TEE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
29 
the proper point at all, has to take the chance of the gun not being at that 
point when he fires. 
The officer by watching the character of the enemy’s fire, and selecting the 
best time to lay his own gun, might make the enemy’s task nearly 
hopeless. 
I have here to offer a suggestion which relates to this view of the question. 
In certain positions where a line is not exposed to enfilade, it might be of 
advantage to have the platforms running on trucks on a line of railway in 
rear of an extended parapet. 
A proposal of this kind was made some years ago for the purpose 
.of defending parts of the coast. I need not remind my readers'that 
such a proposal is impracticable, as the strain across the line with modern 
rifled artillery, would tear up the rails. The case is now altered however, 
as far as that is concerned, as the interposition of a moving fulcrum between 
the gun and platform would enable ordinary rails to carry a gun in action, 
and the whole weight of a 23-ton gun platform, and counterweight would 
be under that of a heavy locomotive (60 tons). The guns could therefore 
be pushed by their detachments to any point of the parapet at which they 
might be required without being exposed to view. 
To recapitulate shortly what has been said, I submit that my proposed 
system is calculated to produce, to a certain extent, the following results 
It absorbs the recoil in such a manner that it is turned to useful account 
instead of acting as a destructive force. 
It takes away horizontal strain from the platform. 
It gives security from direct fire. 
It increases lateral range. 
With equal efficiency it effects large economy in the construction of works 
for coast defence, &c. 
It economizes life, and it makes batteries more invisible, and therefore 
more easily masked before action, and more difficult to attack in action. 
For thirteen years great attention has been given to the improvement of 
ordnance; in no country has the subject engrossed more attention than in 
England. The best mechanical skill which the nation possesses has been 
brought to bear on it, and with what success no one knows better than the 
members of this Institution. 
I have watched its progressive advances for ten years with a special 
interest, and each improvement has acted as an additional stimulus to the 
work this paper discusses. Impressed more and more, with the urgent need 
of some method of meeting the increasing penetration of projectiles, I 
struggled first with the mechanical difficulties in my way, and latterly with 
the not less formidable difficulty an inventor has to experience, viz. passive 
resistance to new ideas. 
I hope, however, that I have now, to some extent, emerged from both. 
Probably the eagerness with which improvements in artillery have been 
pursued, has had some effect in withdrawing the attention from the new 
conditions, that these improvements themselves imported into the land 
service. 
The problem presented itself most urgently, and in its most formidable 
aspect, to the navy, and large sums have been expended, and are now being 
spent in solving it for this service* 
