200 
LIMBER SYSTEM EOR El ELD ARTILLERY. 
so arranged as to convey a spare wheel behind the limber (about (3 ins. 
clear of its wheels), while a pair of spare shafts may ride under the same 
carriage, with their smallest ends meeting (and neatly housed) under 
the near shaft. The whole of the stores, &c., now carried on 2 wagon 
bodies can be packed on or under this spare wheel limber, which would 
also have its 48 rounds complete, and convey the blankets, kits, &c., of 
6 gunners. A light box to hold the stores can be adjusted between the 
limber boxes and the spare wheel. The limber boxes may be shifted 
a little forward, in order to balance the shafts. This spare wheel limber 
completely packed will weigh less than half the service wagon in 
marching order. 
On a war footing a wagon has 6 horses as well as its gun. A division 
of a battery thus takes up 24 draught horses, and carries 148 rounds 
per gun, including axletree rounds. If to every 2 guns there were 2 
modified limbers limbered up, and 2 similar limbers following separately, 
beside one more limber carrying spare wheel and shafts, and the guns 
had 6 horses each, while the 3 separate limbers had 4 horses each, there 
would be 24 horses required in all, and a total of 124 rounds per gun 
would be carried. Reserve ammunition columns are indispensable 
adjuncts of a field force, and every wagon of this reserve with 6 horses 
would convey 108 more rounds per gun. A reserve limber, with 48 
rounds, could travel well with a pair of horses, as it will not be required 
to move so rapidly as limbers close up with the battery. Two wagons 
in reserve would give 216 more rounds per gun, or a total of 364 rounds 
for each gun on the wagon system. Five limbers, with 48 rounds each, 
would convey 240 rounds per gun, and would require but 10 horses to 
the 12 necessary for 2 wagons. There would result a clear economy of 
2 horses and 1 driver for every gun on a war footing turned out on the 
modified limber plan, and completed to the extent of 364 rounds per* 
gun. By a careful comparison it will be found that the wagon system 
equipped with the above amount of ammunition would have a proportion 
per gun of wheels and shafts as follows : namely, 4 pairs of shafts and 
3 spare shafts, and 16 wheels and 1 spare wheel. A modified limber 
system would have pairs of shafts and 3 spare shafts, and 17 wheels 
and 1-| spare wheels, per gun. With the wagon system there would be 
4 carriages travelling per gun as against 1\ separate carriages with a, 
modified limber plan; but yet the difference in the length of column 
would be very small, and would be chiefly due to the greater accumu¬ 
lation of loss of distance with the larger number of vehicles; but would 
not this be more than compensated by the greatly increased mobility of 
each component part of the column of ammunition ? It would not be 
difficult to keep the drag for each horse of a reserve limber down to 
8 cwt., and every animal would be in draught to the fullest advantage 
close to its load. 
In peace establishments in England we have only one ammunition 
wagon to 2 guns, and the wagon has only 4 horses. This gives a pro¬ 
portion of 8 horses per gun with 94 rounds • 12 wheels would be in use 
with 1 spare wheel carried, and 3 pairs of shafts in use with 1 spare 
shaft carried. If 1 spare wheel limber were allotted in peace to every 
2 guns instead of a wagon, it could be drawn by 2 horses. There 
