THE KOYAL AETILLEEY INSTITUTION. 
Ill 
And further, the committee recommended “ that the heavy 7" guns then in 
course of manufacture should be rifled in the same manner as the competitive 
so-called French gun, except that the width and depth of the grooves should 
be slightly decreased, and that 8" and 9" guns also should be completed 
with similar rifling.'”* Fig. 7 shews a section of the modified groove. 
Fig. 7. 
The Woolwich guns. 
This was the origin of those powerful pieces of ordnance known by the 
comprehensive term of “ Woolwich guns,” a binomial which may be ex¬ 
panded into C( wrought-iron muzzle-loading guns built oii Sir William 
Armstrong’s principles improved by Mr Anderson’s method of tf hooking ’ 
the coils, and with solid-ended steel tubes toughened in oil and rifled on 
the French system, modified as recommended by the O.S. Committee for 
projectiles studded according to Major Palliser’s plan.” 
In the course of 1865, 6, the Woolwich guns manufactured on this 
<( original construction,” were as follows:— 
176. 9" of 12 tons. 
71 . 8” „ 9 u 
46. 7" ,, 7 „ 
328..... 7" i, 6J, 
So far as strength and efficiency were concerned, these guns were nearly 
all that could be desired, but their expense, £100 a ton in round numbers 
was a serious point, and to diminish it Col. F. A. Campbell who succeeded 
Sir W. Armstrong as Supt. Eoyal Gun Factories in 1863, set practically 
and patiently to work. Two questions presented themselves for solution. 
(1) Could not a coarser and cheaper iron be obtained which would be 
sufficiently strong for the exterior of the gun ? 
(2) Could not the guns be constructed in a simpler and cheaper 
form ? 
By personal visits to most of the leading ironmasters, and a series of 
experiments. Colonel Campbell had already found a very superior and satis¬ 
factory iron for the inner barrels of B.L. guns,t and by following up his 
* See Extracts from O. S. Committee Proceedings, Yol. III. p. 154, or “Proceedings” E.A. 
Institution, Vol. IV. p. 410. 
f Previous to the adoption of Marshall and Mills charcoal iron for inner barrels, two barrels 
out of every three were rejected for defective welds, blisters, &c. and Mr John Anderson, the then 
Assist.-Supt. Eoyal Gun Factory was obliged to have recourse to the questionable expedient of 
forming inner barrels from solid forgings. 
