370 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1898. 
Before giving opinions as to these figures, the principles on which 
those opinions have been arrived at should be stated. These are :— 
which^he tables ( a ) P ower of the projectile , other things being equal, means the 
win be effect to be expected of a field gun, and is therefore of very great 
criticised. importance. It must, then, be heavy enough to contain a large number 
of effective bullets without being so heavy as to cause excessive recoil 
or to seriously reduce the number of rounds that can be carried. In a 
new equipment, likely to be used alongside older guns in the field, the 
projectile should be the same as that already in use, to simplify supply 
of ammunition. 
(b) An excessively high velocity imparted to the projectile is not 
considered desirable ; for, firstly, it brings an excessive stress upon gun 
and carriage in firing ; and, secondly, no time fuzes have yet been made 
that have no variation, one from another, in rate of burning, and 
the higher the velocity the greater will be the error in distance due to 
this variation. Moreover—according to a paper on the subject by Col. 
Nicholson, R.A., and Mr. Hadcock, published in the “ Proceedings of 
the R.A. Institution ” for March, 1889—the number of effective bullets 
from a bursting shrapnel is actually less with a high muzzle velocity 
than with a comparatively low one : this is “ due to the fact that a 
portion of the bullets of the former start at such an angle of elevation ” 
—due to the flat trajectory—“ that they are ineffective before descending 
to within effective height of the ground.” 
All that is wanted is a muzzle velocity that will give the shell 
a remaining velocity at long fighting ranges sufficient to make the 
bullets in it effective, and no more. A base burster and heavy bullets 
will enable this remaining velocity, and consequently the muzzle 
velocity, to be considerably lower than when using a burster in the 
head of the shell, or small bullets. A muzzle velocity of about 1550 to 
1600 f.s. is quite enough for projectiles of 12 lb. to 15 lb. weight, 
filled with bullets of fair size, such as about 35 to the pound. 
(c) For a gun placed as it should be, as low as possible on the carriage, 
a length of more than about 8 ft. is inconvenient, as the long chase gets 
in the way when moving over rough ground. 
(d) As many rounds should be carried in the limber as possible with¬ 
out increasing the weight behind the team. 
(e) Weight of gun and mounting should be proportional to the work 
done on the projectile, to avoid excessive recoil. 
(f) Metallic cartridge cases should be avoided for service in the field. 
equ\ iC ment°s f the Referring now to the tables ; it will be seen that, in all, except the 
shownJiTthe two heaviest, the same calibre, 2‘95 inches, has been adopted. 
tables. Taking first those in Table A, it will be noticed that the “ St. Chamond 
light ” equipment, fires the heaviest shell with a comparatively high 
velocity, while the gun and mounting are by no means correspondingly 
heavy : so that the recoil of this piece will probably be very violent and 
difficult to cope with, causing unnecessary stress on the mounting. 
The bullets in the shell are small, judging by their number, and will 
be ineffective unless the shell be burst close up. This gun however 
does not use a metallic cartridge case, which is in its favour. 
The “ Canet, 1896, short ” and the “ Maxim-Nordenfelt, light ” 
patterns fire such a small shell that we need say no more about them. 
The “ Canet, 1896, long ” is also put “ out of the running ” by having 
such a high velocity, probably intended to increase the effect of the 
bullets in its small shell. It has also the disadvantage of using 
