Armstrong, William George

William George (1810-1900), an English inventor. He is the inventor of many improvements in hoisting apparatus, and other heavy iron machinery; also of a heavy gun, for which he was knighted by the British government in 1858, and raised to the peerage in 1887. This gun is neither more nor less than a rifle of great strength and large caliber. Bars of wrought iron, about two inches in width, are raised to a white heat and then twisted, spirally, around a cylindrical steel core. A second layer of heated bars is then twisted outside of the others in an opposite direction; a third layer outside of this, and so on, until any desired thickness has been obtained. The whole mass is then heated to a white heat and forged with a steam hammer. Two or more sections of this sort, about three feet in length, are then sawed off square at each end, brought together under intense heat, and surrounded by large rings to secure the joint. The steel core within is then removed, and the barrel of the gun is bored smooth and rifled with forty spiral grooves. An Armstrong weighing ten tons throws a thirty-two pound bullet five miles. At a distance of two miles a gunner is expected to hit a target nine feet square nine times out of ten, not bad shooting for a rifle. The strength of this gun in proportion to its weight renders it possible to use heavy charges of powder without danger of bursting. See Artillery; Rifle