412 MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TREADWELL. 



one of these ? You say that "you do not know whether to press the trials any further at present, 

 as it seems like wasting ammunition." I think it is important now, however, to go to extreme 

 charges, and permit me therefore to suggest to you whether it would not be well to take these 

 same guns Nos. 3 and 4, and order an increase of the charges gradually, every two rounds, until 

 they burst or break. Probably, as the inner rings of these guns are all steel, if they burst with 

 high charges they will make fragments. But if they open at the welds, no pieces will be thrown 

 about. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servaut, 



Daniel Treadwell. 



To Daniel Treadwell, Esq. 



Ordnance Office, 22 June, 1844. 

 Dear Sir, — The foregoing [rSmmS of experiments] has been hastily compiled from the vari- 

 ous reports. 



The measurements of the bores show no increase worth notice. The guns, as regards hardness 

 and durability, are all that could be desired. The openings of the welds appear to be the only 

 defects except the movements in the trunnion bands. 



Yours truly, 



G. Talcott, Lt. Col. Ordnance. 



Extract from the Report of Benjamin Huger, Captain of Ordnance, on the Firing ivith high Charges of 

 two Six-pound Wrought-iron Guns, made by Daniel Treadwell, Massachusetts. — July 12, 18-14. 



Note. — No. 4 had been previously fired 1,500 rounds with service charges, and the results 

 reported by letter of 22d March, 1844. 



After the firing the guns were carefully drawn and examined with a mirror, and found to be 

 in o-ood condition. The diameter of bore at each inch from the muzzle of these wrought-iron 

 and steel guns, proved to extremity, is given in a table, and shows that the change of diameter 

 has not exceeded y^|^ of an inch. The only disturbance in the first and second firings, those of 

 22d March and I6th May, was the slight turning of Nos. 2 and 4 in the trunnions, which are 

 secured to a ring, and this screwed on to the gun. [This was subsequently remedied by means 

 of a pin or " spline," which prevented all rotation.] 



No. 3 had a defective weld or flaw at bottom of bore eight inches from muzzle ; after 1,218 

 fires, the edges of the flaw were somewhat worn ; no other defects observed in the boi'e. (Weight 

 800 pounds.) This gun, which had already withstood 1500 rounds of service charges, was 

 tested as above, and remains entirely uninjured. Mr. Treadwell says : " No bronze six pounder 

 gun ever made would withstand uninjured a single discharge of three pounds of powder and 

 three shot, and, although cast-iron guns are sometimes made to resist that charge, yet the danger 

 from fragments, in the event of bursting, must ever prevent their use with such charges with 

 any degree of confidence." 



