New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-04-07
ON RIFLED CAHEoN....LfEf

precisou Of ordnance by riing the BORE and there
BY giving the shot rotation vertical to tho line OF
propulsion, date from the 18th century. There isa
small rifed gun at Munich, manufacturedin Nurem-
berg in l694 has eightrooves and bore Of about
tvo inches diameter. During the whole Of the 18th
| century. experiments were made, both in Germany
and in England, with rifed cannon, some of them
br,ecb-loadinq. Though the calbers were small,
the results obtained were very satisfactory; the
English two.pounders in l776, at range OF 300
v.,ds gave lateral detection Of two feet only-a
degree of precision which no other gun at the time
was capable of approaching. In the same year.
these rhed cannon were for the first time used for
projecting sblong shot.
Thess experiments, however, remained for long
while without any practical results The current OF
military opinion at that tino altogether went
against riaed arms. The rife itself WAS then
very clumsy instrument, its loading was slow and
tedious operation requiring considerable skill. IL
was q weapon unfit for general warfare ct period
when rapid firing whether Of deployedlines, OF heads
of columns or of skrmiihers, was one of the chief
desiderata in battle. Napoleon would have no rifles
in his army; in England and Germany, few battal-
ions only were equipped with them; in America and
Switzerland alone, the rifle remained the national
weapon.
The Algerian war was the occasion to bring the
rifle again into credit, and to cause improvements
in its construction which were but the beginning
of that colossal revolution In the whole system OF
firearms which is even now far from its conclusion.
4 h.
match for the long espingardas of the Arabs their
greater length and better material, which admitted
of heavier charge enabled the Kabyles and Be-
douns to fire on the French at distances where the
regulation musket was utterly powerless. The
Duke of Orleans, having seen aud admired the
Prussian and Austrian chssseurs, organized the
the French chasseurs on their model who soon, for
armament, equipment, and tactics, became the first
troops of their class in the world. The rifs with
which they were armed was far superior to
the old rifle and II soon underwent further changes,
resulting, finally, in the general introduction OF
,iled muskets in the whole Of the infantry Of Ed
rope.
The range of infantry FIRE having thus been in
creased from 800 to 900, and even 1000 yards, the
bad commanded all distances from 300 up to 800
wards, would still be able to hold its against
the new small-arDs. The fact was, that the great.
est efficacy of common feld-guns lay just within
that range which was now disputed to 1t by the
rife; canister was scarcely effective beyond 600 or
200 yards; round shot gave very satisfactory re-
suits, with the Elk or nine FOUNDER, beyond LOCO
Il (snh r;cal ali tn he
very Formidable required q GOODNESS and correct
estimation Of distances which are not always to be
found on the field Of battle when the enemy is ad-
vancing; while the shell practice OF the old howitzers
against troops was anything but sati,factory. The
armies which had the nine FOUNDER gun for their
smallest caber, such % the English, were still the
best off, the French eightpounder and, still more,
the German six.pounder, became almost useless.
To obviate this the French introduced, about the
beginning of the CIimean war, Louis Napoleon's so
called invention, the light twelve FOUNDER canon
oJu.itr from which solid shot, with a charge Of
one-fourth instead Of ohe-third its weight well as
shell, was to be fred. This gun was a mere plagi
arsm upon the English light twelve-pouuder, which
had already been again abandoned by the English;
the system of firing shells from long guns had been
long in practice in Germany; 90 that there was
nothing at all new in this pretended improvement
Still, the armiDg Of the whole French artillery with
I2pounders, even of diminished range, would
have given II decided superiority over the old 6
and e-pounders; and to cosnteract this, the Prus.
sian Government, in 1859, resolved upon giving
heavy I2 FOUNDERS to all its foot batteries. This
was the last move in the Of the smooth-bore
gup; il showed that the whole subject was ex-
hausted, ard the defenders Of the smooth-bore
driven ad absurdum. There could, indeed not be
anything more absurd than to arm the whole artl-
lery of an army with those numbering stick-in.the
mud Prussian IL. FOUNDERS and that at time when
mobility and rspidty Of maneuvering is the greatest
dceideratum of all. The French light 12.pOunder
having relative superiority eDly to other artillery,
and none at all as regarded the new small arms,
and the Piussiau heavy l2pounder being palpable
ab,urdity, there remained nothing but either to
drop field artillery altogether or to adopt riied
cannon.
In the mean time, experiments with rihed cannon
had continually been carried on in various cOun-
tries. In Germany the Bavaran Lieut.. Col. Reich
enbach experimental with q small rHed gun
and cy lindro conodial shot, as early as 1916. The
results were very satisfactory to range and pre-
cison, but the difficulties Of loading and extraneous
obstacles prevented the subject from being followed
up. In 1916, the Piedmontese Major Cayal con-
structtd breech.loading rAed gun which attracted
considerable attention. His first gun was thirty