THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
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the wagon, which was about as reasonable as carrying their spare horses. 
(Laughter.) Each of these wheels represented nearly 2 cwt., which 
they had to carry because no one had been ingenious enough to make 
them run after the guns, with the spare horses to drag them. (Hear, 
hear, and a laugh.) There was no reason why this should not be done, 
and the best means of effecting it was very well worthy of the attention 
of officers. 
Lieut. Logan, R.A., said another plan, not of reducing weight, but of 
saving the shaft horse by the introduction of some kind of break, was 
desirable. The shaft horse at present was unduly worked in comparison 
with the rest of the team, and now that axle-tree seats were likely to 
be allowed, the break could be easily worked, which would not only 
save the shaft horse in halting and going down hill, but would avoid 
frequent damage to the harness, as also the delay caused by having to 
apply the drag-shoe. 
Colonel Phillpotts said that about twelve months ago a self-acting 
break was proposed by a Plymouth man, but he supposed it was thought 
too complicated for gun-carriages. 
Lieut. H. B. R. Harvey, R.A., asked if General Lefroy could give them 
any information as to the proportion of failures in the manufacture of 
bronze guns for the Prussian army, and also the failures in the bronze 
castings of screws for vessels for the Admiralty, to which he had referred. 
Major-General Leeroy replied that he was unable to give any facts 
on the subject, except that when he was in the arsenal at Spandau he 
had a great deal of conversation on the subject of bronze guns, and 
heard nothing of failures or difficulties of manufacture. 
Lieut. Harvey. —And were there no cases of failure in the bronze 
castings for the Admiralty ? 
Major-General Leeroy. — I cannot say. 
Colonel Younghusband, R.A., said he thought it was a mistake to say 
that the service guns in the Prussian army were of bronze. He should 
say, on the contrary, that all the field guns now in use by the Prussians 
were of steel. He believed that they had certainly decided upon adopt¬ 
ing bronze, but the whole of their field batteries were still composed of 
steel guns. 
Major-General Leeroy said, if that were so, what had the Prussians 
done with the bronze guns which they were casting in large numbers 
in 1869, for the gun department of the arsenal at Spandau was full of 
them ?* 
Colonel Younghusband said his belief was that the Prussians had 
* Extract from a letter of Major-General Beauchamp Walker, dated 28th January, 1871. 
Communicated by Major-General Lefroy:—“I saw a battery of bronze 6-pr. guns (141b. shot) 
yesterday parked near Virofiag. I think that there were 600 new bronze field guns ready before 
the campaign. The number is just as likely to have been 900. If I see anybody who can tell me 
how many batteries were brought with the army, I will write again. The one I saw yesterday 
belongs to the lltli Army Corps.” In a subsequent letter, dated 20th February, General Walker 
said :—“ One bronze field battery has been with the 3rd Army from the commencement of the war, 
and four or five more have come at different times, so that there are now 30 or 40 of these guns 
with this army.” See also the “Times” military correspondence, February 20, 1871, for evidence 
to the same effect. 
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