The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-25 00:00:00

Breechloaders for the English Army.

At last the English troops are to be armed with
breechloaders. Cavalry, infantry, artillery, and
marines will all have them early next year, and as
soon as possible afterwards the Militia and Volun-
teers will be similarly equipped. In fact, from this
time neither at Enfield nor at any of the large pri-
vate firms occasionally employed will any more
muzzle-loaders be made for the Government ,•
250,000 Enfields converted into breechloaders wilt
be ready by the Ist of April, and after that instal-
iceccev.,
the rest for the Volunteersand Militia and Colonial
regiments will be taken in hand as fast as possible.
Already the Canadian Government has ordeied
40,000, and the resources of the Enfield Ordnance
Manufactory are severely taxed ; but such arrange-
ments are now being made as will enable them to
turn out at least 1,000 converted rifles per day. We
use the term " converted" in its plainest and most
literal sense. The barrel and grooving of the Enfield
rifle, which have made it the best cheap weapon of
its kind, is not interfered with in the process of con-
version. Long series of tests at Woolwich have
shown that its shooting powers, both as regards
penetration and accuracy, have been rather in-
creased than diminished by the alteration; and more
than this it would be impossible to say in its favour;
and when we add that the " conversion" costs no
more at Enfield than about 14s. per rifle we think
we have said enough to show that this country has
a cheaper breechloader than is known to exist in
any other country.
It has been said by the advocates of breechload-
ing small arms that the worst breechloader was
better than the best muzzle-loader—a fallacy which
it is scarcely worth while to contradict. Nearly all
breechloaders are of necessity more or less intricate,
expensive, and liable to get out of order, and the
trials at Wimbledon show that well-served muzzle-
, loaders have been able to keep pace in accuracy,
if not in rapidity, with what in their time
were thought first rate breechloaders. There is no-
thing very new or strange in the notion of a rifle
being made to load at the breech ; in fact, no coun-
try in the world has ever invented such numerous
varieties of this weapon as England. Time after
time have the importance and value of the improve-
ment been impressed upon the notice of our military
authorities, who have steadily refused to recognise
its use. A few certainly have been made, just suffi-
cient to quiet clamorous inventors, but beyond this
nothing. It is, perhaps, worth mentioning, too, that
of all these many weapons made and tried not a
single one has been adopted save that now making
—the weapon designed by Mr. Snider, which has
been for years in the country, and has never had a
trial until, now. Both lefore and after the easily
won victories of Prussia over Denmark this breech.
loading system, which is scarcely, if at all, modified
now from what it was then, was pressed upon the
notice both of the War-office and Horse Guards.
Neither, however, would entertain the propositions,
or even admit the idea that a breechloader in any
form was desirable or efficacious. What the Prus-
sian needle-gun effected, however, could not be
overlooked, and some of these rifles with their spe-
cial ammunition were got over and tested. A single
week of trials in this country at once sufficed to de-
stroy their reputation. They shot neither with accu-
racy nor with great penetration. Their breeches
"spit gas," as it is termed,which is only a mild way
of saying that much of the flame of the explotts.inon,
often escaped; the needle was constantly
out of order, and, above all, the breech became
tig s_e
.I'l7
that there was no handling it. It was thecdnyo d
only, that the lateGrovernment determinlod,
charac-
value of some of the English systertar,ge try the
number of
teristically enough, ordered a
vnycho. lit a trial, and
breechloaders for the cavalry
to bc issued.
these, though now made, are nelvlecrvedlikely
not so much the
Late events, however, have p
value as the absolute necessity of breechloaders
beyond all dispute,
and if the prese
never do anything more
nt Government
than place breechloaders in
the bands of our soldiers they will have rendered a
most signal service to the country.
It would be tedious, and perhaps not very intelli-
gible to the general reader, to explain the peculiar
mechanism of thebreech in technical terms, and how
it is applied to the Enfield barrel. A few plain words,
however, may give a general idea of the process.
The ordinary rifle barrel is simply shortened at its
breech end by about three inches. To this is screwed
a very strong, hollow half barrel, and over this
Move or opening
is a eolid pidee of metal fastened
to the side of the groove with a common hinge.
This opens or shuts on its hinge with a simple mo-
tion of the finger. When open, the cartridge is in-
stantly inserted into thebase of the barrel, andwhen
closed the tone of the explosion has a solid piece of

"e's
gThenererealari:rionfcipl:
breech
-15,1 f
of this
resist
mechanical details connected withit, !but rittch,*
mtheetarolu too ist
, es
is the it.
loader ;. and when we add that all the parts are
gauged to the thousandths of inches, and make
perfect mechanical fit, it will easily be seen how
complete is the apparatus for closing the breech,and
how massive is the resistance which the breech-
piece offers to the back-shock. The arrangement for
firing is very simple, but most admirably adapted
to do away with that nuisance of modern warfare
—the percussion cap. The cap and cartridge are
now made up together. The cartridge contains the
usual charge of powder, but instead of being enclosed
in paper is contained in a thin slip of brass about as
thick as ordinary tinfoil, and this again is coated out-
side with a water-proofed material something like
oiled pig-skin. Thus the whole cartridge has the rigi-
dity of a bullet, and when placedin the chamber offers
sufficient resistance to the stroke of the hammer to •
allow of its percussion cap being lit and the whole
ignited. How this stroke of the hammer or cock
reaches it when enclosed in the chamber is very
simply effected. Instead of the hammer, which is.
one of the ordinary kind now used in all rifles, fall-
ing on the percussion cap, it strikes upon a stout little
steel bolt supported by a spring, which, passing by an
aperture through the solid breech-piece, abuts full on
the percussion powder at the base of the cartridge.
Of course as this little bolt is struck down by the
hammer the explosion of the charge is instant, while
as the gun is cocked and the breech opened the bolt
is pushed out by the spring ready for instant action
again. It will naturally be asked what becomes of
the brass casing of the cartridges left in the barrel.
These, in the very act of opening the breech, are
pushed down by a spring, and either thrown or picked
out as the marksman himself may please. From this
description it may be thought the apparatus is, if
not cumbrons, at least a complicated piece of ma-
chinery. No idea, however, could be more remote
from the real facts of the case, and whatever com-
plexity may appear to exist iu this invention arises
solely from the difficulty of describing the action of
screws and springs with as much ease and simplicity
as they work themselves.

As compared with the Prussian needle-gun tho
efficiency of the English breechloader is nearly four
times greater in all that relates to accuracy of aini
or rapidity of fire, while as regards the safety and
ease with which the breech mechanism is worked it
is beyond any degree of comparison. There are
eight distinct movements of the breech required to
load and fire the needle-gun—there are only four
necessary in Mr. Snider's. Seven rounds per mi-
nute have been fired from the Prussian gun, and
the average is four, while 21 rounds per minute
have been fired from the English breechloaders,
and the average, it is believed, will be ten. One of
the great objections to the use of these weapons was
the reason alleged that the men would fire away
their ammunition so fast that almost every other
man would require a special tumbril for his own
supply. It is a curious fact, however, that as far
as our military authorities have yet been able
to ascertain, the Prussian soldiers in the recent great
battles do not appear to have used a single round
more of ball cartridge than the Austrians. In fact,
in some cases where the Prussians achieved decided
successes, their expenditure of small ammunition
was actually stated to have been lower than what
would under similar circumstances have been looked
for as likely to occur with our own troops while
using muzzle-loaders. The Prussian fire, in fact,
seems to have been short and decisive, and never
having been commenced but at the proper moment,
and then with a rapid and devastating effect, to
have carried all before it. The argument, therefore,
as to the wasteful expenditure of ammunition be-
comes absolutely worthless, if the military statistics
of the Prussians are to be relied on, and they are the
only nation that have ever used breechloaders in
their army, and used them, too, with an effect which
has astonished all Europe. If breechloaders only
supersede the necessity of capping the guns they
would effect an immense improvement.
The present weapon of Mr. Snider has been tested
in every way in which it is possible to test an ii 4.•
vention of the kind. It has been tried with gas to
ox,cettzm lklakav, with the strongest charge of
powder ; it has been left out under water and to
rust, both loaded and unloaded, and in no one
instance has it yet been found to fail. Three targets
" made" with three of these trial weapons actually
gave a mean deviation of only little over four inches,
at a range of 500 yards. So, too, the brass-coated
ammunition is a great improvement from its
strength and waterproof protection. Of course,
neither soldier nor civilian thinks of putting his
ammunition into water for five or six hours before
using it, but it is at least a comfort to know that in
the event of such an unpleasant contingency happen-
ing it might occur to these cartridges without in
the Slightest degree affecting them. Any one who
knows how careless soldiers in the field are of their
cartridge boxes, and how frequently they are left
out in the rain and always more or less exposed to
damp, will appreciate the value of even the most
temporary water-proofing for cartridges. One bri-
gade, at the battle of the Alma, was rendered almost
defenceless through numbers of the men getting their
cartridges wet while fording the river. No less than
40,000,000 rounds of this improved ammunition
have been ordered, and, as we have said, 250,000
breechloaders have been more or less commenced
upon, and both guns and cartridges will all be ready
by the Ist of April. This is a fact upon which we
can most sincerely congratulate the country, and
Gen. Peel deserves every praise for the energy and
industry with which he has acted in the matter.—
Times.