THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
405 
bringing severe pressure both on the gun and on the projectile. The shells 
recovered, after being fired, from the other two guns were apparently 
uninjured, shewing that there was no objection to either system of grooving 
on the ground of its unfitness for shell firing; but in order to verify this 
opinion, five of the recovered shells were subsequently fired, full of powder, 
from each of these two guns, with equally satisfactory results; none of them 
exploded prematurely.* 
5. The Committee had then witnessed the firing of upwards of 400 rounds 
from these guns, and they were unanimously of opinion that the Lancaster 
system should be rejected on account of the tendency to crush in the bore 
evinced by the condition of the recovered shells, its inferior accuracy, and the 
difficulty of loading; and that of the two remaining competitors, they considered 
the so-called Trench system to be the better. They formed this opinion not 
only upon the grounds of the superior accuracy of the gun, which is however 
very marked; but also upon the grounds that it is the easiest to load by day, 
and that at night the simple buttons on its projectile would (if they may use 
the expression) “ find 13 the grooves of the gun or shot bearer more easily than 
would the more numerous but smaller ribs of Commander Scott's projectile. 
The opinion is also grounded partly on the consideration that in the case of 
careless manufacture incidental to large contracts in war time, the soft metal 
studs of the Trench projectile would adjust themselves to the grooves of the 
gun whilst any error in planing the Scott ribs would cause unequal pressure 
in the different grooves and tend to destroy them. It is unfortunate that the 
adoption of, by Commander Scott, of zinc-faced ribs in about half the 
projectiles fired during this competition should have prevented a practical 
test of the wearing of the grooves, even under the favourable circum¬ 
stances as to correctness of manufacture which he has on this occasion 
enjoyed. 
6. The single point upon which the Scott system maybe practically superior 
to the Trench is in the cheapness of its projectiles. The Superintendent* 
Loyal Laboratory reports a difference of Is. lOd. per 100 lbs. shot in favour 
of the Scott, but the Committee think it probable that further experience in 
the mode of studding will considerably reduce this difference. 
7. The so-called Trench gun being then in the opinion of the Committee 
the best of those originally placed in competition, was selected by them for 
comparison with a gun rifled, by permission of the Secretary of State for 
War, under date October 29, 1864, from a design submitted by Sir William 
Armstrong. 
The length of bore of this gun was the same as that of the Trench gun, 
but its weight was 9 cwt. less. It was rifled in six grooves on the shunt 
plan, in the form in which it has been generally applied to large guns, with 
* Mr Lancaster has since produced eight shells of a different pattern, which were fired on 22nd of 
June, with charges of 20 lbs. and with 7 lbs. 6 oz. of bursting charge in each; six of them weighed 
116 lbs. filled, two of them 109 lbs.; none of these shells burst prematurely. 
