ARMSTRONG, Sir WILLIAM GEORGE, noted for various mechanical inventions, espe cially in artillery and in water-power machinery, was h. in 1810 at Newcastle, where his father was an eminent corn-merchant, and in 1851 filled the office of mayor. A. was educated at the school of bishop Auckland; but his peculiar mental powers were chiefly cultivated by the opportunities which his father's tastes gave hint, at home, of acquaint ing himself with chemistry, electricity, and mechanics. Though the natural bent of his mind was to some profession in which these sciences would have been available, he readily yielded to his father's wishes, and was articled to Mr. Armourer Donkin, an eminent solicitor in Newcastle, who, at the expiration of his time, adopted him as a part ner. A high sense of duty enabled A. to give his excellent general powers of mind to business; but he devoted much of his leisure to his favorite pursuits, and his inventive faculty was constantly active. About 1838, observing one day a little stream descending along a height near Newcastle, and driving but a single mill, he thought to how much more purpose it might be applied hydraulically, and thus was led into a course of exper imenting, which resulted in his producing a much improved hydraulic engine, of which a description was given in the Mechanics' Magazine for April 18, 1840. Following up this invention with a view to practical applications, he gave to the world, in 1845, a hydraulic crane, which has proved to be of eminent utility in raising weights at harbors and in warehouses. The discovery of electricity in steam by a workman at a fixed engine on the Cramlington railway in 1840 had meanwhile led A. into a new path, and in 1842 he brought to perfection an apparatus for producing electricity from steam, which was soon after introduced into the Polytechnic institution in London. The evolution of the electricity depending in reality on the friction sustained by the small quantity of water which accompanies the steam in its discharge, the great merit of A.'s invention in this case lay in the form he gave the orifice through which the steam passed. This and other inventions brought him into prominent notice; he was elected a member of the royal, society in 1846; and, shortly afterwards, in conjunction with some friends, com menced the Elswick engine-works, in the suburbs of his native town. This establish ment is upon a large scale, at first chiefly employed in producing hydraulic cranes, engines, accumulators, and bridges, for use in Great Britain, the continent, and India, but now embracing also works for the production of ordnance.
In 1854, while war was raging in the Crimea, the war office was solicited by many inventors to make trial of new forms of cannon and projectiles. Mr. Armstrong, one of the number, attracted the attention of the authorities, and was employed to make explo sive apparatus for blowing up the ships sunk at Sebastopol. This led him soon after
wards to consider improvements in ordnance, and he devised a form of breech-loading cannon, combining many peculiarities in structure and action. He received encourage ment to make a few field-pieces on his new method. He made lengthened experiments on the strength of iron and steel, on the relative merits of cast and wrought iron, on the best number of grooves in rifling, on the best pitch or twist for these grooves, on the most convenient modes of loading at the breech of the gun, on the mechanism for lessen ing the recoil, on the best form and structure of shot and shells, and on the fuses best suited for igniting the shells during their flight.
Most of the early experiments were made with guns throwing 6-1b. and 18-lb. shot and shells, and subsequently 32-lb. shells. The last-named gun was built up piecemeal, to avoid flaws or faults, and to insure.strength, lightness, and durability. It was made in 3-ft. lengths. Bars of wrought iron. 2 in. wide, were heated to whiteness, twisted spirally round a steel bar or core, and welded; other bars were twisted over these in a similar way, but with an opposite turn of the spiral; a third and perhaps a fourth were added, according to the thickness and strength needed. Another heating to whiteness preceded a thorough welding of all the layers of bars by a steam-hammer. The ends of two of these 3-ft. pieces were then nicely trimmed and adjusted, placed in contact, and bound together by the enormous pressure of a-wrought-iron ring shrunk on while at it white heat. By varying the number and length of these sections, a gun of any length could be made. The core was then removed, and the bore of the gun rifled by exquisite machinery. The rifle-grooves were so small and close as to be upwards of 40 in number; or twist such as to make a complete circuit in a gun 10 ft. long. The breech of the gun was wholly distinct, and constructed in a different wav; it could be drawn backwards by unscrewing,and had a hole through its center for introducing the shot or shell and the charge. At first, the inventor adopted a steel interior for his gun; but after wards relied on the toughest wrought-iron. The projectile employed with this gun might be solid shot, shell, case-shot, or canister-shot; but the shell was that to which most interest is attached. It was about 3 diameters in length; and thus a 32-lb. shot or shell could be fired from a gun of much smaller caliber than if it were spherical. The shell was built up of about 50 separate pieces of cast-iron, very accurately fitted, and envel oped in an iron sheath. Outside of it were two bands of lead, soft enough to be forced into the rifled grooves of the gun, and thus to acquire the rotatory movement by which the straightness of flight is so much insured.