( 485 ) 
THE SERVICE OF QUICK-FIRING GUNS 
IN COAST DEFENCE. 
BY 
CAPTAIN G. TYACKE, R.A. 
Primitive Laying-. 
Gradual Growth 
of Exactness. 
W HEN the science of gunnery was in its infancy, laying was an affair 
of knack and judgment. A notch on the muzzle swell and another 
on the breech ring sufficed i o give direction while the 
elevation given was “ about as much as you’d think 
would do.” Salvation Yeo, trained layer as he was, would have con¬ 
sidered sights of any kind a needless complication. 
As guns gradually attained to some degree of regu¬ 
larity in shooting, in due time tangent sights were 
invented, improved, divided and sub-divided, and 
side by side with them grew up a family of index plates, elevation in¬ 
dicators, multipliers, clinometers et hoc geuus omne , all tending towards 
greater accuracy in giving exact and pre-determined elevation to the 
guns. 
Incidentally they contributed also to the painful slowness of the fire, 
but at this epoch mathematical exactness held the field and the era of 
quick-fire had not dawned. 
When quick-firing guns came in, with their revolu- 
Retu™ to mors tionary simplicity, dispensing with range-finders 
method^'with and a ^ their paraphernalia, scorning ‘ predictions,’ 
advent of q,f. guns, keeping a patter of shots falling about the target 
and so getting on and keeping on it by simple obser¬ 
vation and correction, I think some excellent Artillerists were slightly 
shocked and talked about * waste of ammunition.’ There is a worse 
evil than this though, and that is waste of opportunities. No one, at 
the present time, when the powers of war vessels for attack and running 
past are so vastly increased, will be found to argue for deliberate fire 
during the fleeting movements that the opportunity offers. Rather 
Quick laying squander ammunition while you may ; the more 
is the secret rounds are fired the more chances of correcting the 
of rapii fire. shooting. Of course, the guns must be really and 
consistently laid each time, or ranging becomes impossible. 
For the moment putting Automatic sights out of the question, the 
normal process of ranging without instruments on a 
Normal process target which is rapidly approaching, consists in es- 
of laying. tablishing a succession of shell-swept areas in front 
of it, through which it has to pass, while the guns con¬ 
tinue to fire with the same elevation. The degree of danger to a tor- 
io. VOL XXVL 
