298 
NEW FIELD CARRIAGE (IRON) FOR LONG-RANGE GENS. 
The guns themselves, amongst all the different powers, have not 
given rise to serious difficulties ; the same cannot be said with regard 
to the carriages of most European states. Everywhere we find the recoil 
to be very severe, in spite of their weight—already too great. 
The design and construction of field carriages for long-range guns 
presents some very great difficulties ; because they must satisfy two 
principal, and at the same time contradictory, conditions. 
The carriage must, in the first place, be sufficiently strong; in the 
second place, it must be light, and give a moderate recoil. But the 
action of a gun on its carriage results in a shock, and it is well known 
that the resistance of a body to shock is proportional to its section. 
Thus, to satisfy the first condition we must make the carriage heavy, 
contrary to the requirements of the second ; the effects of firing, on the 
other hand, being more destructive to the carriage as it is heavier. 
Heavy guns strain their carriages less than light, when they both 
fire projectiles of the same weight under the same conditions. 
Thus, on account of the adoption of long-range guns, we have been 
led. in order to save the carriages, to give to the gun itself a greater 
weight than the strength of the material composing it demands. 
Moreover, to secure sufficient strength in the carriages, we have given 
to their various parts greater dimensions. The total weight has thus 
been again increased, so that everywhere for long-range guns the system 
(gun and carriage) reaches a very considerable weight, as can be seen 
by the following table :— 
Country. 
Metal of 
carriage. 
Weight. 
Muzzle 
velocity of 
shell. 
Projectile. 
Gun. 
Carriage. 
System. 
lbs. 
cwt. 
cwt. 
cwt. 
f.s. 
England . 
Iron 
16 
12 
12 
24 
1350 
r 
23-76 
13-75 
12-84 
26"59 
1452 
France . 
i 
15-4 
12 
13-7 
25-7 
1280 
I 
i 
11-2 
9 
10-2 
20-2 
1370 
Prussia. 
Steel 
15-4 
9 
10-3 
19-3 
1460 
Austria’. 
Steel & iron 
14 
9-6 
10-3 
19-9 
14.85 
Sweden. 
Iron 
8-58 
7-4 
9-3 
16-7 
1280 . 
Switzerland ... 
a 
12-1 
8-53 
9-2 
17-73 
1200 
Italy. 
n 
8-8 
6 
8 
14 
1320 
C 
24-2 
12-2 
9-6 
21-8 
1200 
Russia . 
n ) 
l 
12-54 
6-43 
9-6 
16-03 
1404 
It follows from this table that, except in Russia, the weight of car¬ 
riages intended for guns firing high charges, whose muzzle velocities 
exceed 1250 f.s. and the weight of whose projectiles is more than 
8*8 lbs., varies between 10’2 and 13*7 cwts., and the system between 
20 and 26’5 cwts. These are very considerable weights, when we 
