2 
jolting of the ammunition. The General’s long cartridges would of course lie 
flat in the limber boxes. He preserves as a secret his method for enabling them 
to lie securely without being jolted. The German limber weighs 17i cwt., the 
General’s would be 15 t 7 q cwt. with thirty rounds, or 14 t 7 q cwt. with twenty-four 
rounds for horse artillery. The General’s wagon is lighter than his gun, an 
example that might well be followed to prevent wagons, as was so frequently the 
case, being a kind of shot tied to your heels, to use Colonel Langlois’s emphatic 
language. 1 The General in discussing such weights treats them from the point 
of view of draught. Such matter on paper seems to me of small profit—its 
theoretic value is almost nil. Captain Moch then invites our attention to the 
6-inch mortar wagon and field wagon, 1889, of the Russian service. These 
wagons consist each of two similar half-wagons attached by a movable perch, so 
that a battery consists of six limbers and 18 half-wagons. The half-wagon is 
rather heavier than a limber, as it carries four or five more rounds so as to main¬ 
tain the figure of total rounds, but is otherwise v similar and would replace an 
empty limber when required. The total rounds carried are 6 X 80, added to 18 
x 35, or 810. It would be easy however to make the half-wagons and the limbers 
identical, with a wonderful simplicity and uniformity of organisation, and better 
still, in the writer’s opinion, if each half-wagon or limber (the name of the thing 
is immaterial) other than those attached to the guns were independent with a 
single pair of horses, while spare stores were carried in general service wagons. 
General Wille would abolish the forge as carriage, and would carry a small port¬ 
able forge on a general service wagon. In the German service this latter wagon 
weighs a ton; the General would bring it down 2 cwt. by lightening the wheels 
and axles. As to the stuff with which they are laden the General delivers his 
soul in the following terms : “ As on the forge, so in these we stow away stores, 
tools, gear and raw material in such large quantities, as if a battery in its bivouac 
were a miniature factory, or as if we wanted to make war in Siberia or in Africa. 
. . . . I fear greatly that a large part of those precious goods, transported 
with infinite trouble, would be of no practical value, but would serve no other 
purpose than to swell out reports and returns.” 
THE GUNS OE TO-MORROW. 
Proposals of the “ Militar-Wochenblatt.” 
The Militar-Wochenblatt, not content with criticising General Wille, makes the 
following counter proposals : — 
1°—The gun not to exceed about 8^- cwt. 
2°—Obtain maximum effect with a pressure not exceeding 2200 atmospheres 
(about 14 tons per square inch). 
3°—Total length not to exceed 7i feet. 
4°—Obtain a muzzle energy of 48 foot tons per cwt. of gun, or a total energy 
of 408 foot tons with an 8-| cwt. gun. The muzzle velocity will then be 2024, 
1945 or 1888 foot seconds with projectiles weighing respectively 14'3, 15'4, or 
16*5 lbs. The author decides for the heaviest projectile to secure the maximum 
number of shrapnel bullets without having recourse to tungsten, and for all pro¬ 
jectiles of uniform weight. As for calibre, if it be true that its diminution leads 
to increased transverse density in the projectile, it also leads to increased pressure 
and as a consequence a thicker projectile with a less satisfactory interior organis¬ 
ation. Calculation gives 8 cm (3'15 ins.) as satisfying the best conditions, but the 
resultant energy is then only 59 per cent, of that theoretically demanded by 
General Wille. The Wochenblatt gun has an energy of recoil of 8'35 foot tons, 
consequently the author cannot see his way to lightening the gun carriage. The 
1 With the British 12-pr. the wagon is 2 cwt. lighter than the gun. 
