EARTHQUAKES TO ORDER.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 2956, 29 April 1898, Page 3

EARTHQUAKES TO ORDER.

j It is on Plurrjstead-marab.es where the. great j Woolwich fire-arms are tested, or " proved " as lit is termed. Guns of all sorts and sizes, from quick-firing guns that will discharge 600 rounds per minute, to guDB so large that it costs nearly £100 for the cartridge alone, all make their trial trip here. Listen ! There is a deep whiatle of a locomotive, the gates of tho Arsenal swing open, and across the bridge cornea an eDgine dragging behind it a colossal weapon of destruction, something over forty feet in length, with a 164 inch bore, and which weighs 110 tons. This gun will send a projectile weighing nearly a ton for miles. It i 8 designed mainly for ooast defence. Ou travels the locomotive, with its murderous load "behind, into the proof-ground, which is surrounded by iron railings to keep folks Trom ! coining too close. Here there is a little ahunti ing and shifting about, aud the gun i» run I under an archway composed of a double thickness Of bent Steel bara, «tboufc six inches apart. held in position by cross-bands of tbe same metal, ao that it is posaiblw to see everything aad yet be comparatively safe in caße of an accident. The locomotive retirea to a shed some distance off, and remains there until the discbarge, is over. The gun ia now taken in hand by the committee appointed by the War-Office for t,be purpose of proving the guns, and the projectile ia rai»ed by the hydraulic crane and placed in the breecb, the cartridge being placed ia after it, and the whole rammed home. The gun is then " laid " (aimed) at a huge bank conoposed of thousands" of tona of sand. I and all is ready. • , • ■ - The gunners retire to a bomb-proef s-bed, -from which the gun is lired by means of clec,tticity, A friendly policeman advises the 'casual-iwanderer to "hold tight,'' aud stay ! 'thefamt notes of a bugle arc just distinguishable ;floa ting on the hreefce ; a fit g on the rifle butts aliout a mile off nutters a mometat and then descf-nds ; the bugle-call is take-n up by another busier posted in a box jost to tha left of the proof- , ;roun'i. r ••-Thejre is s«.>rue<.iM passu. g a'ong the Abb;-.y-wood-r<?>id," says tl c pi'liccm-tn, aud one opens one's eyes and won deis, lor the Abb y-wood-road is abbot two milfes off. Presently comes another faint note from tie distant bugle, taken up again by the one near at hand ; the flag flutters iv tlie bre- ze agnin. The coast ia clear, aud almost before one haa lime to think of it there is a puff of smoke, <-q awful roar, a cloud of dust, and a dull thud as thej>rctectile;Btrikeß the aaiid-rnink. The eaaual wanderer picks himself up off tbe ground, only to recognise that he bus been within a hundred yards of '.he largest gun in Great Britain, and that it was not an earthquake after all. j Tbis trial i 8 repeated twice, when tlie proof' is considered SHtisfactory. At ita full range tbe 110-.o n gun will force a conical projectile through nine inches of solid ateel, two or three feet of teak plant, and no cad of Btsa>bac;s