Year: 1868

over, the artillerymen employed In this
unaccustomed duty found that they could


equal in accuracy, and surpass in speed,
anything which they had ever been able
to do when firing through an open en-


brssure. As the trials went on the Sc
verify of the tests was increased, and on


the second day nearly all the practice
was at O target moving in an eblique
line, so as at each moment to alter both
it's distance and its angular position.
Excellent practice was made at this,
and at other times the men behind the
parapet cgot their orders, while loading,
To fire first at one, then at another OF the
targets, which were fixed in different po-
sitions and at different ranges Each
time the shot few as truly as if the pro
tected artillerymen had been standing in
the open, with full view of the object
aimed at and before the close of the
second day, ten seven-inch projectiles
had been sent, according to orders, to the


various targets in less than nineteen


minutes-a speed which it is expected


will yet be surpassed when the men have


become more used TO their work. But q


much more remarkable feat followed


The usual gun detachment of ten men


will hardly be thought too strong force


to handle a weapon weighing, without its
adjuncts, as much as seven tons, and with


them between twenty and thirty; but so


perfect is the balance with the Moncrieif-
mounting, that three men loaded, worked,


laid, and fred the gun with comparative
ease. After two or three rounds the


three .artillerymen managed to reduce the
interval between successive shots to less


than two and half minutes; and as the


gunners would be almost as safe from


casualties with an enemy before them as


at Shoeburyness, it would be possible at


q pinch, with scarcely any loss OF eff


cheney, to keep up the fire of battery


With less than one-third of its proper
complement. Ifthese experiments proved
how smoothly and easily the machine
could be handled, another satisfactorily
showed how hard it would be to put it out
of order. During an interval in firing the
whole apparatus was clogged with sand
and gravel iugeniously shoveled wherever
it was likely to prove most obstructive,
and few seconds broom-work put every
thing TO rights again. The ingenuity of the
Committee was at length exhausted, and
the experiments concluded without hav-
ing a single weak point in the invention.
No serious difficulty need be anticipated
in constructing elevators for guns OF any
weight, and so far as land batteries are
concerned, hole in the ground must
henceforth supercede every other con-
trivance. A rife pit has long been the


n. Co hor


and now that great guns can be handled,
or rather made to handle themselves, as
quickly as a soldier can present a mus
ket, the same method is equally apph.
cable to them. Nor have we even yet
come to the end of the capabilities OF
Captain Moncrieffs happy discovery.
The recoil supplies power enough not
only to move the gun as required, but to
do any other kind of work that may be
asked from it; and when, as is the case
with the larger ordnance, the shot used
is unmanageably heavy, it is intended
to employ the stored-up force OF the re-
coil to raise it to the cannon's mouth.
Other new developments will be wanted,
and doubtless will be found, to meet the
various special conditions under which
guns may be used by land or sea, and al
ready we hear suggestions that the Mon
Grief elevator may surpass the turret on
board ships as completely as the turret
eclipses the broadside armament. More
experiments will be needed before any
such results can be attained, but the in.
yention contains so vast an element of
power that it would be difficult at present
to saw where it will stop 1t has already
done two great things. 1t has abolished
forts, and it has, after a long struggle,
conquered an amount of stolid official
resistance which would have done credit
even to the Board of Admiralty.