235 
LIMBERS AND WAGONS. 
BY 
MAJOR W. B. E. ELLIS, R.A. 
In “ Proceedings, R.A. Institution/* No. 8, Vol. IX., there was 
a brief comparison drawn by an officer of the Royal Carriage Depart¬ 
ment between three service limbers with two horses each, and one 
ammunition wagon with six horses. 
The general results of the examination of this question were adverse 
to the three limbers. 
In 1875, however, a proposal had been put forward by the writer 
to substitute two limbers for each wagon; these two limbers carrying 
between them the same amount of ammunition as the present service 
wagon. 
Practical effect was given to this proposal early in 1876, so far that 
a service limber was temporarily converted on this plan, and put 
through a series of experiments. With the assistance of the various 
data given in the above two cases, the following facts may be con¬ 
sidered established. 
“The weight upon the shaft horse, in the wagon 60lbs., becomes in 
the limber without a hind-carriage 96 lbs., which weight each of three 
out of six horses instead of but one would be oppressed by.** This 
with three limbers; but in the writer*s altered limber the weight on 
the shaft horse, even when that limber was not limbered-up, but by 
itself, without a hind-carriage, was found to be only 64 lbs* The 
difference between this and the 60 lbs. above quoted is so small that it 
may be put down as probably due to variation in the testing of the 
weight on the shafts, which requires great nicety of adjustment. 
Now, with regard to the load and the motive power, the service 
wagon packed weighs 40 cwt. 0 qrs. 2 lbs., while the writer*s limber, 
also packed, weighs 18 cwt. at most, or 2 cwt. 0 qrs. 24 lbs. more than 
the service limber, but 22 cwt. 0 qrs. 2 lbs. less than the ammunition 
wagon. Two of the proposed limbers would thus weigh 36 cwt. only, 
or 4 cwt. 0 qrs. 2 lbs. less than the service wagon, while carrying an 
equal number of rounds of ammunition, “which—the number of 
rounds of ammunition carried being the same in both cases—gives 
4 cwt. 0 qrs. 2 lbs. of additional and perfectly useless load.** 
But in this comparison of the two limbers the extra weight is with 
the wagon , whereas in the case of the three service limbers the disad¬ 
vantage rested with those limbers. 
The wagon with six horses gives a load per horse of 747 lbs* One 
