Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
GUNNERY IN 1858:
BEING A TREATISE ON
RIFLES, CANNON, AND SPORTING ARMS;
EXPLAINING THE
PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE OF GUNNERY,
AND DESCRIBING THE
NEWEST IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS.
By WILLIAM GREENER, C.E.,
INVENTOR OF THE EXPANSIVE PRINCIPLE AS APPLIED IN THE MINIE AND
ENFIELD RIFLES, AND AUTHOR OF “THE GUN,” ETC. ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 56, CORNHILL.
1858.
(The Right of Translation is reserved.)
PREFACE.
The urgent need for practical information on theimportant subject of Gunnery is evinced by thenumerous patents taken out during the last fewyears, most of which have fallen still-born, throughdeficient practical science on the part of the inventors.My aim in producing this book has been to point outthe errors into which many ingenious inventors havefallen, and to show how similar failures may beavoided in future, by indicating the only right roadto improvement in Gunnery,—the strict observanceof scientific principles in every old process and inall new inventions: for it is to the ignorance orneglect of the principles of the science that failuresin Gunnery are due.
The necessity for progress in the science of Gunneryis now rendered more than ever imperative onour Government by the prodigious energy andactivity of foreign Governments in providing armamentsfor land and sea service, the efficiency of[iv]which is ensured by adopting all the newest improvementsin fire-arms. But the obstinate reluctancewhich all our previous Governments haveshown to enter upon the, to them unwelcome, dutyof investigating and experimenting on warlike inventions,necessitates strong “pressure from without;”for it may be truly said that all greatimprovements in Gunnery in England have beenforced upon the authorities by absolute necessity,and it is still a question whether we shall profit byour recent experiences, or, as before, allow war tofind us unprepared. We have, doubtless, armamentsof gigantic proportions, and mammoth vessels ofwar, capable of discharging an ordinary ship’s cargoof shot and shell at a broadside; yet while millionshave been thus expended, the improvement of theGun, without which they would be mere masses ofwood, and targets for more skilful opponents, hasbeen neglected.
The GUN and its PROJECTILE will decide the victoryin future fights. Indeed, we are even now waging warwith our neighbours,—not on the battle-field or theocean wave, but in the foundry; engineers being ourgenerals