THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
355 
after they are ready, to weigh and gauge them, return them for issue, and 
transmit them to Shoeburyness. 
It will be seen that some of the modes of rifling selected by the Secretary 
of State for this competitive trial, have not been tried to this day. Nor is 
there one instance in which the advocate or inventor of a system has pre¬ 
sented himself to the Committee with his gun and projectiles in a state of 
readiness for a direct and final trial; each gentleman, as yet, has required a 
number of preliminary experiments to furnish himself with data on which to 
base his final arrangements. 
The Committee are far from imputing blame to them for this, it being 
next to impossible to determine many of the minor details, on which the 
success of each method depends, without such experiments; but it will be 
seen that as every step necessitates some delay and some correspondence, the 
progress of the Committee must be retarded thereby. 
3. In addition to the foregoing competitive trials, Mr Haddan has been 
allowed to rifle a second 32-pr. gun, in a manner slightly different from the 
competitive gun, which is untried. Commander Scott, B.N., has been 
allowed to rifle a 32-pr. service gun on a method of his own, and at his 
own expense, the trial of which is incomplete; and there is a 68-pr. gun 
now being rifled on a plan by Mr Parrott, of New York; but this last is 
principally a trial of the metal or block. 
4. The Committee do not suppose it to be the wish of the Secretary of State 
that a final conclusion should be arrived at so long as any of the systems 
ordered by him to be tried are untried; their present experience has led 
them to entertain a favourable opinion of the method of Mr Britten; and 
while they doubt whether unhooped guns, cast in iron of the quality hitherto 
used for gun founding, as such as the existing service smooth-bored guns 
are made of, can be employed with confidence for rifled guns, even in blocks 
of more than the service weight, they entertain a hope that Mr B. Britten's 
mode may be hereafter applied with advantage to service muzzle-loading 
guns strengthened with iron hoops, should no better method be brought to 
light. 
The ranges obtained by this gentleman are as follows — 
(1) 15th Sept. 1859, with a rifled service 32-pr., of 56 cwt., charge, 6 lbs., 
projectile weighing 49 lbs., 10° of elevation, a mean range of 3595 yds.; being 
about 800 yds. more than the range of the same gun unrifled, at the same 
elevation, with 10 lbs. charge, and a projectile weighing only 32 lbs. The 
deflections were regular and the ranges uniform within satisfactory limits. 
(2) With a rifled service 32-pr. of 58 cwt., projectile weighing 51 lbs., 10° 
of elevation, a mean range of 3236 yds.; being about 450 yards beyond the 
range of the same gun unrifled, with 10 lbs. Or with a charge reduced to 
5 lbs., and a projectile weighing 49| lbs., a mean range of 3107 yds.; being 
about 300 yds. more than the same gun unrifled with 10 lbs. The necessity 
of greatly reducing the charge undoubtedly detracts from the apparent 
advantage of rifling cast-iron guns, as regards range; but there remains an 
actual and considerable gain, even in this respect; and when the greatly 
[vol. ill.] 
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