headlam: developments in artillery 311 



put?" Just when the manufacturer is priding himself upon the 

 introduction of improvements in method which will shortly 

 double his output, he will be told to shut down. 



So it is, and so it must be — war is not, and never will be, a 

 business proposition. 



Wear of guns. The output of new guns has not only to provide 

 the numbers required to bring the army up to the desired strength, 

 but it has to meet the wastage due to accident, to the enemy's fire, 

 and to wear, of which the last completely overshadows the other 

 two. 



As long ago as 1916, General Gossot said in my hearing ''Up to 

 this the guns have eaten up shells; we shall now see the shells 

 eat the guns." He was absolutely right. At the beginning we 

 had httle anxiety, for so admirable was the material of which our 

 guns were made that their lives proved in practice to be far 

 longer than had ever been anticipated. But as the output of 

 ammunition increased they began to give out, and it may inter- 

 est you to have some figures as to what the "lives" of the more 

 important natures are. [Tables were presented showing the 

 average life of guns and howitzers]. 



Needless to say that the search for a cure has been pursued 

 with vigor, and this is a matter in which there is a great field for 

 science; a field which has not been overlooked in this country, as 

 witness the learned paper on the subject by Dr. Howe in the 

 Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers of 

 last February. There is no doubt that the intense heat caused 

 by prolonged rapid fire has brought on' the guns a strain which 

 was never anticipated, and in France and Russia and Italy I 

 found that deterioration in the quality of the steel used since 

 the war began was thought to have been a contributing cause. 

 With us this latter does not appear to have been the case, except 

 perhaps in individual instances, nor have we been able to deter- 

 mine whether carbon, nickel, or nickel-chrome steel gives the 

 best results. 



Reduced charges have now been introduced. Strict rules as to 

 pauses to cool the guns have been promulgated, and various 

 substances are now used for greasing the bore. We hope to get 



