Q.F. FIELD EQUIPMENTS ON THE CONTINENT. 
149 
had also a firing brake. A spade which could be folded back, was, it 
seems, attached to the trail in each case. It was made of steel and 
was fastened to a bolt with springs and india-rubber interposed. On 
firing the springs were compressed about eight inches, and then, ex¬ 
panding, they ran the carriage up again. The hydraulic buffers 
allowed of a movement of the gun through about twenty iuches. 
A brass cartridge (not attached to the shell) was used with these 
guns, and a charge of IT lbs. with the 3’07 inch guns gave to the 
13-2 lb. shell a muzzle velocity of 1,800 f.s. The shrapnel contained 
280 balls (35 to the pound). No case shot were supplied. A rate 
of fire of five rounds a minute was realized. 
It is said that a battery of eight of these guns would have twelve 
ammunition wagons, nine carrying shrapnel, three high explosive 
shell. A double-action fuze is used with both shell, graduated up to 
4,900 yards. 
In the latter half of 1898, further trials are reported* to have been 
carried out with a Maxim-Nordenfelt equipment, similiar to that tried 
in Spain in 1897. It is said to have been thought favourably of but 
that it required certain improvements before it came up to the 
Austrian requirements. 
TURKEY. 
Turkey is said to be about to order 1,000 Q.F. field guns in Germany 
at a price of 10,000 francs each. The contract is ready and they are 
only awaiting an Irade from the Sultan directing that it shall be 
signed. 
SPAIN, f 
In August, 1896, the Director General of Spanish Artillery re¬ 
quested the Experimental Committee at Madrid to consider the question 
of rearming their field artillery.J Two officers were, therefore, de¬ 
puted to visit the principal foreign factories. On their return, they 
presented their report in which they went carefully into the whole 
question of field artillery armament; they considered the weight behind 
the team should be 35^-cwt. (without gunners) : that the shrapnel shell 
should weigh 13*2 lbs., with bullets forty-one to the pound; that the 
calibre should be 2*75 inches; M.V. 1,640 to 1,960 f.s. They pointed 
out that rapidity of fire depended upon (1) checking recoil (2) rapidity 
of loading (3) rapidity of laying. Rapidity of loading could be best 
obtained by using fixed ammunition and single motion breech mechan¬ 
ism. To keep up a rapid fire it was necessary that 4 or 5 rounds shall 
be brought up to the gun at a time. For horse artillery, the axletree 
seats and travelling brake should be removed, and this would bring the 
weight down to 33J-cwt. which would allow of sufficient mobility. They 
recommended that the following equipments should be obtained for trial 
* Revue d’Artillerie, December, 1898. 
f Information obtained from Memorial d’Artilleria, November, 1896; Revue d’Artillerie 
May, 1897 and March, 1898. 
X Toe most modern gun at this time in the Spanish Field Artillery seems to have been of 
a 1880 model; calibre S’lo inches; projectile 14-lbs. ; weight behind teams, about 30-cwt. with¬ 
out gunners. 
