GUN-CAIMIIAJJK. 2S7 



from the Ordnnnce. by which it appears that your model has 

 passed through an unsuccessful ordeal before the special 

 committee. 



SIR, " ' OFFICE OF ORDNANCE, 21st February, 1828. 



" ' I am directed by the Master General to acquaint you 

 that the Select Committee of Artillery Officers, to whom your 

 model of a 42-pounder carronade and carriage on a new principle 

 were referred, have reported that on examination of the inven- 

 tion, they consider it to be wholly inapplicable to practical 

 purposes. Your model is at the Ordnance Office, and will be 

 delivered on your sending for it. 



" ' I am, Sir, 

 " ' Your most obedient humble servant, 



" ' LOWNDES. 

 " ' It. TREVITHICK, Esq.' 



" My poor mother, who I regret to say has been very delicate 

 ever since your departure, and is now again confined to bed, 

 desires me to say that she is very sorry she is not Master 

 General of the Ordnance, to give it a fair practical trial, as she 

 thinks Captain Trevithick's opinions, though she cannot pro- 

 nounce his name, may be fairly placed in opposition to that of 

 the special committee of artillery officers. 



" Ever faithfully yours, 



"J.M.GERARD." 



The recoil gun-carriage was his first occupation after 

 twelve years of travel in countries where mechanical 

 appliances were less thought of than weapons of war. 

 He commenced this, his second era of inventions, with 

 what he called a new thing, though it was hut an 

 extension of his schemes of 1809, when he patented 

 iron vessels, hollow sliding masts and yards, self- reefing 

 sails, and sliding keels. 



The model gun was of brass, resting on a railway 

 formed of two inclined bars of iron, up which the recoil 



