guns are much stronger. This is an obvious advantage, but an equally solid one is the fact that owing to the greater weight of the home-made weapon the recoil energy is less and consequently

Fig. 54. — Metallic Cartridge Case.

the mounting can be made of a lighter pattern. Besides, the weight of the gun is so disposed as to bring its centre of gravity

Table II. — Names and Weights of English Cannon, 1574

Robinet

Falconet

Falcon

Minion

Sac re

Demi-Culverin

Culvcrin

Demi-Cannon

Cannon .

Eliza-Cannon

Basiliske

Weight.

tb

200

500

800

1100

1500 2500

4000 6000 7000 8000 9000

Diameter of Bore.

3i 3i 4^ 5 6

/ 4

8

8§

Diameter of Sliot.

It

3

3i

4

5

6i

7i

7f

Weight of Shot.

4i

5

9

18

30 60

63

60

Table III.

Gun.

Weight of Charge.

Weight of Shot.

Muzzle Velocity.

27-pr. 66 cwt. ....

i3^pr- 37-5 cwt

6i pr. 20 cwt. .... 3s pr. II cwt. ....

lb.

13-125 6-562

4-922 2-469

lb.

27

13-5 6-75 3-375

f.s.

1517 1618 1696 1720

Table IV. — British Smooth Bore Guns, 1860.

as near the breech end as possible; by this means the radius

of the gun house is reduced to the smallest dimension and, in

consequence, there is a great .saving of weight of armour. The

extra weight of the gun is therefore

more than compensated for.

Until laic into the i6th century the calibres of the guns were not regulated with a view to the interchangeability of shot. In the following century ordnance was divided into classes, but even then, owing no doubt to manufacturing difficulties, there was no fixed size for the bore. The Tables II. -VII. give some idea of the size and weight of these pieces.

Table II. is taken from Cleveland's Notes, but corrected from " An Old Table of Ordnance " {Proc. R.A.I., vol. xxviii. p. 365); the last column gives the range in scores of paces at pointblank, a term tiscci in those days to denote the first part of the trajectory which was supposed to be a straight line. Later the point-blank range was that distance from the gun on its carriage to the first graze of the shot on the horizontal plane when the axis of the gun was placed horizontal; this depended on the height of the gun above the ground plane, but it was the only method of determining the relative power of these early guns.

In power, smooth-bore guns in Europe did not differ very much from each other, and it may be taken for granted that the progress made since has been much the same in all.

D'Antoni, in his Treatise of Fire Arms (translated by Captain Thomson, R.A.), gives particulars of Italian guns of about 1746, which are shown in Table III.

It will be seen that the velocities given in Table III. are not inferior to those obtained from guns actually in use in 1860 (see Table IV.). They were considerably higher than those for elongated rifled projectiles (Table V.) for many years after their introduction; the last-named, however, during flight only lost their velocity slowly, while the spherical shot lost their velocity so rapidly that at 2000 yds. range only about onethird of the initial velocity was retained.

Weight of

Charge. Serpentine.

ft i

2

li

2^ 4^

5

9 18 28 40

42 60

Scores of

Paces at

point-blank.

14 16

17 18 20

25 28 20 20 21

Official Designation of Gun.

Calibre.

Weight of Gun.

Weight of Charge.

Weight of Projectile.

Muzzle Velocity.

Muzzle Energj'.

r 10 in. 87 cwt.

d

68 pr. 95 „

8 in. 65 „

t^

32 pr. 58 „

U

24 „ 50 „ >-l8, ,38 „

Si f 12 „ 18 „

9 ■. 13 ., 6 „ 6 „

In. 10 8-12 8-05 6-375 5-823 5-292 4-623 4-20 3-668

Tons. 4-35 4-75 3-22

2-9

2-5

1-9

0-9

0-65

0-3

lb. 12 16 10 10

8

6

4

2-5

1-5

lb. 88-31 66-25 49-875 31-375 23-5 17-69 12-66

9-36 6-23

Ft. Sees. 1292

1579 1464 1690 1720 1690

1769 1614

1484

Ft. Tons. 1022 "45

742 621 482 350 275 169

95

Table V. — British B.L. Ordnance, 1860. Armstrong System.

Official Designation of Gun.

Calibre.

Weight of Gun.

Weight of Charge.

Weight of Projectile.

Muzzle Velocity.

Muzzle Energy-.

In.

Tons.

lb.

lb.

Ft. Sees.

Ft. Tons.

100 pr., . ....

7

3-6

12

103-75

1166

978

1

40

4-75

} 1-6 0-65

5

41-5

(1164

] "34 1 1 14

390 370 162

20 „

3-75

2-5

21-22

997

146

12 „

3-0

0-425

1-5

11-56

1 184

112

9 M

3-0

0-3

1-125

9-0

1141

81

6

2-5

0-175

0-75

6-0

946

37

At a later date the velodties of these guns were altered.

Two patterns were in existence.