THE ROYAL ARTILLEEY INSTITUTION. 
25 
nature has supplied in each place, many positions might be defended on my system 
from the attacks of the heaviest artillery, at a small per centage of the cost which 
is now required to construct batteries with iron embrasures, cupolas, &c.; and that 
notwithstanding the economy of these works, they would be probably as invulnerable 
as their more expensive rivals.” 
Tig. 2 sliews a method of laying a Moncrieff ground platform on insecure 
or marshy ground. The absence of horizontal strain enables me to dispense 
with concrete foundations,, &c., and in most cases it would be sufficient to 
lay the ground platform on a thin layer of gravel carefully leveled for the 
purpose. 
Third . Lateral range. 
The lateral range of the guns is the same as those in a cupola, this 
quality would be valuable in guns on the face of a work, and of course still 
more so on salients; in fact, it would make a few guns as valuable as a much 
larger number mounted in the usual manner. 
Colonel Gallwey, R.E., comparing a two gun turret with guns behind 
embrasure shields,"* writes, 
“We may ask then, admitting the above comparison, If two guns in a cupola 
can cover as much ground as six mounted behind shields, what would be the 
number of guns in ordinary earthen embrasures that would produce an equal effect, 
looking at the superiority of protection as well as range controlled P The answer 
might be : If it be admitted that one gun behind a shield is worth three behind 
ordinary embrasures (as it certainly would be), then the two in the cupola would 
be worth eighteen in earthen embrasures, and this estimate is not extravagant if it 
be closely examined.” 
Fourth. Economy in the construction of works. 
The failure of ordinary embrasures on the one hand, and of barbette 
batteries on the other, arising in the former from weakness of the parapet, 
and in the latter from exposure of the gun and detachment, is due to the 
increased penetration and precision of modern ordnance. 
The change in the conditions of fortification inevitably produced by this 
* Professional Papers, Royal Engineers, Yol, IX. p. 45. 
