BURSTING OF A HUNDRED TON GUN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1930, 1 May 1880, Page 3

BURSTING OF A HUNDRED TON GUN.

The trials of the Italian ironclad Duilio were marked by a terrible accident. The following particulars are given by the special correspondent of tho “ Standard ” :—What has happened is exactly this. The powder chambers of all the hundred-ton guns were enlarged in some cases after tho pieces wore made, and in all after they were designed. From the enlarged portion of the bore to that which remains in its original condition there is of course a slope which, pursuing it round the interior of tho gun, forms a truncated cone, with its base the size of the powder chamber, and the truncated section tho size of the rest of the bore. When the gun was fired with a charge of 5511 b. of Fosaana powder and a 20001 b. shot, the steel tube parted with a clean fracture just at the base of this truncated cone. Tho wrought-iron coils which surround the steel tube are meant to resist transverse strain and tho longitudinal strain so far as their own material is concerned. Not the slightest damage has occurred to any of them, so far as can yet be ascertained, but when the steel tube parted, the wronght-iren tubes, which are formed of coils, separated from each other, so that the breech of the gun was pushed backwards by tho force of the gas generated from the charge, and tho muzzle portion was only prevented from e.n equal movement forward by the hydraulic press which controls the gun in its motions, and which, in this case kept under perfect control that portion of tho gun which remained fixed to it by tho trunnions. The breech portion—for it must be remembered that there were only two parts —was under no control, but was driven backwards against the turret wall behind it. This wall consists of first an inner steel skin, then the backing, then the 22-inoh plates, and outside all a second skin. The breech indented the inner skin, which it cracked and starred in every direction. The force of tho blow caused two of the great 22-inoh plates to open away from each other, as one opens both sides of a pair of folding doors. 1 o far as a cursory examination could show, the adjacent edges of the two plates were driven back about a foot to 18in, and tho opening so made appeared to bo about 2ft 6in, through which the backing could be seen to bo seriously damaged. Having caused this effect, the heavy breech portion rebounded almost into its own place again, and was there brought up by the muzzle portion, which remained affixed to the carriage by tho trunnion. Both pieces remained in the turret, the roof of which was partly torn asunder by the plates as they leaned outwards, and possibly aleo raised to a certain amount by the escape of gas. But there is reason to believe that almost all the force of the powder had been spent in opening the gun, and that the remaining power would not have been sufficient in itself to lift the roof of the turret. The reason for this supposition is as follows. Of the persons within the turret, two—a midshipman and a sailor—were standing close beside tho gun when it was fired, and both were hurt more or loss seriously. On the other hand, two men (one of them named Hutchinson, being an employe of the Armstrong firm) were standing in the turret, but on the far side of tho second gun. They received but little damage, consisting mainly of the nervous shock and a slight singeing of their hair. Now, if the pressure of the gas from the powder had been severe enough to rend the roof by itself, there can hardly bo a doubt that these two men and all the others would have been killed. The name of the midshipman was Moenigo, a youth of old Venetian family. He appears to have been thrown against some hard surface, for ho received a severe blow on the head, from which, however, he had sufficiently recovered within an hour to wish to enter into conversation with his friends.

Lieutenant Parent was act’ng as captain of the gun, and was seated somewhat above the breech. Ho was lifted upwards, and struck his head against the roof either of the turret or the conning tower, X am not certain which. The effects of the blow cannot be very serious, for he was soon desirous of conversation, and told me, with great pluck, “ I am all right, but I am sorry for the system, which will now be decried, but which I still believe to be the best in existence.” Captain Albini, too, the Director General of Naval Ordnance, declared himself perfectly ready to go into the other turret and remain there while the two guns which form its armament were fired. Indeed, nothing could exceed the courage and good feeling of all the Italian officers present, who treated the whole affair more as an unavoidable accident than as a serious blow to the credit of their new artillery. One man, who was standing on the roof of the turret, suffered a severe fracture of the leg ; the rest of the nine persons injured received but slight wounds. The thrust outwards of the heavy steel plates partially tore up a small portion of the deck, and it is probable, but was not ascertained while I remained on board, that the turret could not be made to rotate. The hydraulic presses, which had put the gun through its various processes of loading, running up, and elevating, were uninjured by the shock, but the small pipes leading to them were crushed by the breech in its recoil and rebound.