320 Mr. F. J, Bramwell. [Feb. 27, 



on being fired against a similar stationary shot, placed near the muzzle 

 of a barrel, it would not split, and yet would not be so soft as to expand 

 on the collision between the two cylinders taking place, the result 

 would be that the barrel would not be injured. 



After the air space and the wedge wad experiments, nothing re- 

 mained but the firing of the gun with double-loading. I ought to 

 have said that more than one person urged the authorities to try the 

 double-loading before the canted wad experiment was made, on the 

 ground that as the canted wad would burst the gun, there would be no 

 gun left to fire double-loaded. The authorities, however, having con- 

 fidence in the Keport of the Malta Committee, did not accede to this 

 request, as they felt assured that after the double-loading there would 

 be nothing but fragments with which to experiment. 



To guard against accident very considerable precautions had to 

 be taken. These were most thoroughly carried out by the Royal 

 Engineers, and were in every way successful. The gun, provided 

 with a hydraulic cylinder recoil gear, was contained within a cell 

 constructed of upright timber sides, and a timber roof; against the 

 sides sandbanks were formed, and the roof was loaded with many 

 thousand bags of sand. A transverse opening was left just at the rear 

 of the gun from side to side of the cell, and above this opening two 

 ventilating shafts were placed. The cell projected about 20 feet 

 beyond the muzzle of the gun. There was then an opening of 4 feet, 

 and beyond that another cell filled up solid with sand, into which the 

 projectiles, and any splinters of the gun that went forward, were to be 

 received. Diagram (10) shows the arrangement. 



On the morning of the 3rd of this month, all preparations being 

 complete, the gun was loaded, first with 110 lbs. charge of P. powder, 

 then with a Palliser shell and gas-check, the shell being empty, then 

 a disc wad. This wad fitted so tightly into the gun as to require a 

 mallet to insert it. It was rammed home with a rammer worked by 

 eight or ten men, and when in place a mallet was used on the end 

 of the rammer. 



Then a full charge, 85-lb. cartridge, of similar powder was put 

 into the gun. Then a common shell with its gas-check, but empty, 

 was inserted, and then another disc wad, which was similarly rammed 

 home. When the whole charge was in the gun I measured from the 

 front of the muzzle to the front of the disc of the wad, and I found 

 the front of that disc to be 84J inches from the muzzle, or exactly fair 

 with the front of the 1 B coil. This leaves 113 J inches of the bore 

 as the space occupied by the two shells, the two cartridges, and the 

 two wads : allowing for the circumstance of the points of the shells 

 penetrating the holes in the wads, and for the fronts of the cartridges 

 being within the rim of the gas-checks, and for the front of the hinder 

 wad being indented into the rear of the front cartridge, it will be 

 found that the cartridges must have been occupying 3 to 4 inches less 

 than the length nominally allotted, thus clearly showing that there 

 was no defect in the hand ramming as practised on this occasion, such 



