290 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY 1808. 
lanyard, fire the gun, and remove the fired tubes.* 
7. Fuzes. —Time fuzes can certainly not be abandoned for Field 
Artillery, and it appears possible that, in the case of a Q.F. Field 
Equipment, the rate of fire 'which could be maintained, might, unless 
careful arrangements be made to prevent it, be limited by the rate 
at which fuzes could be set. 
It must be remembered^however that there is no reason why two or 
even three men should not be setting fuzes simultaneously. With a 
non-recoiling gun requiring no running up, and the layer doing his own 
pointing and firing, the men at present engaged in those duties would 
be available and no difficulty need be apprehended on this score. It 
would resolve itself into a matter of drill. 
It would appear from a consideration of the foregoing, each item of 
which appears to be clearly established, that, in the present state of our 
knowledge, there is no inherent impossibility in the proposal to make 
available the Q.F. type of guns for the use of the Field Artillery, 
provided that such an armament be considered suitable in other respects 
—whether this be so or not, will be considered in the following 
sections. 
SECTION III. 
The ADVANTAGES OF A QUICK-FIRING EQUIPMENT FOR ARTILLERY* 
IN THE FIELD. 
These may be summed up under three general heads, each of the 
highest importance :— 
1. Greatly enhanced intensity of fire. 
2. Quick ranging, and 
3. Less frontage required for a given amount of fire—or conversely 
a far greater amount of fire possible from any position of given extent. 
1. Intensity of Fire .—It will be readily granted that the more 
intense the fire of which any arm is capable, the greater is its effect and 
the greater its chances of subduing its enemy. 
Intensity of Fire has hitherto been striven for by bringing into the 
Field the greatest possible number of guns. 
But supposing this to be equal, then Intensity of Artillery fire (shrapnel) 
can be arrived at in two ways, either by a very rapid succession of 
medium sized shell or by a slower succession of heavier projectiles ; 
each of the latter however releasing, on bursting, a larger number of 
bullets than each of the former. 
Let us suppose for a moment that the two above systems are designed 
so equally that each is capable of delivering exactly the same number 
of shrapnel bullets per minute on the enemy’s position, and that they 
are pitted against each other. There seems little doubt that, even 
assuming equality in number of bullets per minute, the former will 
prevail. For the rapid arrival of shell after shell will be most de¬ 
moralizing. Most of those who have as boys played in the water while 
* Possibly a very small detachable magazine, like that of a Lee-Metford rifle on 
a small scale, and containing small percussion cartridges, slipped into guides on the 
breech at the moment of coming into action, automatically worked by the block, and its 
lock fired by a trigger or short lanyard or toggle, would be found highly suitable for the 
class of gun now under consideration : of course when exhausted a fresh magazine 
could be instantly attached. The supply of full magazines would be carried in pockets 
along the sides of the trail. 
