THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
107 
7-inch Breech-loading- Guns. 
1 gun has fired 1949 rounds. 
1 n i) 1457 n 
1 n n 1296 w 
1 „ „ 1246 „ 
1 // n 942 // 
1 i) n 918 a 
1 n it 918 a 
1 a a 860 „ 
1 i> n 836 a 
1 gun has fired 792 rounds. 
1 a a 756 a 
1 n // 751 n 
1 n n 700 w 
1 n n 687 n 
1 // // 647 „ 
1 n a 636 // 
1 a a 630 // 
It may further be added, that “ the experimental firing at Shoeburyness 
has, in a great measure, consisted of trials of the service guns; and it may 
give some idea of the extent of these trials to state that more than 50 tons 
of gunpowder have been expended there annually in this manner.” 1 How 
far the above table bears out or contradicts Captain von BoppelmaiEs state¬ 
ment about the “two English guns,” our readers will be able to judge. 
2nd. Captain von Hoppelmair gives a table 2 of twelve English guns 
which have failed. With one exception, these were all experimental guns, 
tested for the purpose of ascertaining particular points in their respective 
structures; to say nothing of the fact that, without a single exception, these 
guns are all of a construction which has long been obsolete, the trials 
having fulfilled their object. 3 
3rd. We next come to several passages from the Reports of the late 
Ordnance Select Committee, which Captain von Hoppelmair cites to show 
how r numerous have been the failures and difficulties with the Woolwich 
guns. 4 The only way of dealing satisfactorily with these extracts is to 
reprint them seriatim, with such comments as suggest themselves. 
Extracts from the Reports and Pro¬ 
ceedings of the Ordnance Select 
Committee , Vol. IF. 
Captain yon Hoppelmair's 
Paraphrase. 
“Page 133.—The Committee re¬ 
ports that the 9*22-inchgun,No. 222, 
rifled on the shunt system, burst on 
May 19, 1866, after 402 rounds with 
shot of 100 to 118 kilos. (220*46 lbs. 
and 260*14 lbs.); of these 402 
rounds, 266 were fired with charges 
RemarJcs. 
Instead of “assuming” that the 
steel tube had received damage, the 
Committee state distinctly that “from 
the appearance of some fragments of 
the steel tube, it would appear the 
latter had given way some rounds 
before the explosion.” 5 
Captain von Hoppelmair omits 
also to quote the statement of the 
Committee that the iron used was 
“of a quality which has since been 
discontinued, and as such the gun 
1 Captain Haig’s paper in “Proceedings, R.A. Institution,” Yol. VI. p. 468. Fuller details of 
the trials of the Woolwich guns are given in Captain Stoney’s admirable paper on “ The Construc¬ 
tion of our Heavy Guns.”—Proceedings, R.A. Institution, Vol. VI. p. 406. 
2 Doppelmair, p. 69. 
3 Captain von Doppelmair does not hesitate to state, nevertheless, “ The material and the mode 
of manufacture of English guns have not been altered since that time” (p. 69). 
4 Doppelmair, pp. 75-77. 
6 Extracts, Ordnance Select Cqnmiittee, Vol. IV. p. 134., 
