THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
343 
CONTEIBUTIONS 
TO THE 
TECHNOLOGY OF FOREIGN RIFLED ORDNANCE. 
(No. 1.) 
BY BRIGADIER-GENERAL LEEROY, R.A., E.R.S. 
1. The first introduction of rifled field and heavy artillery, has been 
attended with much reserve if not secrecy, in all armies; and details are 
sparingly given in military works of reference published on the Continent. 
For example, although the Prussians adopted their present breech-loading 
system in 1859, the Hanclbuch of 1860* is entirely silent on the subject. 
The French systeme la Ilitte , was adopted in April 1859, but the Aide 
Memoire portatif de Campagne, published 1864, is the first work the writer 
has seen which gives anything like full details of the gun and projectiles. 
The Ordnance Manual of the United States for 1861, gives a few bare details 
of one 11-pr. (3-inch), and one 36-pr. (4*5-inch), but alludes to nothing 
heavier. On the whole the sources of information on this subject are so 
scattered, that it cannot fail to be useful to bring together what may be 
collected from them as to the progress made upon the Continent, and 
elsewhere, in this great revolution of Artillery. It is proposed at present 
to take the countries seriatim as far as known, and to make such comparisons 
with our own artillery as may be suggested by the data as they present 
themselves. Any officers who may have recently travelled on the Continent 
will confer a favour by communicating their notes to the Secretary in aid of 
this object. 
FRANCE. 
2. The following are the particulars of the canon de 4 raye systeme la 
Ilitte, which is the present field gun of the French army: dimensions are 
given in both French and English measures. It may be useful to observe 
that the piece is of the calibre of the old brass 4-pr. rifled—hence called canon 
de 4 raye. It also so happens that its projectile weighs 4 kilos, very nearly, 
but the denomination is not taken from this coincidence. 
* Handbuch far die Offiziere der Koniglich Preussiscbcn Artillerie. Berlin, I860, p. 871. 
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