SHOUT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
SB 
The following conclusions may, in Captain Noble’s opinion, be drawn from the 
results of the experiments as far as they have gone:— 
(1) Steel plates offer a much greater resistance than those of wrought-iron. 
(2) A steel plate of No. 5, Birmingham gauge, 0*217 inch in thickness, is proof 
at 10 yards against any small arm bullet likely to be used for sometime to come. 
(3) A wrought-iron plate of 0*312 inch thickness is not proof against the Henry 
bullet at 25 yards. 
(4) A Jones’s gabion filled with stiff earth is proof against any small arm 
bullet at 10 yards. 
(5) A slight breastwork of filled sandbags or loose earth is proof against all 
small arms. 
(0) The rope mantelet used gave unsatisfactory results. 
(7) Two 3-inch planks of green oak are proof against any small arm bullet at 
50 yards. 
(8) The Henry bullet will pass through 12 ins. of fir planks at 100 yards. 
62. Mallet’s 36-inch Mortar :— 
In October last, it was found that the wooden bed and platform of the Mallet 
mortar mounted in the Marshes at Woolwich was in so decayed a condition that 
fears were entertained lest the mortar should fall. 
As it would have entailed considerable expense to dismount the mortar, and then 
to remount it on a new bed and platform, it was decided to destroy the decayed 
bed by means of a small charge of gun-cotton, and thus allow the mortar to 
subside on to the ground. 
This operation was successfully carried out by Mr Abel, Chemist to the War 
Department, at a cost of 12s. 10d., and the following report of the experiment 
may probably interest some of the members of the B.A.I. The weight of the 
mortar is 42 tons 
The bed, which was of elm, was very rotten throughout, and therefore in the 
condition most unfavourable to the full exercise of the action of gun-cotton. Five 
holes 1*5 inch in diameter were bored at a somewhat obtuse angle into the front face 
of the bed; the centre one was 2 ft. deep, and the four others 18 ins. Two lateral 
horizontal holes were also bored into each side of the bed at a little distance 
beneath the trunnions—the diameter of these holes was also 1*5 in. and 2 ft. 6 in. 
deep. 
