THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
Ill 
Department, held at "Woolwich in the beginning of June 1870, the following 
rules for the firing of the heavy Woolwich guns were adopted :— 
All service rifled muzzle-loading guns up to 9-inch inclusive, may be fired 
without restriction as to the number or nature of rounds. 
10-inch guns to be carefully examined in the Eoyal Gun Factory or by 
skilled persons after 500 rounds, of which 250 may have been with battering 
charges. 12-inch guns (of which our experience is at present necessarily 
small), to be examined in the Royal Gun Factory or by skilled persons after 
250 rounds, of which 100 may have been with battering charges. 1 2 
How far Captain von Doppelmair* s account of the circumstances attending 
the adoption of a limit for the .service of the 9-inch guns, and his statement 
that the adoption of such a limit was “ in consequence of the repeated 
bursting of guns of large calibre with ordinary charges,” can be reconciled 
with the actual facts, our readers will now be able to judge. What was, in 
fact, a mere precautionary and admittedly temporary measure—the adoption 
of which affords, indeed, an excellent example of the cautious and prudent 
manner in which our authorities have felt their way through the terra 
incognita of heavy ordnance—becomes, in Captain von Doppelmair's hands, 
an incident of the gravest significance, an interposition by the Ordnance 
Select Committee, to which they had been driven by the “ repeated bursting 
of guns of large calibre.” 
It is necessary to make two further observations upon this subject. 
Captain von Doppelmair is probably unable to appreciate the cautious 
development of a large subject—the philosophical and prudent progress, 
step by step, the making good each position before occupying it—-which has 
characterised the English treatment of the heavy gun question, and which 
justifies the impatience with which English artillerists regard alike the 
laudations of systems of heavy artillery, such as Krupp's, which rest upon 
no such basis, and the easy theories on the subject, such as that which 
affirms that “from the trial of one specimen (of steel guns), a judgment 
can he formed as to all guns of the same description.” 3 The second obser¬ 
vation which it occurs to us to make, is this:—Why, if Captain von 
Doppelmair sees an indication of mistrust, and an admission of failure in 
the circumstance that the service of the English 9-inch guns was temporarily 
limited to 400 rounds, of which 150 might be with battering charges of 
43 lbs. of the severe English powder*—why has he nothing to observe on the 
limitation of the service of the 8i-inch Krupp by a Russian Committee 
to 250 rounds, the maximum charge being 27-| lbs. of comparatively mild 
Russian powder? 3 
From our point of view, this precaution on the part of the Russian 
Committee was a proper and judicious one to take, and one which has been 
amply justified by subsequent experience. But clearly it is not open to 
Captain von Doppelmair to make use of the precautionary recommendation 
of our Artillery Committee as an argument against the English guns, while 
he ignores the far more stringent and less favourable recommendation of the 
Russian Artillery Committee with regard to the Krupp guns* 
1 “ List of Changes in Artillery Stores, &c.” § 1919. 
2 Doppelmair, p. 69* 3 sf Proceedings, R.A. Institution,” Yol. V. pp. 67, 68, §§ 12, 16, 
