TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 941 
the amide powder we have obtained nearly 2,500f. s. in a 6-inch gun with moderate 
chamber pressures, and with the cordite originated by the Committee on Explosives, 
of which Sir F. Abel is president, considerably better results have been obtained, 
I have elsewhere pointed out that one of the causes which has made gunpowder so 
successful an agent for the purposes of the artillerist is that it is a mixture, not a 
definite chemical combination ; that it is not possible to detonate it; that it is free, 
or nearly so, from that intense rapidity of action and waves of violent pressure 
which are so marked with nitro-glycerine and other kindred explosives. 
We are as yet hardly able to say that cordite in very large charges is 
free from this tendency to detonation, but I think I may say that up to the 
6-inch gun we are tolerably safe; at least, so far, I have been unable, even 
with charges of fulminate of mercury, to produce detonation. I need not remind 
you that cordite is smokeless, and that smokeless powder is almost an essential for 
quick-firing guns, the larger classes of which are day by day rising in importance. 
I now come to the third part of my subject—the modes which are now 
adopted of mounting and working the ordnance I have described. I have alluded 
to the carriages, which, at the beginning of the century, were made of wood, and 
were worked solely by handspikes. Thirty-five years ago they were but little 
changed, although in the case of pivot guns screws for giving elevation, and blocks 
and tackle for training had been introduced, but timber was still the material 
employed. A strong prejudice long existed in both services against iron for gun 
carriages, as it was believed that iron carriages would be more difficult to repair, 
and that the effect on the crew of splinters would be much more serious. 
But when the experiment of firing at both types was made at Shoeburyness, 
with dummies to represent the crews, 1t was found both that the wooden carriage 
was far more easily disabled than the wrought iron, and that the splinters from 
the wooden carriages were far more destructive, 
In all other respects, the superiority of wrought iron as regards unchangeability, 
durability, and strength, was so apparent, that iron, and later steel, rapidly dis- 
laced wood. No gun carriages, not even field, are now made of that material. 
t is impossible, within moderate limits, to give even a sketch of the various forms 
of mountings that have, as the science of artillery has progressed, been designed to 
meet the constantly changing conditions of warfare. I shal]l confine myself to the 
description of certain types of carriages, dividing these generally into three classes, 
viz., those for guns of the largest class, which require power to work them ; those 
for guns of medium size, in which, by special arrangements, power is dispensed 
with ; and those for guns of a smaller class, which are particularly arranged for 
extremely rapid fire. 
With respect to the first class. On the adoption of heavily armed, revolving 
turrets of the Cowper-Coles type, in which the guns are trained for direction by 
revolving the turret, the first idea which naturally presented itself was to utilise 
steam power for this heavy work. It was, however, soon recognised that, on 
account of its elasticity steam did not give the necessary steadiness and control cf 
movement essential for accuracy of aim, and water under pressure was employed 
as the means of transmitting the power from the steam-engine to the machinery 
for rotating the turret and working the guns, 
On land, where an accumulator can be employed, a small steam engine kept 
constantly at work is used; but at sea, where accumulators, whether made to act 
by the pressure of steam, air, or springs, are inadmissible, a very much larger 
engine isemployed sufficiently powerful to supply water to perform all the operations 
ever carried on together. When little or no work is required, the engine auto- 
matically reduces its speed till it merely creeps, so that little or no power is consumed, 
The mode of mounting the guns differs somewhat according as they are in- 
tended to be placed in a barbette or in a turret. Our guns have gradually been 
increasing in length, and are now so long (our largest has a length of nearly 45 
feet) that it is impossible to provide an armoured turret of sufficient size to protect 
the forward part of the gun, and under these circumstances it is a grave question 
whether it is worth while to devote so much armour to the protection of what is 
after all the strongest part of the gun 
