398 Mr. Mallet on the Physical Conditions 



connecting guns and gun-carriages, through the intervention of sucli compressible mate- 

 rials as shall admit of this being realized, ■without sacrifice of simplicity or effectiveness 

 in the gun. If this be done, the gun-carriage need not seriously increase in weight ; and 

 if applied to wrought-iron guns, whose weight for equal caliber and equal strength shall 

 be much under that of guns of bronze or cast-iron, as much weight may be saved in the 

 gun as, added to the equipments, may leave the entire gun no heavier than at present, and 

 yet give all that is demanded in resisting recoil. 



The experiments given in the text indicate, that with guns much shorter than existing 

 models, but with gun-cotton ammunition, equal ranges may be obtained ; or, with elon- 

 gated shot and equal charges, greater ranges ; but to give resistance for such a mode of 

 firing, wrought-iron is the only material fitted for the gun itself. Ultimately, then, we 

 may look forward to the introduction of wrought-iron field-guns mounted on carriages 

 constructed to receive and absorb the recoil by elasticity, instead of the old and barbarous 

 expedient of mere weight, and adapted, in length and contour, to gun-cotton and elongated 

 shot, with minimum windage, and of enlarged caliber, — perhaps all 18 or 24-pounders, — yet 

 which shall have no greater element of difficulty in their transport or working, than shall 

 be inevitable to the carriage of an increased total weight of shot; and even this weight 

 would not increase quite in the ratio of D^ to D over that for existing guns, — for the ad- 

 vantages in the Geld to be anticipated from such power would, no doubt, reduce the quan- 

 tity of ammunition, or the number of rounds requisite for a given object, considerably. 



The advantages in view would be, all those that the French field-train has already 

 derived from the Emperor's reform, carried out and extended: the power of throwing 

 shells and shrapnells of a size and weight to be really effective — the only point, perhaps, 

 in which the French 12-pounders are found deficient, — increased range — increased accuracy 

 of fire — and the capability of employing such field-guns, upon emergency, as effective 

 instruments of demolition against places of strength, from the increased inertia of motion 

 of their heavy shot. 



Something might be set down, also, in favour of wrought-iron field-guns, to the small 

 value of the material, and, as proposed being mounted, to their lightness and the facility 

 of detachment from the gun-carriage, rendering dismounting and disabling the gun more 

 rapid and complete, capture less valuable as well as less easy, and setting free an enormous 

 capital, now laid up idly in the bronze guns of European powers. 



The relative advantages and disadvantages of any projected change in field artillery 

 involves so -many contingent circumstances, each demanding separate and careful consi- 

 deration, both as to its own effect and its relation to every other part of a complex system 

 or machine, that the views thus attempted to be sketched within the limits of a Note 

 must leave the subject most imperfectly treated, and liable to much objection. I would 

 respectfully commend, however, to professional military readers, the primary idea, of the 



