554 
THE EQUIPMENT OE FIELD AETILLEEY. 
Carriages, 
Means for 
cheeking 
recoil. 
See Note A. 
Axletree 
boxes. 
The wheels. 
other of a solid breech-piece that slides in and ont parallel to the axis 
of the gun, being fixed in its place by the nse of an interrupted 
screw (Eastman, Armstrong, French Government). Now, it is stated 
that all these systems and their modifications are capable of closing the 
breech in a reliable manner, but the Krupp system has had a much 
more extended trial than any other, having been employed in two great 
campaigns, viz., that of 1870-71, and that of 1876-77, and we should 
have a very good reason for adopting any other than the one that is 
ready to our hand with such a tried reputation. 
11. Carriages will in future, doubtless, be made of steel, and the 
Whitworth “ fluid-pressed steel” appears the best that can be ob¬ 
tained.* u This steel is submitted to great pressure while in a fluid 
state, thus ensuring perfect soundness and homogeneity; it is after¬ 
wards forged by hydraulic pressure; its characteristics are soundness, 
strength, and ductility.” 
12. Excessive recoil is one of the evils that unavoidably result from 
the use of high charges, and in the Engelhardt carriage an attempt has 
been made to construct an apparatus that will absorb a portion of the 
recoil. This apparatus is a hydraulic buffer with which the gun and 
upper portion of the carriage is connected, and which receives the 
shock of discharge before the same is communicated to the lower 
parts of the carriage and the wheels. This carriage weighs about 2 cwt. 
less than that of our present 9-pr., and is now under experiment. It is 
also stated to have been most successfully tried in Russia, and in that 
country it is now regularly adopted for all field guns. If we do not 
adopt a carriage of this sort, we are thrown back upon the use of a 
brake, and a brake is very prejudicial to the carriage. The self-acting 
brakes attached to the carriages of the new 13-pr. are not, it appears, 
satisfactory, and from their sudden and immediate action, moreover, 
they are more likely to strain the carriage than one of more gradual 
action.f Such a brake is shown in Plate III., Fig. 1. 
13. The axletree should be provided with boxes, the lids forming 
seats, as in our present equipment: by careful manufacture we might 
still hope to carry four complete rounds of even 20-pr. ammunition in 
them: two additional rounds on the trail would make up the very 
desirable quantity of six rounds to be carried actually on the gun. 
14. Our wheels are the largest in Europe, and the diameter of the 
wheel has a direct bearing upon the weight of the carriage, and it is 
open to question whether this diameter could not be decreased to a 
point that would not seriously affect mobility, but somewhat decrease 
the weight of the carriage. Thus, the diameter of the Russian and 
German gun wheels are 5 ins., the Austrian 6 ins., and the Italian 10 ins. 
less than ours. However, without imitating the Italians in this matter, 
* Vide Evidence given before Privy Council, Nov. 1879. 
f Vide “Short Notes on the 13-pr. M.L. Gun.” Major Nicholson, P.H.A. It. A. I. Papers, 
Vol. XI., No. 2.—“During fire it (the brake) requires constant attention, and the drag-shoe will 
often be found more certain and less troublesome.” 
