110 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OF 
and in the construction .’ n The Superintendent of the Royal Gun Factory 
observes also :—“ The bursting of this gun is in no way to be attributed to 
the method of its construction, but simply to the failure of the steel tube.” 2 
We have no hesitation in saying that 
this passage is calculated to produce 
a wholly incorrect impression of the 
transaction in question. The facts are 
as follows :—The Superintendent of 
the Royal Gun Factory was anxious to 
establish by testing three guns of each 
calibre—7-inch, 8-inch, and 9-inch— 
to destruction, what these guns were 
capable of standing. 4 * The Com¬ 
mittee did not think it necessary to 
incur “the enormous outlay” which 
this experiment would entail, 6 and 
they thought that their experience of 
these guns enabled them to assign 
temporarily a limit to the number of 
rounds to be fired from the guns, and 
to draw a line well within the limits 
of safety, beyond which the practice 
should not be pushed. The Com¬ 
mittee distinctly and pointedly 
state (but this passage Captain 
von Doppelmair omits) that “they 
are satisfied that the guns, as at 
present constructed, are fully equal 
to the requirements of the service, 
and are not exceeded in strength and 
durability by those of any other known construction or material ;” 6 but in 
the absence of definite data as to the final limits of resistance of these guns 
—data which could only be obtained by “ an enormous outlay,” data, 
moreover, which would gradually accumulate in the natural course of the 
experiments with these weapons—it was determined, as an extreme pre¬ 
caution, 7 to limit for the time being 8 the service of the 9-inch guns to 400 
rounds, of which not more than 150 should be with battering charges. It 
was the intention of the Committee, as their experience of our heavy guns 
became developed, to advance the limit then imposed on the number of 
rounds—the line being always kept well within the limits of ascertained 
safety. This intention has been fully realised. Since 1866 our experience 
of our guns has vastly increased; and at a meeting of the Heads of the 
“Page 192.—In consequence of 
the repeated bursting of guns of large 
calibre with ordinary charges, the 
Committee recommended that, as a 
precautionary measure, the service 
number of rounds from the 9-inch guns 
should be limited to 400, and that of 
this number not more than 150 should 
be fired with the battering charge; 
and that a circular should be issued 
containing this order. This im¬ 
portant acknowledgment by the 
English Ordnance Select Committee 
of the unreliable durability of English 
guns of large calibre, runs as follows, 
in the language of the original:— 
‘ They think, however, that as a 
matter of precaution, the service of 
the 9-inch guns should be restricted 
for the present to 400 rounds, of 
which no more than 150 should be 
with the battering charge, and that a 
circular should be issued to this 
effect/ ” 3 
1 Extracts, Ordnance Select Committee, Yol. IY. p. 76. 2 Ibid. p. 78. 
3 Doppelmair, p. 76. 4 Extracts, Ordnance Select Committee, Yol. IY. p. 191. 
6 Ibid. p. 192. 6 Ibid. 
7 “As a measure of precaution.”—Extracts, Ordnance Select Committee, Vol. IY. p. 192. 
3 “ For the present,”—Ibid. p. 192, 
