ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC NEWS

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 175, 20 May 1864, Page 3

ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC NEWS

(From the Kelson Examiner's oicn Correspondent.) Loxnox, Eeb. The authorities at Woolwich Arsenal have received orders from the War Department to prepare for the immediate manufacture of fifty guns, each to weigh 7 tons 10 cwt., with a bore of 7 inches. These guns will he constructed with thick inner tubes of tempered steel; they are also to have solid ends, and (lie other receut improvements which were introduced into the construction of the four experimental guns made in the Royal factories, with a view to enabling the Ordnance Select Committee to test the best known systems of rifling. The new rilled gnus are wanted with all despatch, as (on dit) “the Armstrong weapon has proved untrustworthy in warfare.” We have, at last, one 300 pounder gun in the Navy. It is enough to swear by, if the authorities in the House of Commons are asked awkward questions. Mr. Lynall Thomas, a few days ago, declared that both for short, as well as long distances, rifled ordnance bad been proved superior to muzzle loaders, and be condemns the course of the Government, after such proof, in ordering gigantic muzzleloaders. Any way, the nation is bent on not relaxing in armaments. In small arms,

Cull’s revolver seems most approved—the pattern which can be leset and cocked fur a frcsli cartridge by a movement of tl;e finger. Prussia seems to liave beaten iff a I'anish iron-clad with rifled twenty-four pounders, but, if tliey are Krupp’s guns, that is quite likely. Brown and Co’s great armour-plate and other iron and steel factory, at Sheffield, is to be incorporated in a company, with a capital of a million sterling. In your New Zealand war, light steel field-pieces, good revolvers, Norton’s shells, &c., should prove of service.

A letter from La Itochelle, contains some further details relative to the submarine boat Plongeur. fcshe draws Bft. of water j engine 80 horse power. Steam is replaced by compressed air, and her crew'of 12 men are quite protected. Ihe Plongeur is intended to be a formidable engine of destruction. Her spur is hollow, tube-like, and an incendiary shell may he placed in it. Should any enemy s fleet he at anchor, the Ploiiguer will drive her spur into the nearest ship and then retreat, unrolling at the same time a metallic wire. When at a safe distance, an electric spark will cause “ a great explosion,” the enemy’s ship being blown up. It may he parenthetically, ami perhaps pathetically, iidded, that should this ingenious, but noli very novel scheme fail, Le Ploiiguer, will stand a very good chance of diving like a whale, and forgetting to come up again ; and this with our French friends, or any others inside.