NEW FIELD CARRIAGE (IRON) FOR LONG-RANGE GUNS. 305 
The action of tlie 9-pr. on the buffer is, then, much more severe than 
that of the 4-pr. We can see by Table B that the ordinary 9-pr. even 
trys its carriage more than the 4-pr. Experience, moreover, confirms 
these deductions: when firing the long-range 9-pr., the buffer is com¬ 
pressed 1*52 ins., while the compression only reaches *76 in. in the 
case of the light 4-pr. Thanks to the favourable results thus attained, 
we are enabled to go from the service guns to guns of long range 
without increasing the weight of the system, as the following figures 
show:—* 
Gun. 
Weight. 
Gun. 
Carriage. 
System. 
cwt. 
cwt. 
cwt. 
(Service . 
12 
10*3 
22-3 
9-pr. 1 
Long range . 
12-2 
9-6 
21-8 
f Service . 
6-43 
9-2 
15-63 
4-pr. j 
C Long range . 
6-43 
9-6 
16-03 
It follows, then, from what we have said, that the division of the 
carriage into two distinct parts, and the adoption of a buffer, leads to 
a system entirely different to that adopted as yet by any power. This 
system gives the following advantages over those existing at present, 
viz. :— 
1. It makes it possible to construct for long-range guns, and with¬ 
out increase of weight, carriages sufficiently strong with iron as a 
material. This metal gives every safety in its use.* 
2. It is not necessary to increase the weight of the guns, although 
heavier charges are fired. 
3. The recoil can be reduced to almost nothing, and even be entirely 
stopped if necessary. 
4. Finally, we can employ one carriage for all the field artillery, 
whether old or new. 
Description of the Carriage. (See Plate.) 
The new iron field carriage is intended to take not only the 9-pr. 
and 4-pr. guns actually in the service, but also those of the same calibre 
and long range recently experimented upon. It is composed of two 
parts—the body of the carriage and the transporting part of it—united 
in such a manner that the blow impressed on the first part by the 
trunnions of the gun is only progressively communicated to the other 
part by the intermediate action of an elastic buffer. 
The body of the carriage is formed of two brackets of plate iron, 
about *25 in. thick, with the edges turned over round the whole cir- 
This, of course, allows of a still greater improvement in carriages if steel be used._ Tr. 
39 * 
