FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO ART AND SCIENCE IN
WAR.
LPROM A CORRESPONDENT.] IN an article in the ASpeetator, in March last, on an "Impending revolution produced by art and science in war," we gave an ac- count of the new principle of the Whitworth rifle, and of its superior accuracy and of its range beyond any other then pro- duced, or as it is now believed by scientific mechanics, that is likely to be produced. We also stated the large positive advances made by Sir William Armstrong with his cannon over all the ordnance of the completion of which there were then authentic accounts, founded on experimental proofs. But we then intimated our doubts, in which men of competent practical science concur- red, as to the merits of his principle of construction as compared to that of Mr. Whitworth, for large as well as for small arms. Both gentlemen used long cylindrical shot, projected through rifled barrels. But the Whitworth had with the polygonal barrel, a shot shaped to it by machinery, enabling it to project hard metal shot for penetration as well as for flight, and avoiding au stripping of the lead, in driving out leaden or leaden-covered balls. As against the Armstrong rifled cannon, for which iron cylindri- cal shot covered the whole length with lead are used, the gain of the Whitworth principle of simple iron shot shaped by the steam- engine in the workshop instead of in the barrel, is in the saving of the explosive force requisite to drive the lead into the grooves of the rifling, and in giving that saved force to the flight of the projectile. Trials have recently been made at Southport of the -Whitworth principle applied to cannon which, in the opinion of English and foreign officers' show results obtained beyond any recorded as having been obtained, by the best trials of the Arm- strong guns, establishing beyond a doubt the great superiority of the principle of construction wrought out by Mr. Whitworth. We have now authentic means of presenting the relative position of the two principles up to the present time.
Mr. Sidney Herbert is reported to have stated in the House of Commons in relation to the Armstrong gun :—
"The last gun made by Sir W. Armstrong and sent to be tried was a 12- pounder. The following was the result : 40 consecutive rounds were fired from the new 12-pounder field-gun of 11b. 8 ozs. of slow ipowder. The ex- periment shows that we have been wrong for some time n using powder of so quick a detonating nature for artillery practice, and especially for rifled e,anuon, which require weaker and slower powder than that suited to other areas. At 7 degrees of elevation, in five rounds the range was from 2455 to 2495 yards, the difference in the range being 65 yards, and the greatest difference in the width being three yards. Then, at 8 degrees of elevation, the range reached 2795 yards, with GO yards of difference between the 5 shots, and only 1 yard of difference in the width. Again, at 9 degrees of elevation, the range comes up to 3000 yards and upwards, with 85 yards of difference between the 5 shots, and 3 yards as the greatest difference in the width! In point of fact, almost all these shots but 3 or 4, would have struck within a 9 feet vertical target. The rapidity and accuracy with which small objects are hit at a great distance in the practice at Shoeburyness is something marvellous."
It is to be observed here that the results of fifteen shots, or of three groups of five shots each, out of forty consecutive shots, are given by Mr. Herbert, as displaying the powers of the Armstrong gun, and very great they no doubt are by themselves in advance of all the old artillery standing. The stated range of a 12-pounder old gun weighing 35 cwt., was at most 1700 yards, with spherical shot. And no grape or case-shot was discharged with effect much beyond 350 yards.
In respect to Mr. Herbert's statement as to the powder, it may be observed, en passant, as illustrative of the relative principles, that if powder of a "quick detonating nature" were used for driving out the lead-covered iron shot of the Armstrong, the lead would be stripped off and the projectile lose its accuracy, but that with the iron shot previously fitted to the rifling, and with the use of greased wads to diminish friction and prevent fouling, there would be no danger of the kind.
Looking at the results recently obtained with the Whitworth 12-pounder weighing 800 lbs., with a charge of 1 lb. of powder, we do not find forty consecutive shots fired with that .particula; piece ; but taking the eight recorded shots fired with it at 7 de- grees of elevation, it appears that the shortest range was longer than the longest obtained by the Armstrong at 9 degrees, the highest quoted by Mr. Sidney Herbert. As to precision, taking the whole, they would have struck upon an area of 42 yards long by 5 feet wide, as against Armstrong's average of 70 yards by 3 yards wide. The whole of the Whitworths would have struck not within a 9 but within a 6-feet vertical target at that distance. Or, we may state the difference of results) of the firing of the same sized pieces at the same- elevation of 7 degrees thus :—whilst
the range of the Armstrong was "from 2465 to 2495 yards, the difference in the range being 65 yards and the greatest differ- ence in the width three yards." The range of the Whitworth was 3078 yards to 3107, the difference in range being 29 yards and the greeted difference in width being 11 yards. This firing being in fact viewed on the spot, at Southport, as a demonstration of an erroneous selection of a principle of construc- tion by old officers of the war department, it is obvious that final trials should be made on belief of the public, on the same grounds, and with the same winds, and influencing conditions, openly and publicly before impartial, mixed, scientihc, and mili- tary judges. The greatest range recorded as having been obtained by Sir William Armstrong, greater than any previously obtained by any
ordnance whatsoever, was 9130 yards by a 32 lbs. gun at 35 de- grees of elevation with six pounds of powder. The greatest stated range of the previous ordnance was with a 68 pounder, 10 inch gun, weighing 95 cwt. and with 20 lbs. of powder was 4700 yards. As marking our progress, too, it may be mentioned that the de- flection of an ordinary 32 lb. spherical shot, is at 2000 yards, 50 feet, and at 2500 yards 80 feet. As to shell, the French con- sider as the result of their practice up to 1836, that only ten per cent of the shells fired at 650 yards can be made to fall within a circle of 21 feet in diameter ; the gain, therefore, with the Arm- strong, as shown by the results with shot, which are applicable, with little proportionate differences, to shell, is enormous. But what sort of mechanical, or scientific minds must these military minds be who could have advised the War Minister, that polygonal shells could not be made for projection through polygonal barrels as well as polygonal shot, even if there had been no trials and demonstrations of the fact ? But it is notorious that there were de- monstrations long ago at Portsmouth and elsewhere, which rendered further experimental illustrations in the late occasions superfluous. At the recent trials at Southport, the engineers were perfectly satisfied with the superiority of the Whitworth as a shell gun, not only from its greater length of range and accuracy of fire, but from its greater capacity of adaptation to the varying conditions of the field in war ; for it was proved, in previous trials, that it admits of shells with larger charges of powder than usual, and that it possessed superior advantages to the Armstrong, in not being confined like it to fixed charges of powder in a distinct powder chamber, and to fixed sizes of shell, but in being adapted to vary- ing charges of powder and to varying lengths of shot and lengths and sorts of shell, and in being adapted to what has been pro- nounced to be far more destructive than red-hot shot, which can- not be used with the leaden covering necessary for the Armstrong rifling—namely, to case shot with molten iron. The Whitworth has also the peculiar advantage in being applicable to the dis- charges of spherical shot, where the use of the spherical shot is deemed eligible for the ricochet. But the late trials have shown that the ricochet of the Whitworth shot, instead of being inferior, as military minds once objected, is superior in range and effect to their old shot. The polygonal small two pounds and a half shell was found some time ago to have distributed with regularity more than forty fragments, equivalent to a discharge of grape, and it was one of the peculiar subjects of interest in the trial of that which we are about to describe as the greatest novelty, and which was deemed the greatest new power, namely, the least gun tried, the largest in adaptation, namely, the 3-pounder, that it would discharge grape at any determined points to the extremity of its extraordinary range.
On the trial at the mouth of the Sebastopol Harbour, from the distance of five miles and a quarter, the range of the Whitworth gun weighing 2081bs., (and the whole, with the carriage, about the weight of a hansom cab), worked by one man, and fired with a charge of 8 ounces of powder at 35 degrees of elevation, was 9688 yards, or over five miles and a half, thus exceeding every known piece of ordnance. The average distance of a group of shots, not fired under the most favourable circumstances, was five miles, and 2-5ths of a mile, and the average longitudinal deviation was 81 yards, and in width 19 yards. These would have all struck Fort Constantine. It will aid a conception of the range and power gained by the small 3-pound gun, if the Londoner, or the visitor to the metropolis, will suppose that the windows surrounding the springing of the dome of St. Paul's, were armed with 3-pounder Whitworth cannons, with their five miles and a half range they would command the whole of the metropolis. To the north, they would throw shot, or shell, over Hampstead, over Highgate Hill to the foot of Muswell Hill, or to Waltham High Cross. To the south, they would throw shot over Dulwich, and over Streatham Hill. To the west, they would throw shot into the centre of Ham- mersmith, or over Kensal Green. To the east, they would throw case-shot, with molten iron, which would go through the decks or sides of any ordinary shipping in the East India Docks, or over Greenwich, or upon vessels in the river up to Hookness.
We have been told that in India, the range of our guns is the range of our dominion, and that beyond them there is inde- pendence or rebellion. If this were so, a small battery of these guns, which one horse will move, and one man work in ex- tremity, and which a pagoda will sustain, will dominate over a territory of the area we have defined, or 380 square miles. Though not tried at the extreme long range, there is no doubt that the 801b. Whitworth gun would, from our station at St. Paul's Cathe- dral, throw shell and molten-iron case, as well as shot, into Woolwich Arsenal. To illustrate the actual practice, suppose this great 80-pounder cannon of St. Paul's had been fired upon Westminster Abbey, or upon the clock-face of the clock-tower of the Houses of Parliament, every shot would have gone through that clock-face, and three out of four of the shots fired, would have gone within four inches of the clock-spindle. Three out of four of the shots would, in fact, have struck the clock-spindle.
Though this particular demonstration is new, it must be borne in mind that the demonstrations of the principle were old enough to have been with due diligence applied in the Crimea and in India. Why they were not, why waste has been incurred, is matter of serious in' quir' y on which we shall have something to say. Ona reason why, however, was the death of Lord Hardinge, who, seeing the demonstrations of the polygonal-shaped shot principle in the rifled musket, was anxious for its extension to all arms.
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