.S7A- WILLIAM SIKMEXS, /-'.A'-.v 



343 



/// the discussion of the Paper 



<>.\ THE EROSION OF THE BORE IN HKAYY GUNS, 

 AND THE MEANS FOR ITS PRHVFATION ; WITH 

 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVKMKNT OF 

 MUZZLE-LOADING PROJECTILES," by CH.VKLI:S 

 WILLIAM LANCASTER, Assoc. Inst. C.K., 



DR. SIEMKXS* observed that the oval bore which the author 

 advocated in preference to grooves, either furrows in the metal 

 or projections from the cylinder of the bore, forming, as it were, 

 broad grooves, appeared to him, on general mechanical prin- 

 ciples, open to serious objections ; it was, in fact, a cylinder with 

 two grooves, chamfered off in such a way as to present a surface 

 most unfavourable for turning the shot. He could hardly imagine 

 that a gun so grooved would keep its form after long usage. The 

 wedging action, and the consequent friction on the side of the 

 gun, must be enormous. He wished to ask whether experiments 

 had been made comparing the effect of an oval gun with that of a 

 grooved gun, as regarded the effective force of the gunpowder 

 behind the shot. Another point on which he wished to remark 

 was, that the author appeared to advocate a muzzle-loading gun. 

 It had been stated on high authority that nearly all nations 

 except England had now adopted the breech-loading gun. In 

 this country breech-loaders were at one time adopted, but had 

 since been abandoned in favour of muzzle-loaders ; but he thought 

 that breech-loading guns possessed great advantages over the 

 muzzle-loading guns. All the proposals with regard to expand- 

 ing wads were mere palliatives, in order to attain approximately 

 the same effect from a muzzle-loading gun as could be easily 

 obtained from a breech-loading gun. He was at a loss to under- 

 stand why the breech-loading gun should have been abandoned, 



* Excerpt Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Vol. 

 XL. Session 1874-75, p. 1*9. 



