involved in the Construction of Artillery. 415 



is believed to be an established point, it must be admitted that it requires a constant 

 supervision and vigilance, which can only be obtained by means of a foundry under the 

 entire control of the Government, or the employment of a skilful practical officer, to attend 

 at the private foundries during the whole process of fabrication." 



The latter appears to be the arrangement in habitual use up to the present time, in 

 procuring, by contract, the United States ordnance. 



" Secondly, — As to utility. In former times, it was supposed that bronze only was 

 suited for heavy guns, both on sea and land ; and it was only after great advances had been 

 made in the arts, that the maritime powers of Europe ventured to use cast-iron guns on 

 board their ships." 



We might have supposed that this would have suggested the likelihood of a similar 

 career for wrought-iron. 



" The less cost and greater hardness of cast-iron, therefore, have led to its use for 

 artillery ; and when it is considered that six or seven cannon of this material can be pro- 

 cured for the same cost as one of bronze or wrought-iron, it will readily be perceived, that, 

 if we can fabricate them in such a manner as to render them safe for only one thousand 

 fires, they should be adopted on the score of economy, and their accuracy of fire up to the 

 period of their being laid aside. Accordingly all tlie European powers have fabricated 

 their heavy guns for ships and batteries of this material, using bronze only for field and 

 siege-trains. 



" The British troops in the Peninsular war on several occasions found their siege-trains 

 of bronze speedily rendered unserviceable, and resorted to cast-iron guns ; the superiority 

 of which over bronze consisted in their greater accuracy, and being less heated in rapid 

 firing, and they are stated to have endured 2700 discharges at St. Sebastian, ' These pieces 

 had preserved such accuracy of fire, that in the last days of the siege, they were fired from 

 a great distance, over the heads of the besiegers at the breach, with sufficient precision to 

 reach the besieged behind a high rampart.' 



" The expenses of the experiments in wrought-iron cannon made at Watervleit and 

 Washington Arsenals, consist only in the cost of the ammunition used in firing them, 

 which was taken from that on hand at those Arsenals. Nothing was paid for the guns. 

 For the experiments now in progress at Fort Monroe Arsenal, the expenses consist of the 

 cost of the necessary ammunition, prepared at the Arsenal, and the price of the guns 



3h 2 



