THE GREAT GUNS OF GREAT BRITAIN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 16

THE GREAT GUNS OF GREAT BRITAIN

(By Arnold White in “Cassell’s Magazine.”)

In the five hundred years that elapsed between the invention of big guns and the Crimean war, there were fewer improvements made than in the period between the taking of Sebastopol and the occupation of Cairo by Lord Wolseley in 1882. Since that date gunnery has again made great strides. If one modern gunboat had been present at the battle of Trafalgar, she could-have sunk every British, French and Spanish vessel without injury to herself or risk to the lives and limbs of any member of her crew. If a battery of the latest 18|-pounder quick-firers, with Sir George Sydenham Clarke’s spade attachment, had been stationed on the heights near Mont St. Jean, at Waterloo* with a Maxim gun company attached to three of the British infantry regiments, the battle would have been over long before Blueher’s arrival in the afternoon.

The controversy, which prolonged -for years after tlxe matter was settled beyond reasonable doubt, as to whether the guns of the army should bo loaded at their muzzle or loaded at their breech, is almost incredible to us in the twentieth century. It is # a reproach to the English people that we are, as a rule, from two to fifteen years behind France and Germany in the adoption oi mechanical improvements as applied to the art of war by land and sea. When breech-loading guns were first constructed experimentally by tlie late Lord Armstrong, they were a failure, and, although France and Germany had succeeded in solving the problem which still baffled the gunnery experts of the great Tyneside firm the British Government, with true national conservatism actually adopted muzzle-loading rile guns. Great Britain enjoyed her traditional luck in being at peace during that period of impotence. It is only fair to the great Elswick linn, and to Sir Andrew Noble, its practical working head, to say that the improvements in gunnery during that critical period of fifteen years, which have revolutionised our artillery by sea and land, were mainly duo to them and not to the Government departments entrusted with the duty of procuring the best type of weapon for the British fleet and army. One of the first principles established after the adoption of the breech-loading system was the necessity for a very long gun in. order to develop the high power required in modern ordnance. The efficiency of a gun is accordingly expressed by the number of calibres in its length. (It is possibly superfluous to explain that the calibre is the diameter of the barrel of a gun, or the diameter of a shot or shell.) The reason for this is explained by the fact that the longer the force of the explosive continues to push the projectile m the gun, the greater the speed with which it leaves the gun. Sir Andrew Noble and Professor Abel, were the authors of the experiments with slow burning powders and long, slim guns, which established tire fact that a higher velocity could be given to a projectile by that means than by a violent powder in a short, fat gun containing a similar weight of metal. That discovery was an epoch-making event in connection with'modern ordnance. When the breech-loading guns were finally adopted into the service, the inventive capacity of the gunnery experts was applied to the mechanism required to close the gun after it was loaded. England, for the hundredth time, had recourse to French ideas for the solution of the problem. What is known as the interrupted screw was a French invention. At first there were four motions required to open or close the gun, but gradually these have been simplified by successive inventors to two. The rapidity of firing successive rounds from the same gun has been greatly increased by the application of the latest closing mechanism to modern guns. Thirty years ago guns were bored hi the solid metal. Until the ’eighties they were built up from hoops of steel—a system which was in turn superseded by the wire-built gun.

The notion of strengthening guns by means of steel wire is not a new one, but it is only since 1887 that the system has been adopted for heavy guns. In manufacturing wire guns the barrels are made in a similar manner to those for other bieech-loading guns. The operation may he seen at Woolwich or at Eiswick, where the winding of the wire is performed automatically by means of a lathe so adjusted as to move sideways up and down the tube as the winding proceeds. The great 12in guns of the Majestic, with which Lord.. Charles Bpresford has recently established a gunnery record by beating H.M.O. Ocean, are of this type. There are 113 miles of wire in this type of gun, which takes nine months to construct. There are fourteen layers of wire at the mouth of-the gun,which increases gradually to ninty-two layers over the chamber which has to bear the force of the explosion. No less than -eight miles of wire are wound round the chamber. These guns, though not so modern as the great guns of the later battleships, like the Edward VH„ are larger than any now supplied to his Majesty’s ships. The main advantages of the wire system are —firstly, that tor a given weight of metal the gun is

stronger than if constructed hv thick hoops shrunk on; secondly, every inch of the material can bo tested all over; thirdly, that should a flaw occur it cannot spread; fourthly, that for a smaller external diameter than formerly a gun of equal strength can be obtained; and fifthly, that the material in itself is stronger than steel in a mass. The most modern gun in use in the army is the new gun. No less than five years have been occupied in its production. Invention is never still. As soon as a type of gun is found to satisfy the experts, an improvement is made which involves alteration to one or two parts. The result is a dilemma i.e... difficulty in choice between such delay as would be involved in the production of a perfect weapon and the premature choice of a type of gun whicn has or mignt become inferior to the ordnance of rival nations. Other powers, learning a lesson from the Boer war, have provided some of their new quickfiring guns with shields., but these guns only fire a 15Jib shell, while the new British gun fires a 1811 b projectile. The 4-gun battery of France is provided with 240 rounds of ammunition, which might be expended in action m less than an hour.

Since the Boer war there has been a growing desire on the part of artillery officers to obtain lighter guns that can carry a larger supply of ammunition. One of the greatest German authorities, General von Eeichnau, favours a 2in gun, which is an improved pompom. The preference of the present naval authorities for shorter guns arises from the fact that the long guns were found to droop or sag from sheer weight of metal. The 16.25 in 111-ton gun is the. largest gun which has been constructed in Great Britain. Two of these guns were mounted in t-lie Benbow and the Sans Pared. The bigger a gun tho shorter its life, and the whole career of the 110-ton gun can only bo reckoned at about eighty full charges. The bore at the end of the chamber gradually wears, so that after a certain number of rounds, varying for each class of gun and each individual gun, the

the projectile fills up or wears away the rifling in the bore. - The biggest gun in the world, as might he expected, is of American constructio i. It is, so far as weight goes, about on a par with the large Krupp guns purchased by Italy for the defence of Taran - to'. It is a 16in 126-ton gun, of fortytwo calibres. Tho projectile weighs 2,3001 b, and the charge is 640ib of nitrocellulose explosive. The velocity is 2,306 loot seconds.

The new 9.2 in wire gun weighs 25 tons, and is 32ft long. The weight of the shot is 3801 b, that of the charge 631 b. The projectile travels at a-rate of 2,380 ft a second, and it can penetrate 2ft of wrought iron at 1,000 yards’, 'and about 19£in at 2,000 yards. The effect! re range of the best guns of the present day may he reckoned at about six or seven miles.