The Journal of the United Service Institution Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1858 Excerpt: ... 167 ON THE MOLECULAR CONSTITUTION OF THE METALS OF ORDNANCE, AS AFFECTING ITS CONSTRUCTION AND ITS "WEAR IN SERVICE. Br Robert Mallet, Esq., C.E., F.R.S., &c. Within the limits of a single Lecture it will not be possible to do more than glance at some leading characteristics of a large aud important subject, the complete treatment of which requires more than one volume, and which, old as is the art of gun-founding, remains yet in great part to be written. I shall confine myself at present, amongst the metals which may be viewed as peculiarly those formative of artillery, namely, cast iron, wrought iron, steel, and bronze, to the three first, reserving for perhaps some future occasion any remarks upon the last, the most compound and complex, and, though the oldest used, perhaps still the least understood material of ordnance. And again, in the remarks I purpose making upon iron in its three remarkable states--cast, wrought, and steel--as materials for ordnance, I propose restricting myself to some views as to the molecular constitution of these metals: --1st. As influencing the proper form of cast-iron guns; 2nd. As determining the proper construction of guns of wroughtiron; 3rd. As affecting the wear and tear of guns in service---in explanation of the hitherto misunderstood phenomena called " drooping at the muzzle." Incidentally, a few remarks may occur with reference to steel and bronze. I speak in presence of many who upon the well-fought field, or before the shattered tower, must have, had frequent opportunities of observing guns burst in service, and who will have probably remarked a certain general uniformity of direction in the fractures--a common method, as it were, according to which a gun (if sound) always bursts--but probably also without having a...