GIIN FACTORIES, Remus, are government establishments at Woolwich for the construction of great guns for the use of the British army and navy. For a very long period there had been at 'Woolwich a small factory for the manufacture of brass cannon, but guns of cast-iron were obtained from private foundries by contract. At last it was determined that government should become in part its own gun-founder, and extensive work-shops were erected in 1855-6. The adoption of the Armstrong wrought-iron gun into general use in the service, in 1859, arrested the further making of cast-iron guns, and occasioned again a great expenditure in the erection of shops and costly machinery, which have since been adapted to the other systems of wrought-iron ordnance adopted into the service under the name of " Woolwich." The factories may now fairly be.regarded as among the most remarkable sights in the kingdom. In each department, whatever the process, it is repeated over and over again, long parallel j lines of similar mills are seen, each busily fashioning a separate gun. Iron at red-heat is first wound roillid a solid core (representing the bore of the future gun), as tape might t be round a pencil; and then by the action of successive blows from a steam-hammer (there is one of 100 tons), the strips are welded into a compact cylinder of wrought-iron I of extreme density. This cylinder, after undergoing several beatings and poundings l' with the steam-hammer, is encompassed with wrought-iron rings of immense strength, which are shrunk on, and then transmitted to the boring-mill. Here the proper caliber
i 1 is imparted to it; in another department, the bore is'rifled; in another, the outside of the ,gun is carefully turned; and in yet another, the whole is polished and browned. A guu ' is several weeks in its passage through these may processes. By the ingenuity of sir l William Armstrong, the superintendent, and Dr. John Anderson, his able assistant, every part of the difficult manufacture has been reduced to a question of machinery. Many thousand guns, have to this time been turned out complete, of which upwards of I 7,000 are now available for military or naval use. The Cost of the gnus as now made is on an average, as follows: 12-pounder. £82; 20-pounder, £124; 40-pounder, £206; pounder, £375; 35-ton gun, £2,156. The royal gun-factory was estimated 1 to cost for 1878-9 the sum of £203,948, of which £5,242 were for management; .. £78,650 for the wages of artificers and laborers; £12,G71 for buildings and machinery; and £104,100 for stores to be consumed in the manufacture of guns.
Much of the machinery now used in the manufacture of guns was originally level ' oped at the engineering and founding establishment of sir William Armstrone. and Co., at Elswick, which was for some time used as an auxiliary and supplement Co the gull factory in Woolwich arsenal, the guns being turned out at a contract price, payable after they had passed a rigid inspection. The connection between the government and the • Elswick firm ceased in1863.