THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
409 
iron barrel, double at the chase but single at the breech end, which was 
closed with an iron plug backed up by a cascable. The B gun had in 
addition a forged breech-piece, a C coil, and a breech coil, consisting of a 
double coil and trunnion ring welded together; whilst the B gun had no 
forged breech-piece, but a triple coil, trunnion ring, and C coil all in one. 
These experimental guns fired each 2000 service rounds (charge 8 lbs.), 
and abnormal charges being then used, the B gun burst into 38 pieces, after 
a total number of 2270 rounds, and the B gun after 2211 rounds blew out 
its inner barrel, leaving the breech portion on its carriage and still sound. 
The Superintendent Royal Gun Factories, and the Ordnance Select 
Committee, considered these results as highly satisfactory. 
The B gun burst no doubt into several pieces, as all guns with a forged 
breech-piece are likely to clo, but it gave timely warning of its approaching 
dissolution. 
The B gun was more satisfactory still, as the trial proved it possessed 
the very strongest form of exterior, the gun having fired many rounds after 
the inner barrel was thoroughly broken up.* 
Adoption of the Cheap Blau as the Service Construction, 
The great success of the cheap construction, as displayed by 64-prs., 
combined with its favourable progress in the 9-inch guns under trial, induced 
the Ordnance Select Committee to recommend (7th December, 1866), that 
half the guns for 1867-8 should be on the Fraser method, and it was 
subsequently approved (without waiting for the issue of the trial of the 
five 9-inch guns), by War Office and Admiralty, that all the guns estimated 
for that year should be on this plan. 
The trial, however, of the 9-inch guns was carried on in 1867 with the 
first three on the list— i.e. Expl. Nos. 329, of original construction, and 
330 and 331 of Fraser construction—and by the end of that year each of these 
three guns had fired 500 rounds with battering charges (43 lbs.) as appointed, 
the cheap guns having stood the ordeal quite as firmly as their expensive 
brother. 
The other two guns (Expl. Nos. 332 and 333), both of F (Fraser) con¬ 
struction as described, were ordered to fire each 400 rounds of full charges 
(30 lbs.) and 200 of battering (43 lbs.), a test which they successfully accom¬ 
plished by the 17th of September, 1868. 
In the mean time many “Fraser-” guns had been proved and issued for 
service, the majority being on the pattern of Expl. No. 330— i.e, with a steel 
tube, and reinforced with a triple breech coil. 
Bursting of a 9-inch Gun at Proof 
Of the 9-inch guns alone about 100 had passed proof, and the soundness 
of the system was generally recognised—but lo ! on the 25 th of September 
of the same year ('68), a 9-inch gun of the identical pattern burst violently 
Extracts from “ Proceedings of O.S.C.” Yol, IY. p. 356. 
