THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
239 
The date referred to in the latter sentence was July 21st, 1864, on which 
day I addressed a letter to the Mechanics 5 Magazine on the subject of “ Chilled 
shot. 55 The following extract from the Armstrong and Whitworth report, dated 
August 3, 1865, or just two months after my letter to General Lefroy, shews 
“that my theory was at variance with the general belief 55 even “at that time, 55 
26th General deduction of Armstrong and Whitworth Committee, page 88,— 
“ That the nature of steel to be used in projectiles is a question of very great 
importance. In the very limited practice at iron plates, placed at an angle which 
represents the circumstances under which- naval warfare with armour plated ships 
must in future mainly be carried on, the Committee particularly noticed the 
tendency of steel shot to break up on impact. This tendency , and the impossibility of 
obviating it otherwise than by increased attention to the manufacture and proper 
tempering of steel give pressing and immediate importance to the question of that 
manufacture and to the certainty of quality therein; and the Committee desire to 
point out that the employment of steel in the fabric of guns will be materially 
affected both in cost* and otherwise by the far larger inevitable employment of it 
in projectiles in future naval warfare. 55 
My chief reasons for not advocating the casting of white iron shot in sand, are 
that the manufacturing advantages afforded by employment of the chilling process 
for producing white metal shot are so great, and that greater uniformity and 
efficiency are obtained by the latter process. 
I have employed the term “ white metal shot, 55 as it is a strictly correct 
definition of the projectile which I have proposed. The term chilled shot being 
strictly more applicable to the surface hardened projectiles which have been 
proposed by the Americans, and Mr Grusen of Magdeburgf for the purpose of 
penetrating iron plates. 
Yours very truly, 
WILLIAM PA.LLISEB. 
* The price of steel is quoted in the Committee’s Report, from £70 to £90 per ton. 
f Mr Grusen in a patent taken out in this country so late as Nov. 2, 1864, p. 3, lines 17,19, 
says:—“ The surface of the projectile is thus chilled in casting, and a steel-like tenacity is thereby 
imparted to it.” 
The shot submitted to the Ordnance Select Committee by Mr Grusen’s agent in Dec. 1865, is a 
merely surface hardened projectile. It can be seen in the Committee’s Model Room. 
32 
[VOL. V.] 
