Vanhouten's breach-loading rifle cannon.
--The Savannah (Ga.) News, of Tuesday last, in alluding to an invention of a breach-loading rifle cannon by a young mechanic, of that city, named Vanhouten, says some experiments were made a few days ago in the presence of several gentlemen, with the little brass model gun, weighing about 25 lbs, with the most satisfactory results. With a charge of powder, half as much again as is used in the Minnie musket to throw the Minnie ball, an ounce and a quarter ball was thrown a distance of a mile and a half, the gun being so depressed as to strike the water, allowing the ball to recochet several times in order that its course might be observed. The inventor is confident that with this model gun he can throw a ball two miles, firing at the rate of fifteen or twenty times a minute. Several gentlemen in Savannah, impressed with the great utility of the invention, and desirous of seeing the principle tested on a larger scale, have invested in it. Mr. Vanhouten intends visiting Richmond soon, for the purpose of having a six pounder breach-loading cannon built at the Tredegar Iron Works.
