312 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1898. 
cause there was not enough room to place them also in action.” * 
This is even more strongly brought out in the case of the battle of 
Sedan, “where 18 batteries could not find room to come into action.”! 
Other examples might be quoted, but these suffice to show that there 
is a limit to the number of guns that can be brought into a fight, and 
also that that limit can easily be reached. We seem therefore to have 
gone as far as we can in this direction. If increased fire effect is to 
be obtained it must be sought for in another way, and the only other 
way possible is to make each gun do more than it at present can. 
There are two means by which this result can be arrived at. 
(1) . Either the gun must fire a more powerful projectile; 
(2) . Or else the rapidity of the fire must be increased. 
These two alternatives must be considered, because the very exis¬ 
tence of the Q.F. gun for field purposes depends upon its superiority 
over any other system of adding to the fire effect. If a better means 
to this end can'be discovered then the Quick Firer must be at once 
condemned. 
A few years ago a German writer suggested that the most effective 
method of increasing the efficiency of Field Artillery, was to arm 
it with a gun capable of firing a heavier projectile.J At the time 
that this proposal was put forward artillerists were endeavouring to 
discover some means of accelerating the rate of fire. The possibility 
of adapting Q.F. guns to Field Artillery gave a further impetus 
in this direction, with the result, that the other alternative met with 
little encouragement.§ Thus for some years a decided bias in favour of 
the quick firer prevailed, especially on the Continent, bub now there is a 
tendency rather in the opposite direction and the advocates of a gun 
capable of firing a somewhat heavier shell are receiving support. || 
Fears are entertained that a powerful shrapnel might prove more 
efficacious than a smaller one more frequently fired, and as the 
objections to the Q.F. system increase with the calibre of the gun, and 
consequently with the weight of the shell, it is thought that the quick 
firer might find itself outclassed by a somewhat more powerful field 
gun of the present type. 
The question now resolves itself into this ; is the best quick firer 
that can be put into the field, superior, or not, to our present field 
equipment—or to a somewhat similar one—rather more powerful? 
It has been shown that if required, a 12-pr. Q.F. gun, with 
ammunition as effective as that used by our Horse Artillery can be 
manufactured, even a 13-pr. Q.F. firing a shrapnel, said to contain 300 
bullets is reported to have been made.lf Possibly also a 14-pr. Q.F. 
could be produced, but as gun makers have hardly yet gone as far as 
that, it is proposed to take the 12-pr. Q.F. for comparison with 
the system now in the service. In contrasting these two for fire 
# “ Prince Kraft—“ Letters on Artillery,” page 31. 
f “ Prince Kraft—Letters on Artillery,” page 51. 
X Die Bewegungs erscheinungen der Lang geschosse und deren Beziehungen zu der 
Eigenschaften der Feld—Greschutze der Zukunft, von Karl B. Bender—Darmstadt.” 
§ “ Revue Militaire de l’Etranger,” 1892, page 13. 
j| “Journal U.S. Institution,” November 1897, page 1393. 
% “Journal U.S. Institution,” Nov. 1897, page 1393. 
