3.-57 
THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF Q.F. GUNS 
FOR ARTILLERY IN THE FIELD. 
BY 
CAPTAIN H. W. BARLOW, Royal Artillery. 
“sharp’s the word and quick’s the action.” 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1898. 
In dealing with the subject which forms the title of this essay, one is 
somewhat hampered by being unable to refer to the published results 
of official trials, carried out by the soldier, to test the durability and lire 
efficiency of the new system. It is well known that all the Powers 
have it under trial ; but all of them, as far as I am aware, preserve a 
a strict official silence as to the results obtained. 
A number of examples of the Q.F. system exist,* and the tests 
carried out by the manufacturers of them have, of course, been 
published ; but these, though useful, in that they give us information as 
to the methods in which certain well known principles are applied to 
the end in view, afford most uncertain data on which to base argument. 
It is a very stale commonplace that the only tests of the serviceability 
of any weapon or complete equipment, which can be accepted as 
furnishing trustworthy bases of discussion, are those carried out by the 
soldier. In his powers of breaking the unbreakable, and ruthlessly 
laying bare the weak points of any article under test, he is at once the 
admiration and the despair of the manufacturer. 
This absence of reliable data has not, however, been the slightest bar 
to a voluminous literature on the subject in the periodical press of this 
and foreign countries ; though, as far as I am aware, no exhaustive 
treatise on this burning question has yet been published which is 
impartial and constructive as well as critical, chiefly it is presumable, 
because those who really know think it desirable to keep their know¬ 
ledge to themselves. 
As is usual when a new departure, not well understood, is discussed, 
we find the extravagantly favourable predictions of the enthusiast 
(largely based in this instance on a rapidity of fire, which as far as I can 
* I have seen the details of six. 
7. VOL. xxv. 
