We announce with regret the death of Major Sir William Palliser, which
took place suddenly on February 4, 1882. Sir William had been suffering
from disease of the heart for a considerable period, but we believe that
no one anticipated that the end was so near. For some twenty years Sir
William had devoted himself to the improvement of guns, projectiles,
and armor. To him is attributed the invention of the chilled-headed
projectiles which are known by his name. There seems to be no doubt that
chilled projectiles were suggested at Woolwich Arsenal, and even made,
before Sir William took the matter up, but there is excellent reason to
believe that Sir William knew nothing of this, and that the invention
was original with him; at all events, he, aided by the efforts of the
foundry and the laboratory at Woolwich, brought these projectiles to
perfection, and unless steel-faced armor defeat them they cannot be
said to have as yet met their match. A most valuable invention of the
deceased officer was the cut-down screw bolt for securing armor plates
to ships and ports. It was at one time feared that no fastening could be
got for armor plates, as on the impact of a shot the heads or the nuts
always flew off the bolts. The fracture usually took place just at the
point where the screw-thread terminated. Sir William adopted the bold
course of actually weakening the bolt in the middle of its length by
turning it down, so that the screw stands raised up instead of being cut
into the bolt, and by this simple device he changed the whole face of
affairs, and the expedient applied in other ways, such as by drilling
holes longitudinally down bolts, has since been extensively adopted
where great immunity from fracture is required.
It is, however, for the well-known converted gun that Sir William
Palliser's name will be best remembered. When our smooth-bore cast iron
guns became obsolete they were converted into the rifled compound guns
by a process which led to their being known as Palliser guns. The plan
was to bore out a cast iron gun and then to insert a wrought iron rifled
barrel consisting of two tubes of coiled iron one inside the other.
By the firing of a proof charge the wrought iron barrel was tightened
inside the cast iron casing. By this means we obtained a converted gun
at one-third of the cost of a new gun, and saved £140 on a 64-pounder
and £210 on an 80-pounder. The process of conversion involved no change
in the external shape of the gun, and it could, therefore, be replaced
upon the carriage and platform to which it formerly belonged. The
converted guns were placed upon wooden frigates and corvettes and upon
the land fronts of fortifications, and were adopted for the defense of
harbors. The many services Sir William Palliser had rendered to the
science of artillery secured him the Companionship of the Bath in 1868,
and knighthood in 1873. In 1874 he received a formal acknowledgment from
the Lords of the Admiralty of the efficiency of his armor bolts for
ironclad ships. His guns have been largely made in America and elsewhere
abroad; and in 1875 he received from the King of Italy the Cross of
Commander of the Crown of Italy. The youngest son of Lieutenant Colonel
Wray Palliser--Waterford Militia--he was born in Dublin in 1830, and was
therefore only fifty-two years of age. He was educated successively at
Rugby, at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and,
finally passing through the Staff College at Sandhurst, he entered the
Rifle Brigade in 1855, and was transferred to the Eighteenth Hussars in
1858. He remained in the service to the end of 1871, when he retired by
the sale of his commission. At the general election of 1880, Sir William
Palliser was returned as a Conservative at the head of the poll for
Taunton. In the House of Commons Sir William gave his chief attention
to the scientific matters on which his authority was so generally
recognized. Under the many disappointments and "unkind cuts," which
fall to the lot of the most successful inventors, Sir William Palliser
displayed qualities that won hearty admiration. The confidence with
which he left his last well-known experiment to be carried out in his
own absence almost under the directions of those whose professional
opinions were adverse to his own, may be called chivalrous. His
liberality and kindness of Colonel of the second Middlesex Artillery
Volunteers had gained him the affection of the entire corps; in short,
where it might naturally be expected that he should win respect, he won
the love of those who were thrown with him.--_The Engineer_.
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THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.--Regulations were lately issued by Rustem Pasha
for the guidance of travelers and others visiting the Cedars of Lebanon.
These venerable trees have now been fenced in, but, with certain
restrictions, they will continue to be accessible to all who wish to
inspect them. In future no encampments will be permitted within the
enclosure, except in the part marked out for that purpose by the keeper,
nor may any cooking or camp fires be lighted near the trees.
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