92 
MINUTES OF PEOCEEDINGS OF 
made rapid progress, whilst the difficulties which used to attend the forging 
of wrought-iron in large masses were so great that a heavy anchor* was 
one of the greatest achievements of the forge-master until the comparatively 
recent introduction of steam hammers .enabled him to forge our modern 
monster guns, and, thanks to the able mechanicians of the day, we have 
now rifling machines so perfect and easily manipulated that the operator 
could if he pleased engrave his name in the bore of a gun, and withal so 
accurate is their action that they work cc true" to less than xoV^th °f an inch, 
a dimension which can now be very easily measured by means of a 
Whitworth's micrometer, but which is fifty times too minute to be ascer¬ 
tained by the primitive measuring instruments of the last generation of 
mechanics. 
A greater strain on a rifled gun than on a smooth-bore . 
And here it is advisible to glance rapidly at the necessity for making 
rifled guns of a stronger material than smooth bores, as well as at the 
metals which appeared suitable for the purpose, so far as we are at present 
acquainted with their peculiarities. 
The greater the weight and the length of a projectile, the greater is the 
opposition from inertia and friction which it offers in the bore to the 
expansion of the ignited charge, and this opposition is considerably aug¬ 
mented if the projectile is constrained to travel through the bore in a spiral 
course, hence it is not difficult to comprehend why a rifled gun must needs 
be of a stronger, tougher, and more elastic material than a smooth-bore 
gun, in which the round shot yields promptly to the first impulses of the 
powder gas, to which it presents half its surface, and bounds nimbly forward 
through the bore almost unimpeded by friction, while the strain on the gun 
is immensely relieved by the comparatively great windage. Again, as the 
explosive power of a cartridge as well as the inertia and friction of a 
projectile increase with their respective weights in a cubical ratio, whilst the 
surface of the chamber and the base of the projectile, against which the 
powder-gas acts, increase only in a square ratio, it follows that the weightier 
the projectile the harder and stronger must be the inner barrel, or else 
the slower must be the combustibility of the powder used ; hence although 
any of the ordinary materials may suffice for a small gun, (the schoolboy 
fires a grain of grouse shot from a goose quill), large ones must be “ made of 
* This extract from Ferguson’s spirited ballad, “ The Forging of the Anchor,” shows in what 
repute such an operation was held, whilst the first part of the quotation is admirably applicable to 
the much larger forgings which are every day to be seen in the Eoyal Gun Factories. 
* * * o Vulcan, what a glow! 
’Tis blinding white, ’tis blasting bright, the 
high sun shines not so; 
The high sun sees not on the earth such fiery, 
fearful show, 
The roof ribs swarth, the candent hearth, the 
ruddy lurid row 
Of smiths that stand, an ardent band, like 
men before the foe; 
As quivering through his fleece of flame the 
sailing monster slow, 
Sinks on the anvil * * * 
* * # * * 
Swing in your strokes, in order let foot and 
hand keep time; 
Your blows make music sweeter far than 
any steeple’s chime; 
But while you slingJyour sledges, sing and 
let the burthen be, 
The Anchor is the Anvil King, and royal 
craftsmen we. 
