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SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1898. 
In the first place it seems desirable to understand clearly what a 
Q.F. gun, applicable to field service, really is. It may be defined as a 
gun that can be very rapidly loaded, laid and fired, reloaded, relaid 
and fired again, and so on, as often as may be necessary. It must, 
when in action, admit of being readily fired in whatever direction may 
be required, and should of course possesss the mobility essential to all 
field artillery. To fulfil these conditions there mast be no recoil after 
firing, or if recoil there be, there must be some mechanical arrange¬ 
ment by which the gun is at once brought back into the firing position. 
It almost goes without saying, that smokeless powder is a sine-qua-non. 
I. 
As regards equipment. In comparing the Q.F. gun with that now 
in the service, it is not proposed to discuss at length the alterations 
which this somewhat radical change foreshadows ; that would be going 
beyond the scope of this essay. We are not concerned with the best 
type of quick-firer that can be produced, but have only to point out 
where the Q.F. gun in general, fails, or excels, when considered for 
fighting purposes, in relation to our present field armament. 
To this end it should suffice, if we confine our discussion to such 
points of difference as are likely to affect the working of the Q.F. gun 
in action, and its tactical employment. 
To take the working of the gun in action first. This is influenced 
to a certain extent by the difference in equipment. One of the chief 
changes lie in the construction of the carriage. In order to absorb 
the extra strain due to the checking of the recoil, weight is necessary, 
and yet great strength combined with the requisite amount of lightness 
to ensure mobility, are conditions that must also be complied with. 
Hence the difficulty of obtaining a satisfactory Q.F. carriage. Without 
going into particulars, it may not be out of place to say, that there is 
hardly a gun factory in England or abroad that has not invented some 
equipment which is supposed to fulfil the necessary conditions. In 
perhaps no instance, however, have those conditions been fully attained, 
at least not in the case of quick-firerers as powerful as the guns with 
which our present Artillery is armed. Great advances, however, have 
been made, and gun makers have found it possible to turn out Q.F. 
field equipments, as light as that of our Horse Artillery, carrying about 
the same amount of ammunition, and yet armed with as powerful a gun. 
Possibly more extensive trials than have yet been made, are necessary 
in order to ascertain the real value of these equipments. Should such 
trials not prove disappointing it would seem, that so far as the actual 
carriage itself is concerned, there is no reason why the quick firer 
should not be adopted in the near future—at any rate for the Horse 
Artillery—and when still further improvements have been made, 
possibly for the Field Artillery also. Allusion must be made to the 
difficulty hitherto experienced with Q.F. field guns of rapidly diverting 
the fire from one objective to another. This is a very important con¬ 
sideration, for no gun can be considered suitable for field purposes 
which does not, when in action, admit of being readily pointed in any 
direction. If the gun is to be fired when limbered up, as has been 
