ARMSTRONG AND WHIT WORTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1297, 29 September 1864, Page 3

ARMSTRONG AND WHIT WORTH.

(From the Times, June 29.) There is still nothing very decisive to record in >the way of a clear final advautage of one of those .competitors over the other. The verdict of one day's firing so often reverses the results gained the day before, and these are so likely to be in turn upset by experiments which are to s come, that any attempt to give an outline of each day's results ■would only add to the confusion of a confused subject and involve a question which the erratic and "contradictory action of the committee renders more involved each day. The trials as regards firing for range and accuracy and the light 12-pounders have, as our readers know, been brought to a Conclusion, but a great deal yet remains to be done before the .entire official programme is gone through, and the guns are delivered to the competitors for a kind of Supplementary trial, in which both Sir William and Mr. Whitworth will be allowed to show off the powers of their ordnance in any specially favourable light they may choose. The latest competition with •these 12-pounders was with shell—common, segment, .and shrapnel—against mantlets and targets, and to show the effect of accidental bursting of shell—that is, shell bursting 100 yards in front of troops, instead of, as they ought to burst, at 20 or 25 yards. These trials have been of the last importance in eliciting the destructive effects of each gun, and that .and the question of endurance are really the main points to be solved by this contest. The value of a field gun may be estimated in a great measure by its power of throwing a destructive shell effectively. Its performance with solid shot are so secondary to tlxis important result as to be in a measure almost beside the question. The marvellous excellence of Mr. Whitworth's field-piece .as a solid shot gun has never admitted of question, any more than that shell firing used to be its weak point. Colonel Boxer has, however, designed a shell (very similar in its general principles to that now in use among the Federals, who, Colonel Boxer asserts, have takeu his idea) which seems to suit Mr. Whitworth's gun admirably. Certainly, the results which have been obtained during recent practice do the highest credit to Colonel Boxer's invention, which is most ingeniously constructed to get over the difficulty which the narrow diameter of Mr. Whitworth's projectile offered to its containing an efficient bursting charge at all. At the same time we must impress -upon our readers the necessity of separating in their ideas the performance of' Mr. Whitworth'3 gun from those of Colonel Boxer's .sAe//, in so far as that if the Boxer shell is better and more destructive than the Armstrong segment shell, it is only a proof of the superiority of shells not of guns, as the Boxer shell .cau be fired from either, and would, if anything, be more easily adapted 1 to the Armstrong gun than the Whitworth, and for these reasons:—The Armstrong .fires a rather short, cone-headed, cylindrical shell; this cylindrical form enables it to hold a large bursting charge in the centre, and round this are built or placed little rough cast-iron segments of a circle, ■which gives its name to this destructive shell. The Whitworth shell, on the contrary, from its very ■narrow diameter and hexagonal shape, is not easy ! to adapt to a centre bursting charge, or to the iron segments. Colonel Boxer has, therefore, designed a thin cast-iron shell, which he fills with leaden bullets, putting either the time or percussion •fuse on the top, which leads down to the J bottom of the shell, where a small exploding charge 1 of powder is placed. If the shell is to be broken up aud spread its pieces with destructive effect this 1 exploding charge is 12 drachms; if the bullets are ! wanted to go far it is only 6 drachms. With the 1 .latter small charge the shrapnel bullets are just 1 blown out of the cast-iron shell case which drops to 1 the ground, while the bullets sweep on in a gradually ! -extending circle, with all the force which they have 1 .derived from their original discharge from the cannon's mouth. Thus, then, Colonel Boxer fires a sort of iron blunderbus from the gun, which is discharged either by the time or by the percussion fuse on meeting any obstacle, and sends its hail of bullets When used for short distances, however, the 12 drachms charge is preferred, which is enough to break the shell-case and add its ragged fragments to the general havoc of the round bullets. If this principle was used for the Armstrong gun, the greater diameter of its shell would enable it always to use the full bursting charge, while a greater number of circular bullets could naturally be got into a circular shell than into a six-sided one. The use of a varying bursting charge is open to most grave objections in actual warfare. The idea of measuring the charges into a shell in the hurry and hot blood of action is as much out of the question as Sir William's idea of filling the common shells with the aid of a rammer and mallet, which was objected to and stopped by the Committee on Thursday as a thing which, like the altered charges of shell, it ■would be impossible to use in actual service. The theory of the Boxer shell haying a light charge to part its bullets without at all depriving them of the force of their onward flight from the gun is identical with the theory of Sir William's segment ; shell, and, as we have said, with the theory of the Federal shell. The shrapnel shell of Colonel Boxer is very perfect indeed, but in its present adaptation to the Whitworth gun it has some disadvantages which may very likely be capable of adjustment, but which in the present state of this keen competition require notice. Colonel Boxer has no more finally perfected his percussion fuse than Sir William Armstrong has his fuse for time. When Co- I lonel Boxer fires his shells against the ground in < front of troops many of them turn out " blind " — < that is do not explode at all. When they do so explode, however, their effect in ricochet firing is greater than Sir William's segment shell. The spherical form and superior density of Colonel Boxer's bullets enable them to glance upwards after bursting, sometimes in the right direction with murderous effect. Yery often, however, tliey go in quite a wrong direction, for the Whitworth shot after touching the earth is rather erratic in its ricochet, and if its percussion shell explodes it may throw its bullets to the right or left, or high into the air according as the shell glances. This failure of explosion, which, though not frequent, jet sometimes, to say the least, occurs, has led Colonel Boxer often to prefer his time fuse, which as compared with percussion, is very objectionable in action, as the difference of cutting or piercing the fuse by one-tenth of a second—that is, the thickness of the edge of a penknife—more or less, would make a difference of forty yards too far or too short of where the shell ought to explode. Is it reasonable to expect that either officers or men can attain such infinitesimal accuracy in actual battle ? This partial failure of the percussion fuse is no doubt capable of adjustment, but all we have to say now is that it must be so adjusted before the shell can be considered to be what further care and practice no doubt might easily make it, a perfect shell. It is, perhaps, to overcome these temporary defects that the committee have tried many of their late experiments against wooden screens in front of the targets, which burst the percussion shell before the target is reached, and thus insure as far as possible the non-failure of Colonel Boxer's fusees against the ground, and also guard against the erratic ricochet of Mr. Whitworth's projectile, and the contents which Colonel Boxer puts into it. This arrangement brings to mind, again, what we have before stated, —that Colonel Boxer has no more perfected his percussion fuse than Sir William has his time fuse. A large number of Sir William's time fuses have lit in the gun, and this premature explosion is a most grave defect, which must ba due cither to the fuse itself or the wear of the gun. -The injury it does the gun may be disregarded, though it is by no means trifling, but the mischief it would inflict on troops if firing over their heads or operating upon their flmks, cannot be lost sight of for a moment. If the fuse is not in fault, the shunt gun in which this defect has been most observable is evidently letting the gases caused by the explosion pass the shell, and so burn the fuse. If this occasional failure can be prevented for the future, well will good. If it cannot, then either the fuse is dangerously wrong or the shunt gun is giving the first well-marked signs of wear which may soon render it unserviceable. In the practice against the rope mantelets, which were made after the pattern of those used by the Russians to protect their embrasures, < u h] were plaited mats of rope four inches thick, the shrapnel bullets from the Boxer shell constantly penetrated, while, as might be expected, the rough iron segments of the Armstrong shell as constantly s; »« signally failed to do so. In making the fragments of the shell and its bullets or segments ricochet upwards from the ground, the >)xer shrapnel again had a clear advautage, «s dense spherical bullets glancing easily from the tartli, while the rough iron segments of the Arm--8 i°ng cut into the ground and soon stopped themvos. So yj g( , ( r j a j ß fy,. accidental bursting too soon m front of troops the Boxer shell again had a ' e ' ll . tl( l vantage,—an advantage, however, which Mist be considered in connexion with the following J'la.ifyiug statementln exploding his shell at :I"., "'stances in front of troops, or the targets winch represented them, Colonel Boxer used his large .f|.' ir .^ e drachins in order to get, the greatest iOO ~l om the pieces of his broken case. At the ' 7 "'stances he used the light charge in order to j effect from his bullets shot out of the \vcr ' ien tliis alteration of charges in shells which e supposed to burst too soon accidentally came to

thcrknowledge of Sir William he at once protested against it, and demanded fresh trials, or, at all events that a note should be appended to the results, showing that varying charges had been used to accomplish them. The committee, after long deliberations, have however, decided that in future varying charges must not be used, and that experiments shall be madewith the high and low charged Boxer shell from Mr. Whitworth's gun, and if the results given by the different charges are material, a note to that effect is to be appended to the returns of the Wentworth shell practice made by such means. It is the opinion of many that these gun trials should not have been conducted at the same time with the trial of the new and experimental shell of Colonel Boxer; but we confess we cannot regret anything which has brought to light a missile likely to be so valuable to the service and the country as Colonel Boxer's shell promises to become. With common shell—that is, a thin case of cast iron filled with powder, lit from the front by a percussion or time fuse, the Whitworth gun was very distinctly beaten by botli of Sir William's. Mr. Whitworth, to a certain extent, frankly admits this victory, and explains it clearly enough by saying that an error of judgment was committed in making the common shell half a diameter too long, which has, to a certain degree, spoilt its shooting. We give this explanation or excuse as we gave Sir William's about the steel tube of his breech-loader not expanding under the explosion of high proof charges, as it is said it would have done had the whole tube been of wrought coiled iron. But while, for the satisfaction of the competitors, we make their apologies public, it must not be forgotten that they are excuses to which both the public and the Committee will wisely turn a deaf ear, and look to results alone. Both competitors had the most ample time to mature their preparations and elaborate their weapons to the utmost, and by those which they have now at last put forward they must be content to stand or fall. After the trials with common shell were over each competitor was allowed to fire shell after his own fashion, through embrasures at old guns surrounded with dummy figures and with empty limbers in the rear. In this contest the Armstrong shunt gun gained a marked superiority. ?The practice with the seventy-pounder has now advanced to a stage at which the experiments against the iron-plated Warrior target have commenced. The trials with the large guns, if we may so far miscall the 70-pounders, which have led up to these armour-plate experiments, have included the first stages of firing for range and accuracy, duriug which both the shunt and the Whitworth were as nearly as possible equal in accuracy, though at 3000 yards range the Whitworth had an advantage of nearly 200 yards. A breech-loader of Sir William's, not on the old ventpiece system, but one more recently invented, which opens the breech at the side with sliding wedges, was included' in these trials ; but we may dismiss the performances of this piece altogether, as it was on Friday very wisely withdrawn from competition. Thus as far as we yet know, the second system of breech-loading for large guns has for the present been given up by Sir William. The trials against the Warrior target took place on Thursday and Fri3ay, and in this competition a decisive victory was looked forward to for the Whitworth gun, which from the small diameter of its shot has generally been found most effective for at least penetrating the armour plates if it did not damage them much. Contrary to all expectation, however, at this contest Sir William's shunt gun achieved a decisive victory Dver the Whitworth, both with shot and shell, beating it in the ratio of at least two to one. The length ;o which this notice has extended precludes our givng the details on this occasion; but we shall take ;he earliest opportunity of referring fully to this great itage of the competition which is likely to be the nost decisive, as it is beyond all question the most mportant, of them all.