THE XlOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
389 
REPORT 
OB' THE 
OBMANCE SELECT COMMITTEE, 
ON THE 
TRIAL OF THE 7" WROUGHT-IRON GUNS RIFLED ON VARIOUS SYSTEMS. 
No. 3575. Dated 21st December, 1864. 
[Communicated by direction of the Secretary of State for War]. 
1. The competitive trial between the. 7-in. 149 cwt. guns rifled for 
testing the systems advocated by Commander Scott, B.N., Mr Lancaster, 
Mr Jeffery, and Mr Britten, in comparison with one another, and with that 
which is said to have been adopted in the French service, have now been 
carried out so far as to justify the Committee in reporting the results, for 
the information of the Secretary of State for War. 
These guns were ordered on Minutes 8056-7-8, and 9161, at the request 
of the above-named gentlemen, who were rivals in the cast-iron rifled gun 
competition, reported on Minute 8365. Report 2685. 
The difference between the systems of Messrs Jeffery and Britten, consisted 
substantially in the method of attaching lead to the base of the projectiles, 
and one gun only was prepared for these two gentlemen. The French gun 
was added at the request of the Committee. 
2. The Committee, warned by experience of the former competition, 
determined on this occasion to limit the trial strictly to the rifling of the 
guns, and they therefore endeavoured to eliminate all other sources of 
difference, and themselves fixed a uniform weight, and form, and windage of 
shot, and also the charges of powder. 
Mr Lancaster's shot are slightly shorter than the others, because the 
Committee had previously determined that the term “ 7-in. gun" should 
mean a gun down which a 7-in. spherical shot could be rolled, and under 
that definition the internal sectional area of an oval bored gun must 
necessarily be larger than that of a grooved gun of the same nominal 
calibre. 
The Committee would gladly have confined the competition to the same 
amount of twist, but it was clear that the expanding projectiles of Messrs 
Jeffery and Britten would be unfairly treated if fired from a gun with as 
sharp a spiral as would suit the other competitors, and, moreover, the 
French system is that of an increasing twist, whilst that of the others is 
uniform. They therefore allowed each competitor full latitude in this 
respect. 
