204 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
“ These rounds/ 5 we are told, “were fired in a rapid succession, 150 
being fired each day with such rapidity that the guns became heated to 
167° and 212° F. and had to be cooled with damp cloths. Even the 
best Krupp guns are injured by such rapid firing (becoming perma¬ 
nently enlarged), but no such results were observed with the Uchatius 
guns. 55 
It is expected that the Artillery Committee will send in their report 
next month (June, 1875), and that the Austrian War Office will finally 
decide in the autumn as to the material for the new field guns, 
whether it should be Krupp steel or Uchatius bronze steel. 
The results obtained with these experimental guns seem to bear 
out the sanguine expectations of General Yon Uchatius; but our own 
experience of the uncertain nature of bronze, so far as we know of that 
alloy, and of the delusive effects of experiments made with only one or 
two pieces,* make us pause before we can accept this success as proof 
sufficient, that “ bronze steel 55 is in all respects adapted for the con¬ 
struction of field guns, even if the theoretical principles are correct 
upon which its subsequent treatment are based. 
The same view of the case has been taken in Austria, and the trials 
ordered to be carried out with the Krupp 8*7c steel gun are still to be 
proceeded with. 
We cannot but wait with interest for the account of further trials 
with the 10 bronze steel guns last made, especially as General Yon 
Uchatius had determined before constructing them to make further 
experiments with reference to the mode of casting and chilling, 
in order to get rid altogether of tin spots. This he believed he would 
be able to accomplish, but whether such be the case or not, the 
scientific world owes to the gallant General a debt of gratitude for his 
careful researches into the treatment of bronze, crowned as they have 
been by a discovery of no small importance, viz.—that of a method of 
treatment by which the physical properties of this alloy may be 
improved upon, until they approximate to those of steel, so that the 
metal itself may well be termed bronze steel. 
If bronze steel is not utilized for the art of war, we may be certain 
that it will find its place amongst the thousand materials required by 
the arts of peace, and that its discovery! will give an impetus and a 
direction to research, which will ensure further improvement in the 
physical treatment both of alloys and metals generally. 
* Vide p. 4. As to bronze 9-pr. tried at Shoeburyness. 
t Vide Note I., p. 15. 
