406 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
THE 
CONSTRUCTION OF OUR HEAYY GUNS. 
BY 
CAPTAIN F. S. STONEY, B.A., 
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, ROYAL GUN PACTORIES. 
Difference between the “Original” Construction and the “Cheap” 
or present one . 
Until April, 1867, all our rifled muzzle-loading guns were built up 
like the breecli-loading guns—of wrought-iron coils shrunk together suc¬ 
cessively on Sir William Armstrong's original plan. The plan proposed by 
Mr. E. S. Eraser, of the Eoyal Gun Factories, was then adopted; but some 
guns in former estimates being still in arrear,* manufacture on the original 
construction did not cease altogether until March, 1868. 
Mr. Fraser's plan is, as stated in a previous paper,f an important modifi¬ 
cation of the' original method, from which it differs principally in building 
up a gun of a few long double or triple coils instead of several short single 
ones and a forged breech-piece. 
For example, in addition to the steel barrel and cascable, a “ Fraser " gun 
of the pattern most generally followed has only two separate parts, viz. the 
breech coil and B tube (or as they are sometimes familiarly called, the 
“jacket and trousers "), whereas the 9-inch gun of original construction has 
a forged breech-piece, a B tube, a trunnion ring; and seven coils^—ten distinct 
parts—which are shrunk on separately (see Plate II;) 
The formation of a double or triple coil is a simple forge operation, but 
great expense is saved by its means, as there is so much less surface to be 
bored and turned, for each coil having to be made as smooth as glass and 
at the same time true to gauge (to a thousandth of an inch), it follows that 
it must be cheaper to have a few thick ones in lieu of many thin ones. For 
the same reason there is also less waste of material; for although the turnings 
are afterwards worked up into bars, iron in its scrap state is only worth*one- 
third of its forged value. 
Moreover, time and labor are also saved in having fewer pieces to move 
from workshop to workshop; for instance, in the case of a gun of original 
* Two 12-inch, forty 9-inch, three 7-inch of 7 tons, and forty-six 7-inch of 6| tons, 
f “ Theory of Gun Architecture.” See Vol. VI., p. 335. 
