THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
63 
bore than the English gun. The price of the Prussian gun was £3450; 
that of the English gun, as before stated, was £1500. With regard 
to the charge and projectile, the same inequality prevailed. Against 
the 2501b. Palliser projectiles, and 431b. charges, the Prussian gun 
fired projectiles which weighed variously from 211 lbs. up to 336 lbs., with 
charges from 43lbs. to 53lbs.—principally the latter; against chilled iron 
shot, were brought into competition both chilled iron and steel; while the 
English test for endurance was carried out with the brisante E.L.G. powder, 
the Prussian test was made with the mild Eussian prismatic powder. 1 
Purther, this powder strain was largely increased by the use in the English 
gun of a forward vent, as against the Prussian rear vent. 2 
The English gun was placed at an important disadvantage in another 
respect. While the Krupp was allowed repeatedly to vary not merely its 
charge and its shot, but even the details, the form and the method of lead 
attachment; while we find it raising its charge from 43.lbs. to 49Jibs., 
and again to 53 lbs.; reducing its projectiles from 336 lbs. to 292 lbs., and 
again to 279lbs.; reducing the lead coating from 63 lbs. to 28 lbs.; 
removing the lead coating altogether, and substituting lead rings; abandon¬ 
ing the rings, and reverting to a lead jacket attached by the English service 
process; abandoning Prussian powder for Eussian prismatic powder; 
altering the length and diameter of the head of the shot; increasing the 
initial velocity by a combination of these various devices from 1115*3 to 
1413 ft. per second; substituting a new breech wedge for one which had 
become injured when a few rounds of English powder were fired, and 
twice cutting out incipient fissures which had appeared about the vent—no 
change whatever was permitted in the English gun. 
In fact, while we find the Prussian gun feeling its way during the trials, 
step by step, to the successful development of its full power, taking advan¬ 
tage of and applying on the spot the experience which the experiments 
afforded, and making any change which might be deemed likely to prove 
favourable to its efficiency, the English weapon was rigidly pinned down to 
its one charge of 43 lbs. of “ poudre brutale,” its 250 lb. Palliser projectile. 
1 The strain exerted by R.L.Gr. has been estimated by the Prussians at about 6000 atmospheres, 
and that exerted by Russian prismatic at only about 3000 atmospheres. 
The following table gives the figures deduced by the Prussians from some trials which were 
made at Essen:— 
Nature of $un. 
Charge. 
Shoti 
Velocity. 
Pressure in 
atmospheres 
Nature of powder. 
Russian 9-in. gim.—Calibre, 9 ins.; 
length of powder space, 30’25 ins.; 
diameter of powder space, 9*33 ins.; 
length of rifling, 112 ins. 5 length 
of twist, 540 ins. 
IBs. 
43 
43 
43 
43 
46 
46 
lbs. 
275 
275 
275 
275 
275 
275 
ft. 
1160 
1172 
1270 
1260 
1230 
1320 
3170 
3160 
3070 
5950 
2050 
3070 
Prussian gunpowder, 
a » 
Ritter prismatic. 
English R.L.G-. 
Belgian powder. 
Russian prismatic. 
Whatever may be the exact figures which represent the relative destructiveness of the English 
powder as compared with the prismatic, the far greater violence of action of the former is fully 
admitted by artillerists of every nation. 
2 Everyone acquainted with the subject will readily appreciate this difference. 
