Year: 1868




bette battery. To make the guns and
men little safer the embrasure method
was adopted. On this plan it is true that
the gun and gunners were kept below the
level of the parapet, but to enable the
gun to be fred it was necessary to pierce
parapet in front of it; aud if any lateral
range had to be attained, the opening
Jaws Of the embrasure were necessarily
very wide, and formed a convenient fun
mel into which hostile force might pour
round shot, shell, grape, and rifle balls
! at discretion Even two or three good
rihemen in hole opposite so excellent
a target were often found sufficient to
keep down the fire of huge piece OF
ordnance, and to iuAict heavy loss on
those who attempted to work it; and
though something was done, by movable
mantelets, to screen the mea from rifle
bullets, there was no way of protecting
either them or their gun from the inces-
SAINT pounding of artillery. The upshot
was that any fortress in the world was
bound to succumb after sufficiently per-
sistent attack. Capt. Moncrief proposed
| to change all these conditions, and he has
done it. Ifhe could only do away with en-
brasures, keep the gunners safe behind
the parapet, and the gun itself equally
safe except for second or SO while it
was delivering its fire, the great end
would be achieved. All that was wanted
was some contrivance for lifting the gun
above the parapet at the moment OF
firing, and bringing it down again, just
| as riheman under cover might lift up
his rife, FIRE over wall, and then drop
down into position of perfect safety.
But the rifle weighs ten pounds, and
great gun may weigh ten or twenty tons,
or even more, and the apparently hope
less problem was to handle this huge
mass of metal with the same speed and
facility as a common musket. The de-
sirableness of some such contrivance was
of course obvious to every artillery
officer, and indeed to all persons who
had devoted moments thought to the
subject Some speculated on the possi-
bility OF obtaining the required mobility
by means of hydraulic force, but this
idea was soon abandoned, and the prob
lem given up in despair. And yet,
though they could not see it, the requisite
force was there, inseparable from the
gun, not only running to waste, but
doing all the mischief it could by shaking
and tearing platforms to pieces, and
worrying the souls of engineers in their
endeavors to neutralize it. If they could
only get rid of recoil, they could build
platforms on any ground, strong enough
to stand forever. Recoil was considered
in the service as the bane of all con-
structive engineering, and yet all the
while it was the best friend of the forth
fcation-maker-th one thing needed to
make his work perfect. 1t never seems
to have occurred to any one before Capt
Moncrieff Tor, if it did, the idea never
fructifed,) that the recoil might be made
a servant, and not master; and that,
instead of letting it expend its strength
on the destruction of carriages and plat
forms, it might be used to do the one
thing that was wanted-to lift the gun
above the parapet at the moment of firing,
and deposit it gently below in place of
safety the instant after the shot was
delivered. This was the simple idea of
Captain Msncrieff's invention, and the
mode of applying it is as simple as the
idea itself. Imagine a fowling-piece
fixed to the top of the back of q rocking
chair, and fred. The chair rolls back
with the recoil, smoothly and evenly,
without the slightest jar; aud, if caught
and stopped at the lowest position, the
gun may be loaded and the chair let go,
when it must roll back to recover its
balance and bring the gun once more to
the top. Fire the gun again, and the
process repeats itself; and, so we have
our gun always fred from high posi-
ton, and instantly brought to a lower
level, to be again prepared for action
This is the whole action Of Capt Mon
crieff's device. The rocking chair-the
elev tor, as it is called-weighs some six
tons, and the weight is so distributed
that in the position of equilibrium the
gun is at the highest point. The bottom
Of the elevator is rounded like the rollers ]
of the rocking chair, and the instant the
gun is fired the recoil sets the machine
rolling, and brings down the gun some
feet below the parapet. There it is stopped
by a common catch or pawle working on
a toothed wheel, like that which every
one has seen on & wiEdlass or a crane.
When the gun is loaded the pawle is re.
moved by a handle, the gun springs up,
the shot is fred, and down comes the
piece again 10 the loading position. A
simple contrivance, called the carriage
which is nothing but bar pivoted to the
gun at one end, and riding along an in
cline plane at the oiher-keeps the piece
horizontal throughout the movement,
and by means Of looking-glass the gun
is aimed, while in the loading position,
without requiring even the man who lays
II 10 expose himself for moment As
we have said, when this great invention
great because Of its simpliciiy-vas
presented TO the authorities years ago, |
thew could not see that there was any
thing in It, and, what was worse, they |
would not allow Capt Monerief 70 show
them. At last, after ten years, the per
mission is given, and instantly the ma
chine vorks-as It could not but work
with absolute success The Gun with |
which the new apparatus vas tested vas
q seven-inch gun, weighing about seven
tons Sufficiently formidable mass to
deal with on a FIRST experiment The 1
frst fer shots we're intended simply TO
try uhtlher the machine would work. bat
before TIVE shOrt days Of practice we're