ARMSTRONG, WILLIAM GEORGE ARMSTRONG, BARON (1810-I900), British inventor, founder of the Elswick manufacturing works, was born on Nov. 26, 181o, at Newcastle-on Tyne, and educated at a school in Bishop Auckland. From 1833 to 1847 he was engaged in active practice as a solicitor in Newcastle. In 1841-43 he published several papers on the electricity of efflu ent steam, and the inquiry was followed by the invention of the "hydro-electric" machine, a powerful generator of electricity. The question of the utilization of water-power had engaged his atten tion even earlier, and in 1839 he invented an improved rotary water motor. Soon afterwards he designed a hydraulic crane, which contained the germ of all the hydraulic machinery for which he and Elswick were subsequently to become famous.
The Elswick works were originally founded for the manufac ture of this hydraulic machinery, but it was not long before they became the birthplace of a revolution in gunmaking. Modern artillery dates from about 1855, when Armstrong's first gun made its appearance. This weapon embodied all the essential features which distinguish the ordnance of to-day from the cannon of the middle ages-it was built up of rings of metal shrunk upon an inner steel barrel ; it was loaded at the breech ; it was rifled ; and it threw, not a round ball, but an elongated projectile with ogival head. The guns constructed on this principle yielded such excel lent results, both in range and accuracy, that they were adopted by the British Government in 1859. At the same time the Els wick Ordnance Company was formed to manufacture the guns under the supervision of Armstrong, who, however, had no finan cial interest in the concern; it was merged in the Elswick Engi neering Works four years later. Defects in the breech mechanism led to the abandonment by the British Government of the new gun. For 17 years the government adhered to the older method of loading, in spite of the improvements which experiment and research at Elswick and elsewhere had during that period pro duced in the mechanism and performance of heavy guns. But at last Armstrong's results could no longer be ignored and wire wound breech-loading guns were received back into the service in 1880. The use of steel wire for the construction of guns was one of Armstrong's early ideas.
Lord Armstrong, who was raised to the peerage in 1887, was the author of A Visit to Egypt (1873), and Electric Movement in Air and Water (1897), besides many professional papers. He died on Dec. 27, 1900, at Rothbury, Northumberland. His title became extinct, but his grand-nephew and heir, W. H. A. F. Wat son-Armstrong (b. 1863), was in 1903 created Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside.