470 
MINUTES OE PKOCEEDINGS OF 
Whitworth Committee was not sufficiently favourable to the Whitworth 
system to induce the Government of the day to adopt it.* 
We next learn that, in 1865, a 7-inch Whitworth gun was ordered 
by the War Department at the request of the Admiralty. This gun is 
the first Whitworth gun which can be considered as capable of being 
used against iron-plated ships. 
It was proved at Woolwich in July, 1866. The gun was then tried 
on board Her Majesty's ship Excellent . 385 rounds were fired, with 
shot or shell, during which the projectile four times jammed in the 
process of loading, and the gun was temporarily disabled—that is to 
say, the charge had to be destroyed by the continued application of 
water, and the shot or shell had to be blown out the following day with 
a small charge introduced through the vent. This jamming of the 
projectile in loading was considered as strong evidence against the 
system of rifling, but Sir J. Whitworth urged that the projectiles had 
not been properly prepared for use by scraping off the coating of paint 
with which they were covered when supplied. A further trial was 
therefore made with 150 empty shells and 150 solid shot, the diameters 
of which were slightly reduced to prevent the recurrence of the jamming. 
Notwithstanding this precaution, the same defect was observed, 
although not to the same extent, “ difficulty " having been experienced 
in loading eighteen out of the 300 projectiles. 
The Government also purchased a 9-inch Whitworth gun, which is 
now undergoing trial. 
Summarising, we find that the Government have knowledge of thirty- 
eight Whitworth guns. As to eleven of them, there is no record of 
their use; so that we have only the meagre experience of twenty-seven 
heterogeneous guns, varying in size from the six 1-prs. to the 300-pr., 
including both breech-loaders and muzzle-loaders, and constructed, 
some of brass, some of cast-iron, some of wrought-iron in various com¬ 
binations, some of homogeneous metal, and of ordinary steel. 
As regards the material of the gun. Sir J. Whitworth prefers steel 
for the entire structure, while Sir W. Armstrong has, from the first, 
advocated the use of coiled wrought-iron with a steel inner barrel. 
Now, it is remarkable that the steel barrel, or lining, has always been 
the weak point of the service guns, and has invariably proved to be the 
first part to fail, whereas the coiled iron superstructure has often held 
the gun together long after the steel had given way; so that the 
proposal to extend the use of steel to the superstructure of the gun, 
amounts to being a proposal to abandon what has been always found 
the most trustworthy material, and rely upon what has been always 
found the most capricious. However this may be, the very great 
experience that we have had of coiled wrought-iron guns of all sizes, is 
an ample proof of the sufficiency of their strength. The material is 
* A return of all the rounds fired from Whitworth guns up to the 30th April, 1866, appears 
summarised in a tabular statement under the head “ Whitworth Guns/* ordered to he printed by 
the House of Co mm ons, 10th August, 1866, and from this return the above account has been 
principally derived. A more recent paper, under the same head, was printed for the House of 
Commons, 6th June, 1867, and from this is completed the authentic history of the Whitworth guns. 
