254 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OE 
this case would be considerable; and in practice the power is not found to 
be in excess, as nearly six tons dead weight have to be raised whenever the 
muzzle of the gun is depressed. 
The gun is attached to the arcs in the following manner: on the inside of 
the arcs, and 4 in. above and below the axis of the gun, solid pieces of 
wrought-iron are forged on 8 in. high, 4 wide, and projecting inside the 
bracket 1*5 in. The gun is prepared to receive these supports by having 
its trunnions cut off (this is the worst feature in the system, as the gun is 
thereby rendered worthless for any other carriage), and having wrought-iron 
coils shrunk on at convenient distances in front and rear of the centre of 
gravity, and slots cut in the sides of these coils to correspond with the 
supports on the arcs, these slots being cut at distances from the muzzle of 
the gun corresponding to the radii of the arcs. These slots are cut through 
from the lower part of the coil to 4 in. above the plane of the axis of the 
gun, where 1*5 in. of metal is left to support the gun on the projecting 
pieces on the arcs. 
The gun, when required to be mounted, is slung in the usual way (care 
being taken to keep it horizontal), and is lowered on the supports on the 
arcs which have previously been laid at point blank. 
As in carriages constructed on this principle, the muzzle of the gun is 
always the same height from the deck or ground, it can be loaded at any 
degree of elevation or depression; and as the degrees of elevation are marked 
on the worm-wheel, the operations of loading and elevating can go on 
simultaneously, by whicli means much time is saved. Another advantage 
of this system is that when once the elevation is accurately ascertained any 
number of shots may be fired without re-adjustment, which is not the case 
with guns elevated on the principles which now obtain in the service. This 
is also the only carriage on which the degrees of depression are noted. 
Owing to this carriage being altogether of a new construction, and in the 
absence of special machinery, much of the work had to be done by hand, 
special tools had to be made and new patterns prepared, so that it was not 
finished until early in the spring of 1864, when the gun was mounted, and, 
without further fitting or alteration, was easily worked by four men. It 
pivoted exactly at the muzzle. 
The gun and carriage were first inspected by the Ordnance Select Com¬ 
mittee in the Royal Arsenal, when the gun was worked several times from 
extreme elevation to extreme depression; the time occupied in the operation 
was as nearly as possible three minutes and a half. The Committee, on a 
subsequent occasion, inspected the gun at the proof butt, when it was fired 
10 rounds with service charges, of 16 lbs. of powder, and solid 68-pr. shot; 
the carriage was not the least shaken, and the gun worked quite as easily 
after as before the firing. 
The gun and carriage were then ordered to be sent to Shoeburyness, to 
be fired 100 rounds, viz. 50 at 10° elevation, and 50 at extreme depression, 
and to be worked through an arc of 4° after each 10 rounds. I think 
perhaps the most impartial way of giving an account of the trials of this 
carriage at Shoeburyness will be to quote from the official Report furnished 
to the Ordnance Select Committee. 
“ The recoils varied from 3 ft. 9 in. with a wet platform, to 2 ft. 2 in. with 
