3-008-485 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Manufacture of the Armstrong Gun at Woolwich Arsenal: the guns at the proof-butts, 1862. '... to fire a piece of ordnance...by the ordinary method of a man pulling a friction-tube while others are standing about would be extremely hazardous. The aid of galvanism is therefore called into action...The galvanic battery and instrument for directing the current are fixed in...a building...and insulated wires are laid underground...On the word of command being given the guns are discharged in succession with the greatest regularity, and with perfect safety to all concerned, by the mere pressure of a key similar to that of a musical instrument...The firing of the guns at proof cannot fail to make a strong impression on the senses of those who witness it for the first time. A gun is seen apparently without human interference to discharge itself...and so on in succession, keeping up a continuous series of reports of no ordinary character, accompanied by dense columns of saffron-coloured smoke...we were informed that in clear weather they can be heard upwards of thirty miles distant...The day on which our Artist visited...was wet and muddy underfoot. This accounts for the...proof-party dressed in jackboots and waterproof attire...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.