74 



I have been informed by an officer of the Royal Horse Artillery that 

 at 2J° the range of the Armstrong 9-poiinder with 1 lb. 2 ozs. powder 

 (charge) has a mean velocity of 955 feet per second. 



The above are some of the results of the experiments made with the 

 Armstrong and Whitworth guns, by J. A. Longridge, Esq., C. E. In 

 all these cases the actual range is far below the range in vacuo, or the 

 parabolic range. 



Mr. Whitworth' s shell is well known to have high penetrating 

 power. A series of experiments are detailed in Sir James Emerson 

 Tennent's " Story of the Guns." Its possessing no fuse has, indeed, 

 been deemed a novelty ; yet so far back as 1848 the French frigate 

 " Psyche" possessed shells of a similar nature, invented by Capt. Bil- 

 lette, of the Erench navy. They were fired from the ordinary service guns 

 of a large calibre (84-pounder). It is said to have been used with 

 disastrous effect by the Erench at Mogador, in 1844, and subsequently 

 at Algiers. If let fall from the upper to the lower deck, no accident is 

 said to have resulted. Its combustion was, it is said, caused by the heat 

 generated in its passage through the atmosphere, after attaining a given 

 velocity. The following is a table of comparison between the Whit- 

 worsh and Armstrong 12-pounder: — 



Table t 



Description of Gun.* 



Elevation. 



Actual 

 Range. 



Initial Velocity in 

 Feet per Second. 



• 



Deg. Min. 



Yds. 





Whit worth 12-pounder, . . 



2 0 



1252 



1300 



Armstrong 12-pounder, . . 



1 15 



840 



1080 



This would give the difference in the parabolic range, allowance 

 being made for the inequality of level, of 



Yds. 



"Whitworth gun, 1260 



Armstrong gun, , 717 



Eor tensile strain no doubt exists as to the Whitworth gun being by 

 far the best, the metal used being homogeneous iron, having the tough- 

 ness and ductility of wrought iron, with the hardness and tenacity of 

 steel, — a metal which is so much used in all parts of the Continent, and 

 for the production of which the immense factory of M. Krupp, of Essen, 

 in Ehenish Prussia, has been designed. Mr. Whitworth' s large 80 cwt. 

 gun, with a charge of 12jlbs., obtained an initial velocity of 1313 feet 

 per second with a projectile weighing 80 lbs., and obtaining a range of 

 4400 yards. What we want for all our guns is comparative lightness 



* Vide " Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers," vol. xix., p. 442. 



