70 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OE 
weight fired with the same charge from a B.L. gun, which reached 1345 ft. 
(410 m.)* 
20. “ Such being the case, to place the initial velocity of the breech-loading 
and muzzle-loading guns on a level, a higher charge of 27‘5 lbs. was adopted 
with which an initial velocity of 1420 feet was attained. 
“ The fire was continued with the charge, employing cast-iron projectiles, to 
ascertain the accuracy of fire, the facility of manoeuvre, and the endurance 
of the piece. The accuracy of the fire tested by practice at a mark placed 
at variable distances, was found as would be supposed beforehand, infinitely 
' superior to that of rifled muzzle-loading cannons. Thus for example the 
shots which struck a target of 9 ft. by 25 ft. at distances varying from 
1865 to 2333 feet was more than 70 per cent: while the muzzle-loading gun 
gave only 30 per cent. 
21 “The piece (/) stood 400 rounds with a charge of 27 lbs. of pellet 
powder and remains perfectly serviceable. The mechanism has given great 
satisfaction, and the manipulation is perfectly simple. 
“After the 127th round there was some waste of the metal perceptible 
at the breech end of the bore close up to the stopper, on the right side, taking 
the form of scratches, piqures, but on the lower part of the same surface there 
was a roughness. On that part of the breech stopper which touches the end 
of the chamber there were corresponding marks. It was inferred that the 
gas check had not completely closed the bore. The wear on the right side 
must be attributed to the fact that the stopper was not wiped every time, 
the breech piece consequently could not go quite home, and there remained a 
space between the gas check and the side of the chamber on the right, by 
which the gas was enabled fco escape. Special thin gas rings, obturatewSj + 
were employed to hinder this passage of gas as much as possible. They were 
placed in the chamber behind the charge in such a manner as to bear with 
their flat side against a steel circle let into the face of the breech stopper, in 
the same place as the gas check previously employed. A new ring was taken 
into use at every round. This way of hindering the escape of gas proved 
more practicable than the former one, nevertheless it could be seen after some 
rounds that the gas kept escaping, but it was only at one place, marked by a 
gutter in the side of the ring. This escape was palpably referable to a flaw 
(piqure ) on the surface of the chamber, running longitudinally and growing 
wider towards the end. The face of the stopper was marked with corre- 
* “ The inferiority of the initial velocity of projectiles fired from breech-loading guns, as compared 
with that of projectiles of v muzzle-loading guns may be explained first by the vacant space in the 
chamber of the former which is greater than in the latter, and second by the greater resistance 
offered by friction to the movement of the projectile in the bore. However, this loss of velocity 
finds a natural compensation in the suppression of windage.” 
So the reporters; but it will be obvious to the reader that if the initial velocity is reduced, such 
compensation has not taken place.— Translator’s note. 
f The terms fermeture, louche de fermeture, obturdteur require the explanation of a diagram. 
The translator has rendered them in terms which will be intelligible to those who are acquainted 
with Krupp’s system of breech-loading. 
