THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
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1816 to 1819. M. Ponchara, a distinguished French Artillery Officer, was 
making various experiments with an old gun which he had rifled with thirteen 
grooves. 
1821. Lieut. Croly, h.p. 81st Regiment, proposed breech-loading cannon and 
lead-coated projectiles. 
1828-32, Lieut. Norton proposed explosive shells, and a rifled gun. 
1826. Experiments were made with some cylindro-conical percussion shells, 
designed by Lieut.-Col. Miller, of the Rifle Brigade. 
1833. Montigny of Brussels invented a breech-loading rifled piece. 
1842. Colonel Treuille de Beaulieu first presented to the French Government 
his plan for rifling muzzle-loading guns, with a few large grooves for studded 
projectiles, which was afterwards adopted in a modified form, and is now known as 
the French system. 
1845. Major Cavalli , a Sardinian officer, invented a breech-loader (submitted to 
O.S.C. 1850), rifled with tu>o grooves for a ribbed shot; his guns were used at 
the Siege of Gaeta in 1860. 
1846. The Swedish Baron Wahrendorf proposed the system of using lead- 
coated projectiles with shallow grooved breech-loaders. He also tried the Cavalli 
projectile, and rifling with guns closed at the breech on his own plan, whilst Lieut. 
Engstroem of the Swedish Navy affixed hard wood bearings or buttons to an iron 
projectile. Wahrendorf’s and Engstroem’s designs were submitted to the O.S.C. 
in 1855. 
1852. H.R.H. Prince Albert proposed a concussion shell, Lord Clarence Paget 
a rifled projectile, Lieut.-Colonel Stevens, R.M.A., a plan for rifling 13-in. sea 
service mortars ; Mr Mallet an improved form for rifling cannon shot and shell. 
Proposals were submitted to the O.S.C. in 1853 by Lieut.-Col. Grant, Captain 
Norton, Captain Jodrell Leigh, Signor Yerga, &c., &c., &c. 
In 1854, by Major Parlby, Mr Lancaster , Admiral Duff, Qr.-Master Serjt. 
Macbay, R.A., Major Parsons, Major the Hon. W. Fitzmaurice, Major Van- 
deleuiyR.A., Lord W. Fitzroy, Mr G. Nasmyth, Captain Anson, R.A., Mr Hadden, 
Mr (now Sir W.) Armstrong, &c., &c., &c. 
1855. Capt. Blakeley , R.A., patented his method of forming guns with an 
internal tube of cast-iron or steel heated and shrunk upon the cylinder, and Sir 
J. Woodford, Capt. Fowke, R.E.; Messrs Goddard, B. Britten , Underwood, 
Skelton, &c., and the Revs. J. Bramball and R. Potter, brought forward various 
designs. 
1856. General Timmerhans of the Belgian artillery invented a wad which by 
taking the rifle grooves gave rotation to the elongated shot. 
1857. Messrs J. Whitworth and Mr A. Jeffery submitted their inventions. 
In short,, it appears from the records of the Ordnance Select Committee that 
up to 1855 experiments had been made with rifled guns and projectiles for half a 
century in this country, but without any satisfactory result. The projectiles tried 
were very numerous. They were generally fired from special cast-iron 9-prs. 
rifled with four grooves, making a quarter turn in tbe bore. Specimens of those 
experimental projectiles are preserved in the O.S.C. Museum, Royal Arsenal; 
officers desirous of “ inventing ” a new shot or shell are recommended to examine 
previously this heterogeneous collection. 
Such being the state of the case it was indeed fortunate for the ascendancy 
of artillery that, owing doubtless to the spread of railways, suspension bridges, 
&c. &c., the requisite improvement in metallurgy and in mechanical appli¬ 
ances should have opportunely taken place in recent years. It is only of 
late that the manufacture of cast steel as a material for rifled ordnance has 
