PALLISER GUNS AND PROJECTILES.—SIIICC the issue of that portion of the Eneyelo pcedia devoted to great guns, a considerable step in advance has been taken under the auspices of maj. Palliser, a cavalry officer on half-pay. His guns have resisted charges that would have instantly shattered any others yet brought forward; and by the aid of his hardened projectiles, shields have been pierced which had defied the heaviest bolts of all other ordnance. Although only prominently before the public during the last few years, this indefatigable officer has been experimenting from time to time since 1854, iu the one direction. Cavalry service in the Crimea and in India interrupted the investigations, but they were resumed when opportunity offered. The principle of maj. Palliser's gun is readily understood.
With the large charges used in this country, east-iron guns were unequal to project shot and shell, and wrought-iron ordnance were introduced. These answered their purpose to a certain extent, as in the Armstrong and other guns; but there was an element of uncertainty in their texture, and some of them had burst with had effects. To this might be added their enormous expense; and the fact that thousands of large east-iron guns were in store, to all appearance useless. Many attempts have therefore been made to utilize these cast-iron guns, the means adopted being generally to shrink rings of wrought iron over them. This has not proved effectual, and the guns have become preposterously cumbrous. Next, the cast-iron guns were bored up to a greater caliber, and then a thinner cannon (called a tube) was inserted, this tube being a cylin der of wrought iron or steel, bored to the proper caliber. The strength thus added to the gun has been but little. Maj. Palliser's system for converting guns is to insert a rube of wrought iron; but that tube is coiled, as in an Armstrong gun, by winding a bar A iron round a mandril, and then welding it into a continuous barrel. 'These guns have withstood the utmost strain brought to bear upon them. For the preferable and cheaper process of making new guns the iron would be cast in the ordinary way around the wrought-iron tube. For the purpose of this tube maj. Palliser finds the softest and most
ductile wrought iron the best, having a certain stretch in it. The authorities had already found out that thick iron plates could not be penetrated except by steel projec tiles; but their use was greatly limited by their great cost. Maj. Palliser came, by ex periment, to the conclusion, that toughness was not a necessary feature in the shot, and that hardness—no matter how brittle the material might be—was the real thing neces sary for extreme penetration. With this view, he selected white iron, and cast it in chill, which secures the requisite amount of brittle hardness. To cast in chill, an iron mold of the exact shape is employed, with raised studs of sand inside it. The liquid metal is poured in (the sand studs forming boles for the studs of the future shot or shell to be fixed in); and the rapid conduction of heat by the iron mold causes so sudden a cooling from the outside of the mass tLat the particles of iron are driven closer together than in their normal state. This produces intense hardness. The same inventor has ascertained the proper shape for the head of a shot or shell, as opposed to the flat head. the pointed conical head, and the hemispherical head already in use. He determined that the form of greatest power is the conoidal, which lies between the conical and the hemispherical, the conoid consisting of the intersection of two circles, each with a radius equal to 'twice the diameter of the projectile. • RECRUITING.—The competition of the labor-market at home and abroad telling very disadvantageously against the recruiting-sergeant, a roYal commission was appointed in 18136 to consider by what means the evil might be lessened. Although all the recom mendations of the commission have not been adopted, several have taken effect. Among, others, an inspector-general has been appointed to superintend and harmonize all the recruiting operations; to render the conditions of service more attractive, the pay of every soldier has been increased twopence a day, with an additional penny in prospect, if he continue to serve after the expiration of his first period of service. In 18'72-73 fur ther changes were made. See RECRUITING.