108 
MINUTES OE PKOCEEDINGS OE 
of 19’5 kilos. (48*0 lbs.) of rifle 
large-grained powder, and the rest 
with smaller charges. The gun was 
made on the Armstrong system, and 
had a steel inside tube. The gun 
burst into forty-two pieces. The 
Committee assumes that after the 
first few rounds before the explosion, 
the inside steel tube had received 
damage. Nothing is said of the 
possibility of the shot having got 
jammed.” 1 
can hardly be considered a fair type 
of the present service gun of 9-inch 
calibre.” 3 
He omits also to quote the state¬ 
ment that “ the gun was known to 
be considerably scored, and had been 
ordered up for re-tubing; but as 
there was an urgent programme to 
be completed, to try the possibility- 
of dispensing with a pivot in mount¬ 
ing 12-ton guns, the Committee 
directed fifty more rounds to be fired 
from it before sending it up. It was 
at the thirteenth of these rounds that 
it burst.” 4 
It appears, on reference to the 
Committee’s report, that the charges 
which Captain von Doppelmair states 
were all “ smaller ” than 60 lbs. and 
7 0 lbs., were, on the contrary, every 
one of them, in excess of 70 lbs., 
viz. two of 87| lbs., one of 80 lbs., 
one of 90 lbs., and nine of 100 lbs. 6 
The Committee also expressly call 
attention to the “ exceptionally large 
charges ” 6 which this gun fired, and 
there is therefore the less excuse 
for this inaccuracy in Captain von 
Doppelmair’s statement. 
Further, this was wholly an experimental gun—a 13-inch bore in 23 tons 
of metal, and with an untempered steel tube. 
Finally, the gun did not “burst” at all. What happened was that the 
steel tube split, and when at least nine more rounds had been fired, the outer 
tube split also, but not explosively. In fact, the failure of the steel interior 
was merely succeeded by the non-explosive disintegration of the surrounding 
wrought-iron mass. 7 
“ Page 136 to 138.—Particulars 
are here given of the bursting of the 
13-inch gun, No. 300, which is in¬ 
cluded in the table at page 69. The 
gun burst on March 27, 1866. Of 
the fifty-two rounds fired from the 
gun, twenty-four were with charges 
of 31'8 kilos. (70*10 lbs.), fifteen 
withchargesof 27*2kilos. (59’961bs.), 
and the rest with smaller charges; 
the shot, 259 to 304 kilos.” 3 
“ Page 188.—They here speak of 
the bursting of the 9-inch gun, 
No. 287, rifled on the Woolwich 
system, after 368 rounds, of which 
322 were fired with the battering 
charge of 19*5 kilos. (43*0 lbs.) of 
rifle large-grained powder, and the 
remainder with smaller charges. 
Instead of 322 rounds with 43 lbs., 
as stated, the gun had fired 136 
rounds with 45 lbs., and 260 lb. shot; 
and 186 rounds with 44lbs.; all above 
the service battery charges. 
Captain von Doppelmair omits also 
to mention that the Superintendent of 
the Eoyal Gun Factory knew that 
1 Doppelmair, p. 75. 2 Ibid. 
3 Extracts, Ordnance Select Committee, Vol. IV. p. 192. 
4 Ibid. p. 133. 5 Ibid. p. 35. 6 Ibid. p. 196. 
7 Ibid. pp. 136, 138. 
