On Tuesday, July 18th, the Giffard gun, the invention of
M. Paul Giffard, underwent a public trial at the head-quarters of the " London Scottish," before a number of military experts. The propelling agent, liquefied carbonic acid gas, is stored in a tubular reservoir, 9 in. long, fixed under and in line with the ban-el, and possesses such potency that it gives out a pressure of 500 lb. per square inch when liberated for actual use. On pulling the trigger, which opens a valve and permits the instantaneous escape of a sufficient volume of gas for one discharge, there is a slight hiss or puff, followed by the noise of the impact of the projectile on the target, but no report, nor the least recoil or kick. The experiments in London were only made with saloon rifles, though, according to the inventor, his principle has been applied with success to military guns and to artillery. Meantime, it is worth noting that even if the Giffard gun turns out capable of being fired 500 times for a penny, and of raining silent death at 2,000 yards, it will not, as optimistic leader-writers seem to imagine, stop war. That is said of every fresh invention for killing, but is a pure delusion. Nothing can be more theoretically deadly than torpedoes which will sink a ship with 500 hands on board in an instant ; but now that the world is accustomed to the notion, no one imagines that the days of naval warfare are over. If the chemists invented an explosive so powerful that, when fired by electricity from a distance, the air-shock would break down the flesh walls of all human beings within a radius of ten miles, we should not give np fighting, but only think out a method of protection.
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