After a remarkable series of experiments, Sir Joseph Whitworth produced a number of rifled guns of great power and precision. In 1863 they proved their worth in the Civil War in America, and in 1864 a series of competitive experiments was conducted by the British Government at Shoeburyness between the Armstrong and Whitworth guns. The committee of artillerists reported its inability to decide which was the better weapon, and the Whitworth gun was not then adopted by the Government, though foreign nations bought them largely. Four years later a Whitworth gun was produced which threw a 250-lb. projectile 11,243 yards, a range never before attained, and a 310-lb. projectile, 11,127 yards. Sir J. Whitworth also attempted to prove that a flat-headed projectile will penetrate armour-plates even when striking obliquely. Like all inventors of war material of increased efficiency, he believed that the more destructive the weapons and explosives the more improbable would war become, until it should be rendered impossible. “Were it not that the increased destructiveness of war must tend to shorten its duration and diminish its frequency--thus saving human life--the invention of my projectiles could hardly be justified; but believing in the really pacific influence of the most powerful means of defence, these long projectiles I call the anti-war shell.” But Sir Joseph Whitworth was disappointed, and the millennium has not dawned yet. His own summary of what he accomplished, however, shows how one step after another has been taken in the production of weapon after weapon. The progress has been maintained by one inventor and scientist after another, until the remarkable guns with their 25-miles range which now are carried have been made possible. “In 1857 I proved for the first time that a ship could be penetrated below the water-line by a flat-headed rifled projectile. “In 1860 I penetrated for the first time a 4½-inch armour-plate with an 80-lb. flat-headed solid steel projectile. In 1862 I penetrated for the first time a 4-inch armour-plate with a 70-lb. flat-headed steel shell, which exploded in an oak box supporting the plate. In 1870 I penetrated with a 9-inch bore gun three 5-inch armour-plates inter-laminated with two 5-inch layers of concrete. In 1872, with my 9-pounder breech-loading gun and a flat-headed steel projectile, I penetrated a 3-inch armour-plate at an angle of 45 degrees. All these performances were the first of their kind and were made, with one exception, with flat-headed projectiles, which alone are capable of penetrating armour-plates when impinging obliquely, and which alone can penetrate a ship below the water-line.”