The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

XLL-FIELD ARTILLERY. AS in naval armaments, the importance of quick-firing guns has been recognised by their general adoption, increasing calibres, and improved mechanisna, so a similar récognition has been given to the value of the same principles, though under widely different conditions, for field artillery. The older types of guns firing from rigid carriages, and with free recoil, will soon be regarded as obsolete, at all events by those nations whose armaments are of the modem type. In treating of this special subject, as elaborated by Messrs. Schneider and Canet, we shall have little to say about the gun itself, which in its design, as well as in the breech mechanism, belongs strictly to the Schneider-Ganet system. The principal interest attaches itself to the graduai development of field mountings, which in their most modem types embody the experimental practice of many years. To deal with the subject fully, we should have to include all the numerous systems which have successively been experimented upon at the Villedieu and Hoc proving grounds, and also the results obtained during the experi- inents. These have been carried on without interruption in the proving grounds ever since the question of accelerating the fire of field guns first became a practical one. Of course, such an investigation would be of gréai interest, as it would involve a review in every detail of the constant progress made in the construction of this particular type of ordnance and its mounting. But as this would carry us far beyond available limits, the data we shall give must be limited to a few successive types, with a detailed notice of the 1898 pattern gun and mounting, which embody ail the improvements suggested by experiment, and carried out up to that date. Previous, however, to considering the varions systems which Messrs. Schneider and Go. have studied in theory and have experimented upon in practice, it will be well to refer to the conditions they prescribed in undertaking the manufacture of quick-firing field guns and carriages, and towards the complété realisation of which they have never ceased to work. The resuit, as already stated, is their 1898 pattern, which fulfils ail the conditions required up to the present. At the commencement of the quick-firing field artillery development, two different views generally prevailed ; and they seem, even now, to divide military experts as regards the conditions which quick-firing field guns should fulfil in service. According to some—and these form to-clay the lesser number—the new type of carriage, and especially that part on which most of the changes have been carried out, should not be radically different, when comparée! to the older rigid types, but be rather an improvement of the latter, such improvements and alterations being mostly in matters of detail, affected, of course, largely by the progress made in the processes of manufacture of different parts, and by the quality of metals now used. This view would bar the possible application, at least to a considérable degree, of the progress made during late years in the construction of quick-firing naval gun mountings, especially as regards hydraulic recoil cylinders, which now work most satis- factorily. It may be remarked here that tliese saine recoil cylinders, when they were first proposée!, had been stated by many artillerists to be unfit for naval service. The greatest concession such theorists are willing to make, is the application to the carriage (which would remain, as in the past, a simple rigid support), of an elastic device, for diminishing recoil, but not absorbing it completely. Sometimes, indeed, this device, which forms the most délicate part of the whole mounting, containing as it does a certain number of springs, is not expected to act, except in spécial cases, and when the ground on which the gun is fired, is suited for its working. The problem of field gun construction thus interpreted becomes com- paratively simple of solution, and it may easjly be conceived that the theorists advocating this principle, were readily defended by some manufacturers. Certain writers also have endeavoured to persuade military authorities to accept these saine théories ; quite recently, indeed, books and pamphlets have been published which claim to prove clearly the utter impossibility of making a field gun- carriage that will remain in position during firing. These daims are not based on theoretical objections, but on the alleged trials and failures of many proposed systems. The objections so made are scarcely worthy of even passing notice ; they are one of the phases that always attend on progress, and are only sileneed entirely by the indisputable verdict of results. Thus, in the same way, the advocates of breechloading for ordnance were long proved by theorists and faddists to be unpractical and altogether wrong. But the folly of these objectors has been clearly demonstrated, and the arguments in favour of rigid field gun-carriages are equally f'allacious. The main argument used bv the advocates of field guns which fulfil their limited programme, and which has been called “ accelerated firing,” is to the effect that such guns will prove amply sufficient after the firing of a battery lias been so regulated, that each gun will fire a maximum of eight rounds per minute. This number of rounds agréés