MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
22 
application of the principle, which I proposed to apply to this class of gun, 
and required that I should produce a complete carriage, with every appliance 
matured for working the new arrangement. This has taxed my attention 
to the utmost. I conducted at my own expense an inductive series of 
experiments which were commenced in 1857-1858 with models, and which 
I carried as far as a 32-pr. 48 cwt. gun. 
There is a great margin however between a 32-pr., and a 7-ton M.L. 
rifled gun. I believe I may confidently state, that in the history of mechanics 
a perfectly new principle has not before been applied, to control such 
enormous strains and weights with so small a series of experiments; on 
that account, if the approaching trial is satisfactory, I think it will speak 
well for the principle advocated by me. 
Before finishing the description of what belongs to the carriage and 
going on to more important considerations, I shall briefly describe the 
reflecting sight already referred to, which is an important adjunct of the 
arrangement, although not necessarily always employed, being quite a 
separate invention. It consists of a reflector placed in front of the 
trunnions, and a fore-sight in front of the reflector. A line through zero 
on the fore-sight, and parallel to the axis of the gun, passes through two 
cross wires on the reflector at their intersection. 
The fore-sight is graduated from zero downwards in yards, to the extreme 
range of the gun, and is set at an angle to correct the permanent deflection 
of the rifled projectile. 
The field of vision is extended at pleasure by moving the eye. In laying 
guns I have observed that all men have not the same facility, although 
their vision is good in other respects. I attribute this to the slow action 
in many individuals of the muscles of the iris; their sight is impaired for 
the moment, and its correctness affected by the effort to focus on distant 
and near objects at once. I anticipate that better aiming will be obtained 
with my sight in many cases, as the back sight, or intersection of the wires 
is about the same distance from the eye, as it is from the fore-sight, while 
the object aimed at, is reflected in the same plane as both. This conjecture 
however remains to be confirmed by experience. 
The carriage itself possesses a few advantages, but the real value of the 
system is to be found in the new conditions it introduces. 
The advantages which belong to the carriage itself are merely such as 
that of removing injurious horizontal strain from the platform, and 
economizing labour in working the gun, by leaving the gunners to deal with 
only the difference between the weights of the gun, and counterpoise, instead 
of with the whole weight of the gun. 
I shall now endeavour to indicate some of the applications of the system. 
Its relative value is to be estimated by comparing it with others; and in 
order to do so, I shall divide the subject under a few heads, that each point 
may be scrutinized separately, and the balance in favour of, or against the 
proposed system ascertained in each case. 
I shall omit in this comparison some special applications, such as the use 
of my proposed gun pits, a method of mounting artillery made possible for 
the first time by the invention, its use in ships, in which case steam or 
compressed air is used instead of counterweight, also its application to 
heavy howitzers, &c. &c. as the limits of this paper will not admit of them. 
