THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
95 
Although gun steel—by that I mean cast-steel subsequently densified 
by forgings such as Krupp uses for his guns and we for inner barrels— 
is four or five times as expensive as wrought-iron, a steel gun costs only 
about twice as much as an Armstrong gun, owing to the more expensive 
manufacture of the latter. 
The respective cost of guns of the several materials may be roundly 
stated as follows 
Cast-iron guns ... 21 per ton. 
Armstrong, wrought-iron .... 100 « 
„ „ F. (or cheap) .. 65 „ 
Steel on Krupp’s or Whitworth’s plan .. 170 „ 
Gun-metal... 190 „ 
Lancaster guns used in 1854. 
Although a good deal is still to be learnt about gun materials, our 
knowledge of them has greatly increased since first the necessity for rifled 
ordnance arose. The tendency then was to utilize the stock in hand faute 
de mieuXy and when hostilities broke out with Bussia in 1854, some 8-inch 
and 68-pr. cast-iron guns were oval bored on Mr Lancaster’s plan and sent, 
by way of experiment, to the Baltic and Black Sea, but they turned out a 
failure, as in most cases the straight sided projectile then used jammed in 
the spiral bore and ruptured the'chase* 
French rifled field guns in the Italian campaign, 1859. 
In the lull which succeeded the Crimean Campaign, Napoleon III. turned 
his attention to the rifled artillery problem, and came to the conclusion that 
the readiest mode of solving it would be to rifle his bronze field guns on 
Colonel Treuille de Beaulieu’s plan. Thus equipped he began the Italian 
War of 1859, and at Magenta and Solferino he reaped all the advantages 
he had expected from his superior Artillery. 
Steps tahen by the other Continental powers* 
The Austrians smarting from the painful lesson they had learnt from 
their adversary, made definite trials early in 1860 between B.L. guns with 
lead-coated projectiles, and M.L. guns rifled for studded shot on the 
French plan, and decided in favour of the latter system as being simpler, 
* Mr Lancaster now adapts the form of his projectile to the twist of the bore, and is obtaining 
promising results with a 9-in. gun. It is therefore possible that as he was the first to enter the 
field, he will be the last to leave it, for his system (other difficulties being overcome) is very suit¬ 
able to steel barrels which are so much weakened by the grooves of every other system and possesses 
the advantage of projectiles which are without projections of any kind. 
