360 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
3. With regard to cost. A smooth-bored 32-pr. gun of cast-iron costs, 
by contract, about £58, rifling will add less than £1 to this amount. An 
Armstrong 40-pr., which may be treated as the rifled equivalent of the 32-pr., 
costs at present £360. The difference is indeed considerable; but it must 
be remembered that the 40-pr. is believed to be practically indestructible by 
mere use; at all events, these guns will probably stand many thousand 
rounds. 
The duration of a cast-iron gun, even in a smooth-bored state, is much 
more limited; and these guns, when rifled, and firing elongated projectiles, 
will be exposed to a strain which will make it prudent, until their strength 
is well established, to restrict their employment to what may be considered a 
safe and moderate limit, however much the charge may be reduced; conse¬ 
quently, a wrought-iron gun may be expected to outlast several of them, and 
thus, in fact, diminish the relative cost; although it must apparently still be 
against wrought-iron. 
4. But a consideration of equal, or possibly greater importance, is the 
facility of supply. Cast-iron guns exist in vast numbers, and many of them 
are doubtless as fit for rifling as if they were newly cast for the purpose. 
They could be procured from the usual contractors in numbers with great 
rapidity, and at a small advance, on what they now cost in a smooth-bored 
state. The question is —“ Does so urgent a demand exist for heavy rifled 
guns as to make it expedient to draw upon this source, instead of waiting 
until wrought-iron guns can take their place ? ” 
The reply must turn principally on considerations which are beyond the 
cognizance of the Committee. 
The Committee have no knowledge of the powers of manufacture of 
either Woolwich or Elswick, the probable requirements of the navy, the 
probable requirements of fortresses and coast defences, or the sum of money 
which is likely to be at the disposal of the War Minister annually for their 
production ; consequently, they can only submit an opinion upon this point 
with great deference. 
That opinion, however, is, that it is not at present worth while to rifle cast- 
iron guns on a large scale , for the following reasons. 
5. It is understood that the Admiralty do not as yet intend to introduce 
rifled guns into ships of war in a larger proportion than 1 to 9 smooth- 
bored guns. If so, 500 or 600 will meet the naval demand, exclusive of the 
necessary reserve. 
It is supposed that, taking fortresses and coast defences all round, the 
total proportion of rifled guns required for them at present will not be much 
larger than this; because, while there are many smaller works which, from 
their position and importance, may require to be armed with a larger number, 
there must be many extended positions, like Portsmouth or Plymouth at home, 
or like Gibraltar and Malta abroad, where the total number of guns mounted 
is so large that one-tenth rifled would probably be in excess of the place for 
this special arm; and others, for which a smooth-bored armament may 
suffice altogether, until the use of rifled guns by Poreign Powers is much 
more general than it now is. 
