BIG GUN EXPERIMENTS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2413, 29 December 1881, Page 4

BIG GUN EXPERIMENTS.

It having been determined to fire a concluding series of five rounds before sending the 100-ton guns to their destined positions at Gibraltar and Malta, the new ordnance committee assembled for that purpose at tho practice range, Boyal Arsenal, Woolwich, last week, where one of the monster guns is mounted in a model enplaoement, constructed ■of concrete at considerable cost, with a view of testing as far as practicable, and rendering as perfeot as possible, the system of mounting and the machinery for working the guns previous to their being sent on service. The officers present included Admiral Howard, •Captain-Singer, 8.N., Colonel Nugent, 8.E., Colonel Davis, B.E , Major Owon, 8.A., and Captains F. Elliott and Bainbridge, secretaries of the committee. Colonel Eardley Maitland, Superintendent of the Boyal Guu Factories, assisted in the experiments, Captain Courtenay and Lieut. Willocks, 8.E., represented the works department, and the gun was laid and fired by Captain He mans, B.A, proof officer. Baron Breneckow, of the Swedish navy, was amongst the visitors, and Major O. Jones, late 8.A., and now a member of the Elswiok firm, represented the maker of the 100-ton guns, Sir William "Armstrong. Some time having been spent in making the now member of the committee, acquainted with the gun and apparatus, the order was given to load, and a horse and oart brought up the powder •charge, which consisted of 4501 b of the most approved prismatio pebbles, each about lin in diameter, and systematically arranged in four cartridges, with means of communication at the ends. These having been placed on a • trolly with the prQJeotile—a flat-headed proof shot of'2ooolb weight—were conveyed along a narrow tramway into the loading turret, where the little carriage was wheelod round upon a turn-table to the proper position for loading. Meanwhile the hydraulic machinery was employed to traverse the gun and depress the muzzle to an angle of eleven degrees from the horizontal, whero it rested upon a crutch at the mouth of the leading port, and at the same time automatically opened the sliding door of the port, which at all other times is kept closed -T>jr a oounterweighfc. Th9n the hydraulic rammer arose, and the charge was driven home, but not until there was a slight hitch, which was natural under the circumstances, .and easily repaired. Having been pointed at the outer bay of the proof butts—a cavernous reoess nearly filled with sand—the gun was ■carefully laid by means of mirrors, and the screens placed in position lor marking the •time of -flight. The gun. 34ft in length, and tapering down from 6stt at the breech to a diameter of 2Jft at the muzzle, presented, from an artilleryman's view, a noble appoarance, as it stood clear above the parapet ready to speak, which it presently did with a terrible roar, filling tho air with a cloud of smoke and dust and debris, and playing havoo with the sandbags which shielded t'ao turret. The registered.velocity was 1570 ft per second, a vory ouperior performance, due to tho especial quality of the powder. Only one other ■round was fired, as some of tho hydraulic tubes displayed signs of weakness, and the ■committee, who appeared vory earnest in their investigations, postponed the trials. The complicated character of the machinery is regarded »s somewhat to its detriment, but it is expected to act well when once in thorough working order. A new speaking tube, for carrying orders from tho gunner in charge to the man At the levers, was found to be an improvement; -and arrangements will probably bo made in the permanent -works to bring the levers more directly under control. There was some vexatious delay between the rounds in removing the crushers and cups placed in the bore for recording pressures. It is now thought unsafe to send a man up the bore in search of these, cs on the last occasion of bo doing the adventurer nearly lost his life. Ho was tho engine-driver, and, ascending before the gun was cleared out, ho was overcome by the sulphurous fumes, and was rescued at some risk by a sergeant of artillery, who went up after him with a life line tied to his leg, and dragged him out in an unconsciov.o stats. The repair of the hydraulic gear .of tho 100ton gun at Woolwich having been completed, the members oi the New Ordnance Committee resumed their experiments last week. In addition to the members of tho committee previously present, Colone! H. A. Smyth, R.A., was on the ground, also Colonel IX McFarlan, 8.A., Ordnance Consulting Officer for India. The powder charge was Again 4501 b nominally ; but in reality only -4481 b, the four cartridges of which it wrs composed being anode up precisely of 1121 b each, for convenience of the Boyal Laboratory. Eor tho manufacture of the prismatio kind of powder Ttraioh has been adopted for these 100-ton guns •the Government pays upwards of Is par pound, and the addition of the projectile, crushers, &0., -brings the total cost of each round up to the .Ji.um of about £3O, which is one of the reasons why the Committee have been restricted to five rounds only. Tho three remaining .of these five were fired on the first afternoon. Five-and-twenty minutes were required for loading and preparing for the first round, 20 minutes for the second, and 15 .minutes for the third, or one hour for the whole three. In an emergonoy the gun oan fee readil/ fired f.ij? same number of rounds in

loss than a quarter of the time. Major W. H. Noble, R.&., oaloulated that the 20001 b. shot fired at a velocity of 1570 feet per second would strike with an ouorgy of 33,500 feet tons at the muzzle, which, even at a milo range, would make short work of three-feet armour. It was held to be romarkablo that all this potentiality is generated with so little strain upon the gun, the pressures created by th? improved powders being uniformly below fifteen tons to the square inch. Until recently twenty-five tons was the standard o£ seouriiy. —(" Home News.")