550 
THE EQUIPMENT OE FIELD APTILLEKY. 
Comparison 
of actual 
weights with 
theoretical 
results, 
The limit of 
weight for 
horse and 
field bat¬ 
teries. 
The weight 
of ammuni¬ 
tion carried 
will deter¬ 
mine the 
Weight of 
metal allow- 
able in the 
gun. 
on the assumption that high speeds are maintained for long periods, 
and that such periods are of daily occurrence, the results so obtained 
will not err by being too large, as a quick pace is only occasionally 
demanded. The following theoretical results may be stated.* A 
team of six horses can, for horse artillery purposes, draw a weight of 
3708 lbs.; a team of eight horses for field artillery purposes an equip¬ 
ment of 5429 lbs.; and a team of 12 horses can transport, at a walk, 
a weight of 103 cwt., the resistance to rolling being the same as that 
taken into consideration in the two former weights. 
3. In the new equipments introduced on the continent during the 
last few years, teams of over six horses are not employed : we cannot 
therefore seek comparisons abroad for field and heavy batteries with the 
larger teams, but it will be instructive to consider the weights of 
various horse artillery equipments, it being understood in each case 
that two light gunners are supposed to be carried on the limbers :—- 
Weight of equipment. 
Austrian 10i-pr. ... 
Trench 12-pr. 
Eussian 15-pr. 
German 11-pr. 
English 13-pr. 
It will thus be seen that the Austrian and French equipment agree 
very closely with the calculated weight, and the experimental 13-pr. of 
this country is by far the heaviest, and there can be little doubt it is 
rather ponderous for horse artillery purposes. 
The equipment of the Horse Artillery 9-prs. of 6 cwt. weighs 
4128 lbs., and, while not erring very much against theory, has in 
practice been found quite light enough to enable the full speed of the 
horse to be utilized; it will therefore be wiser in our future equipment 
not to go beyond this weight (37 cwt.) With regard to the eight- 
horsed field battery, our own practice agrees very closely with theory; 
the equipment of the 16-pr. with five light gunners carried being 
little more than the calculated load for eight horses, the former being 
5484 lbs., the latter 5429 lbs. 
4 These two weights, 37 cwt. and 50 cwt., may therefore be taken 
as the correct ones for horse and field batteries, and we must seek 
the heaviest metal consistent therewith, remembering always that a 
sufficiency of ammunition must be carried; it will be convenient to 
follow up this part of the question here, reserving the case of the 
position gun for discussion afterwards. 
5. The greatest expenditure of ammunition in any one day during 
the Franco-German war wasf at Mars la Tour, where the artillery of 
the III. German Army Corps fired on an average 130 rounds per gun, 
the light batteries, as might be expected, firing more than the heavy; 
3789 ii 
3972 „ 
4240 „ 
4408 „ 
4746 „ 
* Vide “ Traction,” by Major Kemmis, R.A., li.A.I. Papers, Vol. IX., pp. 477-8-9. 
f Vide Hoffbaur, “The German Artillery,” Appendix, pp, 370 et seq. 
