are 

 cast of a peculiar iron in sand-moulds, with metal ends or 

 chills for the heads ; the head of the projectile is thus chilled 

 white and rendered intensely hard, fit for punching a hole 

 in an iron plate, although at the same time it is so brittle 

 that the tip or point is occasionally broken off by the impact 

 of a shell rolled or struck obliquely against it ; for, strange 

 as it may appear, the point which may penetrate directly 

 through several inches of armour without injury may be 

 fractured by a very slight transverse blow (Captain Orde 

 Browne). On the other hand, the body of the shell (or 

 rather sides and base, for it is cast with a core) being cast 

 in sand, is partially annealed, and composed of an evenly 

 mottled iron possessing more tenacity and toughness, which 

 enables it to better withstand the shock of discharge. All 

 these shells are cast with undercut holes, into which the rifling 

 studs of a soft alloy (10 parts copper to 1 tin) are swedged. 

 Our iron-clad Navy and our plated Forts (when they are 

 plated) need have little tojfear as to the result of an artillery 

 duel, whether they have to meet 1000-pounder Krupp's, or 

 the 20-inch Beelzebubs and Puritans of the American 

 turret-ships. The English public may assure itself what 

 all foreign powers will be ready to admit, that we possess 

 the most powerful ordnance and most unrivalled ammuni- 

 tion in the world, and that we owe our possession of them 

 to the ability of our departmental officers. We owe our 

 present construction of guns to Colonel Campbell and Sir W. 

 Armstrong, with Messrs. Fraser and Anderson; the carriages 

 on which they are mounted and accessory machinery to 

 Colonel Clerk and Captain Moncrieff ; our powder to Colonel 

 Younghusband; our projectiles and exquisite fuzes to Colonel 

 Boxer and Mr. Abel ; our chilled shell to Major Palliser; 

 with many others, hard-workers and able coadjutors in every 

 department. Woolwich is well up to, if not in advance of, 

 the age, and her factories can produce, if necessary, 6000 tons' 

 weight of wrought-iron cannon per annum. Already there 

 is a talk of turning out larger guns, and the drawings of 

 800-pounders, and even 1000-pounders, are actually ready, 

 and can be manufactured whenever the Secretary of State 

 for War thinks fit to order them, so Captain Stoney informs 

 us,* and, moreover, adds that the time necessary for their 

 manufacture is at the rate of one week per inch of calibre ; 

 for example, twelve weeks for a 12-inch gun. 



* Proceedings of Royal Artillery Institution, vol. vi., p. 432. 



