224 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
For ready comparison I have given the weights of guns in cwts., and the 
weights of the charges in terms of the weights of their respective projectiles. 
I have purposely omitted mountain artillery, as, in a short lecture, my 
remarks must be confined to the most important questions. 
The table shows that the projectiles of the different guns differ little in 
power, the French having a slight advantage; the British, however, are fired 
with the highest velocities. 
Velocity 
British,- infeet - ' 
20-pr, common shells . 1114 per second. 
12-pr, segment. 1218 « 
9-pr, „ . 1038 „ 
French - 
Canon de 12 common shells 1006 
// 4 a 1066 
\ 
The French employ three kinds of projectile, and all experience shows 
that one projectile will not answer three distinct purposes. Common shells 
are often required under circumstances where segment shells would be 
useless; and a case-shot which depends for its action upon the preparation 
of a fuze is very objectionable; simple case-shot and common shells will 
probably be introduced into the field-service batteries. In actual warfare 
our officers have generally kept a number of segment shells with their fuzes 
prepared for case firing. 
As regards precision of fire, I have little hesitation in saying that the 
practice of our B.L. Armstrong guns is quite as accurate as can be required 
for any service, and I believe more so than that of most of the foreign guns. 
I will give you an instance. In the Aide-Memoire de Campagne, of 1864, 
the mean errors, both in range and direction of projectiles fired from the 
canon de 12, are so eccentric that nothing can be made of them: at 1300 
metres the error in range is only about one-sixth of what it is at 400 metres, 
and at 2050 metres the error in direction is less than it is at ?00 metres. 
The canon de 4 appears to be a more accurate gun; the mean errors in range 
at 1000 and 1800 metres are 22 and 27 metres respectively; those in direc¬ 
tion and at the same ranges 1*2 and 2*5 metres. With our B.L. rifled 
guns the mean errors in range at 1000 and 2000 yards are 19 and 21 
yards respectively, and in direction *8 and 2*1 yards respectively. 
The Prussians, like ourselves, employ B.L. guns for field service, the 
French, Americans, and others, M.L. guns. In the Armstrong B.L. (screw) 
system, strength has been to some extent sacrificed to easy loading, but not¬ 
withstanding the abuse poured down upon both the method of closing the 
bore and the whole construction of our B.L. field guns, they are perfectly 
safe and can be readily served; the vent-piece* lasts but a short time com¬ 
pared to the rest of the gun, but should one fail it can be easily replaced by 
another, and the present form prevents dangerous results. 
The Prussian field guns are of Krupp's steel; the French and some other 
nations have converted their S.B. bronze guns into rifled pieces, thus 
* In consequence of its support by the breech-screw being only partial, and the vent being 
bored through it. 
