SHORT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
2 
4. Rifled 32-pr. bronze howitzer.* Proc. O.S.C., Yol. IY. p. 85. A series 
of experiments with a rifled 32-pr. bronze howitzer have been brought to a close. 
There are 40 or 50 of these pieces in store, and one battery of position equipped, 
in reserve ; the object of the trial was to ascertain whether they could be prudently 
rifled, to fire on certain occasions the same shell as the M.L. 64-pr. gun, which has 
the same calibre of 6‘30 inches. It was not contemplated to treat them wholly as 
rifled pieces and to supply them with 64-pr. shells only, but to continue the use of 
spherical common shells. Spherical diaphragm shells and common case shot from 
them on ordinary occasions, reserving the elongated shells for use in the attack of 
earthworks and fortified positions; and in certain exceptional circumstances in 
the field, for which their greater accuracy and large bursting charge might render 
them more effective than the spherical shells. The lightness of the piece, and an 
uncertainty in the lighting of the fuzes, have presented the only serious obstacle to 
this design. Its recoil on hard level ground with a charge of 2 lbs. 10 oz., and a 
shell of 64 lbs., when unchecked by any artificial means is 16 feet, that of the old 
field 24-pr. howitzer under the same circumstances being only 9 feet. In point of 
range it commands 1500 yards easily, is more accurate with spherical shells when 
grooved than before grooving, a common effect of rifling smooth-bores. Is of satis¬ 
factory precision as a rifled piece with the 64-pr. shell. Thus at 10°,— 
Range. 
yds. 
Rifled, with 64 lbs. shell, charge 2 lbs. 10 oz. 1440 
Unrifled, With 23 lbs. spherical shell, charge 3lbs... 1778 
Error of 
range, 
yds. 
82 
185 
Error of 
direction, 
yds. 
6-3 
17*5 
no decision has been announced as to the adoption of the plan. 
5. Museum of artillery. A noble model of Gibraltar constructed from 
the surveys of Lieut. Warren, R.E., under the superintendence of Major-General 
Frome, R.E., was received at the Rotunda on the 11th January. It is on a scale 
of 50 feet to 1 inch or ^-^th, and gives details with a degree of accuracy and 
vraisemblance which must long make it one of the principal ornaments of that 
collection. 
6. Extraordinary accident. A long term prisoner was killed at the 
Toomkoor jail, India, on the 15th Nov., 1865, in the following extraordinary 
inanner:— 
Some old guns and jingalls which had been lying time out of mind,j* in the 
ancient Fort of Chenroy Droog, in the Kortagerry Talook, were brought in to the 
jail workshop for the purpose of utilizing the old iron. 
One of them, a short wall-piece, about 2 feet long and 1£ inch bore, was put 
into the forge, breech first. It suddenly exploded, and the man who was tending 
the fire, fell, when it was ascertained that an iron ball had passed completely 
through him, and had embedded itself, to the depth of 1 inch, in the mud wall of 
the workshop, 5 yards distant. 
* The employment of the correct term bronze instead of brass, for gun-metal, which is an alloy 
of copper and tin, is of recent origin, and was first officially recognized in W.O. Circular N.S., 
No. 8, § 2140, It is the common military term of most languages,— 
French, bronze. 
Spanish, bronce. 
Portugese, bronze. 
American, bronze. 
Italian, bronzo. 
German, bronze. 
Dutch, bronzen. 
It is not at all necessary that it should replace “ gun-metal ” as a common term, or be substituted 
for " brass ” in every application: particularly as many so called “ brass ” fittings are made of impure 
alloys which are not strictly bronze, 
f Probably 70 years at least. 
