THE USE OF IRON IN FORTIFICATION.
Roumania is thinking of protecting a portion of the artillery of the forts surrounding her capital by metallic cupolas. But, before deciding upon the mode of constructing these formidable and costly affairs, and before ordering them, she has desired to ascertain their efficacy and the respective merits of the chilled iron armor which was recently in fashion and of rolled iron, which looks as if it were to be the fashion hereafter.
FIG. 1.--MOUGIN'S ROLLED IRON TURRET.
The Krupp works have recommended and constructed a cupola of casehardened iron, while the Saint Chamond works have offered a turret of rolled iron. Both of these recommend themselves by various merits, and by remarkably ingenious arrangements, and it only remains to be seen how they will behave under the fire of the largest pieces of artillery.
FIG. 2.
We are far in advance of the time when cannons with smooth bore were obliged to approach to within a very short range of a scarp in order to open a breach, and we are far beyond that first rifled artillery which effected so great a revolution in tactics.
