THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
103 
witness at tlie principal engagements, declares that the practice was very 
bad. “ The shell firing particularly so; most of the shells bursting at the 
muzzle, and not one in twenty taking effect. The shot were generally badly 
pitched and fell short of the enemy, and as the ground was undulating and 
in many places very rough, they went altogether out of the line of fire, and 
clean missed the columns of Moors.”* 
Lieut. Hozier, who accompanied the Prussian army into Bohemia in 1860, 
states, “ that during the late campaign, not more than five out of every seven 
Austrian shells burst, and those that did burst did little comparative damage, 
the bursting charges being apparently too powerful for the rifled projectiles, 
and as far as he could follow the course of the shells fired from the Prussian 
rifled batteries, he is inclined to think even more Prussian than Austrian 
shells fell blind, and many that did burst, burst short and high, and could 
not have done much harm.” 
He thinks that the Armstrong guns (Lieut. Hozier served in China in 1860), 
when first introduced into the service with inexperienced gunners, did better 
work than the Prussian guns in this campaign. 
Two of the Prussian steel rifled guns burst at Sadowa, and some other 
instances having occurred about the same time at Berlin, while cadets were 
at practice, the confidence of some Prussian authorities in steel as a material 
for guns was shaken, and they felt disposed to wish for coiled wrought- 
iron. Again, a steel 4-pr. gun unexpectedly burst at Tegel near Berlin 
27/9/67, and killed the Director of the Artillery Depot and a gunner ;t and 
in July, 1867, a Krupp's steel 9" gun burst on board the Bussian frigate 
“ Alexandra Nwsgi ” while the men were at practice. One officer and 11 men 
were killed and one officer and 29 men were wounded, and the ship was 
greatly damaged. And more recently two other 9" Krupp guns burst 
during ordinary experiments, the one in Bussia and the other at Cadiz, 
Wedge and Shunt Guns Introduced . 
Notwithstanding the progressive excellence of his breech screw guns. 
Sir William Armstrong introduced not only two natures of wedge guns 
(40-prs. and 64-prs.) as an improvement on the breech screw arrangement 
in points of safety and simplicity, but also 64-pr. muzzle-loading guns with 
shunt rifling, and proposed other shunt guns of larger calibre. 
As was natural however in this mechanical age and country, Sir William 
Armstrong was not permitted to bear away the palm without a contest. 
Yarious propositions for rifled guns were submitted to the O.S. Com¬ 
mittee, and in 1858 General Peel, the then Secretary of State for War, 
“ called upon Colonel Lefroy, his scientific adviser, for a report on all the 
experiments that had been tried on rifled ordnance, and in accordance with 
the recommendation of that report appointed a special committee to examine 
as to what was the best rifled gun for field service. This committee came 
to the conclusion that it was not expedient to incur the expense of trying 
further experiments with any except those of Messrs Whitworth and 
Armstrong. 
* Letter to Captain Stoney, March 21, 1868. 
f O.S. Committee Extracts, Vol. Y. p. 296. 
