456 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



all be restored, with the exception of the steam hammer substituted for the hydro- 

 static press, from Treadwell's specification alone.* 



Section of the Treadwell Gun of 1855. 



Section of the Krupp Breech-Loading Gun of 1880. 



From the Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Gun-making. 9th edition. Except in the breech-loading apparatus, the resemblance 



between the Treadwell and Krupp guns is obvious. 



Mr. Treadwell in his letter to the Secretaries, in 1862, writes : 



" It might have been said, when this plan was first promulgated, its principles pointed out, 

 and its advantages demonstrated, that, however perfectly I had tested by practical trial the su- 

 periority of my guns made twelve years before of wrought iron and steel, no such practical test 

 had been made upon the peculiar form last proposed (1854). This objection can now no longer 

 be made. If I have been prevented or denied the opportunity of giving the practical test myself, 

 others have partially done it for me. This has been effected, first, by Captain Blakely, an able 

 and scientific officer of artillery in England, who filed a specification there soon after the date of 



me 



" Again, Mr. Whitworth, who has carried on such a sharp o; 

 hoops strained on to the body of all his large wrought cannon." 



Had Mr, Treadwell lived longer, he might have added 



© 



these the names of 



o 



* * 



makers of the world.f 



* The process of making the Armstrong gun, and also that of the hooping of cast-iron guns, were seen by the 

 editor of this memoir at the Woolwich Arsenal, in 1873, and were as above described. 



f During the war of the Rebellion, many guns were made for the Government witb a cast-iron body and a single 

 wrought-iron hand shrunk on to the body of the <rnn between the breech and the trunnions. The light gun~ 



s, ten 

 was. 



or twelve pounder field-pieces, did well, and illustrated the value of the hoop or band, imperfectly applied as it 

 The heavy guns were a failure. The single band which was used was neither screwed, interlocked, nor splined to the 

 body ; it changed place and covered the vent ; having been heated to 1 100° P. in the process of manufacture, it was 

 no longer elastic When strained by the force of the explosion, it remained enlarged and no longer gave proper sup- 





