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ARMY—ARMY ADMINISTRATION. 
  
  
core, and welded ; other bars are twisted over these 
in a similar way, but with an opposite turn of the 
spiral; a third, and perhaps a fourth coating follow, 
according to the thickness and strength needed. 
Another heating to whiteness precedes a thorough 
welding of all the layers of bars by a steam-hammer. 
The ends of two of these 3-feet pieces are then nicely 
trimmed and adjusted, placed in contact, and bound 
together by the enormous pressure of a wrought-iron 
ring shrunk on while at a white heat. By varying 
the number and length of these sections, a gun of 
any length is made. The internal core is then 
removed, and the bore of the gun is rifled by 
exquisite machinery. The rifle-grooves are sc small 
and close as to be upwards of 40 in number ; their 
pitch or twist is such as to make a complete circuit 
in a gun 10 feet long. The breech of the gun is 
wholly distinet, and constructed in a different way ; 
it can be drawn backward by unscrewing, and has a 
hole through its centre for introducing the shot or 
shell and the charge. At first, the inventor adopted 
a steel interior for his gun ; but now he relies wholly 
on the toughest wrought-iron. The projectile 
employed with this gun may be solid shot, shell, 
case-shot, or canister-shot ; but the shell is that to 
which most interest is attached. It is about three 
diameters in length ; and thus a 32-1b. shot or shell 
can be fired from a gun of much smaller caliber than 
if it were spherical. The shell is built up of about 
50 separate pieces of cast-iron, very accurately 
fitbed, and enveloped in an iron sheath. Outside of it 
are 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. 
The actual results obtained by a gun such as is 
above described are almost incredible. An ordinary 
long 32 pounder weighs 57 cwt.; Armstrong’s 32 
pounder weighs 26 cwt. The former requires 10 Ib. of 
})owdor as a charge; for the latter 5 lb. will suffice. 
The former will send a shot or shell 3000 yards ; 
the range of the latter exceeds 9000 yards, or 51 
miles. One particular A. gun has been fired 3500 
times without exhibiting any flaw or failing—a feat 
never before even approached in gunnery. At 4000 
yardsy’ distance, a target 9 feet square can be hit 
90 times out of 100. At 1000 yards’ distance, the 
A. gun will hit every #ime an object so small as to be 
missed 56 times out of 57 by an ordinary 32 pounder, 
fired by the same gunner in the two cases. The 
fuses attached to the shells are so exquisitely 
adjusted that the shell can be made to burst either 
directly on leaving the gun, or half way on its path, 
or when it strikes an object; in the last-named case, 
even a sack of shavings will afford the necessary 
concussion ; and yet, so close is the structure, that 
an uncharged shell has been fired completely through 
9 feet of solid oak without the pieces separating. 
For naval use, the small diameter of:the gun will 
allow small port-holes to be used, and thus lessen the 
danger to which the seamen-gunners are exposed. The 
gun-carriages, for ship or garrison use, have a sloping 
slide on which the gun runs up to lessen the recoil, 
and down which it runs again by its own gravity 
after firing. The shells to be directed against a ship 
are so formed, and provided with fuses of such a 
kind, as to explode exactly when striking the hull, 
and when the rent made will be most mischievous. 
Although. the wonderful effects of the A. 
gun relate chiefly to the 32 pounder, the principal 
experimental researches were made with one much 
smaller, but not less worthy of admiration. It had 
a bore of only 1% inch, and was light enough to be 
lifted about (without its carriage) by two or three 
men. It had eight spiral grooves, making one turn 
in 12 feet. When fired at a timber butt measuring 
  
7 feet by 5, at 1500 yards’ distance, this little gun 
propelled shot which hit the butt nearly every time, 
the average deviation from the centre of the butt 
being little more than 1 foot laterally ; whereas an 
ordinary brass 6 pounder, which affords the nearest 
parallel as to weight, is perfectly useless at 1500 
yards, and nearly so at 1000. At one particular eleva- 
tion, the Armstrong shot, barely 2 inches in diameter, 
took the amazing flight of 3000 yards. The 32- 
pounder gun introduced many improvements on this 
little 6 pounder; and the inventor established 
the bases for further improvements in still larger 
specimens—up to 100 pounders, if needed. 
When Mr Armstrong had spent much of his time 
and thoughts during four years on this subject, the 
government, supported by the strongly expressed 
opinions of artillery officers of all ranks, proposed to 
secure the result of these experiments for the nation. 
Mr Armstrong offered to the government, without 
any stipulation, not only all his past inventions, but 
also all such as he might hereafter discover. This 
led to arrangements which the ministers in parlia- 
ment characterised as liberal and patriotic on his 
part; and the terms thus suggested by Mr Arm- 
strong were accepted. An office was created for 
him, that of Chief-engineer of Rifled Ordnance, for 
seven years provisionally ; and a certain amount of 
salary was determined on, in consideration at once 
of his past inventions and of his future services. 
‘Working arrangements have been organised at New- 
castle-on-Tyne and Woolwich, which will render 
possible the production of many hundred guns per 
annum. Sir W. G. Armstrong (the honour of knight- 
hood having been conferred on the inventor by the 
Queen) has pointed out reasons why foreign govern- 
ments must necessarily be, for a lengthened period, 
unable to surmount the extreme mechanical diffi- 
culties of the manufacture of these guns. 
ARMY. Referring to ARMIES (ANCIENT, MEDI- 
EVAL, and MopERN) and to BriTisE ArMY for brief 
historical notices of national military forces, and 
leaving to other portions of this work all details 
concerning the formation and tactics of such forces, 
it may be well to mention here certain distinctions 
in the application of the name A. A Covering 4. is 
encamped or in cantonments, for the protection of 
the different passes or roads which lead to the town 
or other place to be protected. A Siege A. is 
ranged around or in front of a fortified place, to 
capture it by a regular process of besieging. A 
Blockading A., either independent of or auxiliary 
to a siege A., is intended to prevent all ingress 
and egress at the streets or gates of a besieged place. 
An A. of Observation takes up an advanced posi- 
tion, and by celerity of movement keeps a close 
watch on all the manceuvres of the enemy. An 
A. of Reconnaissance has a more special duty at a 
particular time and place, to ascertain the strength 
and position of the enemy’s forces. A Flying A. 
comprises a strong body of horse and foot, moving 
quickly from place to place, to alarm the enemy, 
and to protect garrisons. Any one of these may be 
forced into an engagement in the field ; but they 
are all more or less subsidiary to the Main A., 
by which the greater operations in the field are 
usually conducted. 
ARMY ADMINISTRATION. The whole of 
the operations connected with the raising, clothing, 
paying, maintaining, and controlling of the British 
army, are included in the term A. A. They are dis- 
tinct matters from military command and discipline. 
The Sovereign has the supreme command of the 
British army ; but the Secretary of State for War is 
her responsible representative in all that concerns 
administration—the Commander-in-chief being her