566 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1879 , 
result can hardly be considered satisfactory by the most ardent advo¬ 
cates of the M.L. system.* 
It is rather difficult to perceive in what the advantage of M.L. guns 
lies. They are supposed to be stronger and less liable to injury; but 
the experiences of the Germans in 1870-1 do not show that breech¬ 
loaders are not strong enough for all practical purposes, or that they 
are too delicate for field service. 
Another point adduced is that a more complicated fuze is necessary, 
from the absence of windage; but experience does not show this to be 
any difficulty. Besides, with the increased use of entrenchments and 
fortified pivots, percussion fuzes will be more used than heretofore. 
We may now state the great points in favor of the breech-loader :— 
1. That the gun requires less space for working, and is more easily 
loaded in a gun-pit, epaulment, or battery. 
2. That in loading in a gun-pit or battery, not more than one man 
of the numbers at the gun is exposed to fire at a time; whereas 
with M.L. guns two men are always exposed at the same time, owing 
to the necessity of serving the vent. 
3. That in the open, the numbers, being all behind the gun-carriage, 
are more protected from fire.f 
JB . 2. Entrenching Tools .—The number of entrenching tools now 
carried by a battery is inadequate. There should be sufficient to 
throw up shelter for the whole battery at the same time. The amount 
required, therefore, depends upon the number of men available to 
work, and the number which can conveniently work together. Let 
us take a gun-pit as the most usual kind of cover made for guns. 
Seven men can make a gun-pit of the. regulation type in one hour ; 
there is consequently no reason why we should not make six gun-pits 
in the same time, if we only have sufficient tools. I would therefore 
suggest that every battery be provided with 42 pickaxes, 42 shovels, 
and 6 spades. The spades would be very useful for cutting sods, for 
revetting the cheeks of embrasures, or interior slope of an epaulment, 
to enable them to be made at steeper slopes. 
* Particulars of the 13-pr. gun. of 8 cwt., which has just been made at Woolwich, have come to 
hand since this essay was written. The following may be noted :—■ 
Weight of gun... 8 cwt. 
n common shell .about 13 lbs. 
Muzzle velocity . 1530 f.s. 
This is a much higher class of gun than those now in the service ; it has almost the same muzzle 
velocity and weight of metal as the French Lahitolle 13-pr. 
(■Weight of gun . 8 '46 cwt. 
Lahitolle 13-pr. R.B.L.< Muzzle velocity........ 1558 f.s. 
(.Weight of common shell. 13*2 lbs. 
But this still shows that with muzzle-loading we cannot beat the best breech-loading gun, and 
consequently bears out my arguments that it is useless keeping to M.L. guns, with their manifest 
disadvantages, when B.L. guns of equal power and weight of metal for shell can be constructed, 
f It would no doubt be found, if any statistics could be obtained, that in action the numbers 
sponging and loading at M.L, guns are more frequently killed or wounded than the numbers 
working behind the carriage. 
