Page:Our big guns.djvu/44

( 38 ) In answer to those who speak as though there were finality in the science of gun construction, and who complain of us for making guns, which are now becoming obsolete; the reason is so obvious that I hardly need to state it. If all other nations would agree to abstain from gun-making, until the perfect gun was discovered, we could do the same, but they will not; they arm with the best weapon of the day, and we must do likewise, although feeling sure that in a few years, that which we are now doing, will be obsolete.

The fact I have brought to your notice, about guns standing their full charges, and similar guns failing under half charges, is an evidence that the guns can as a rule bear the full charge, and that the causes from which they give way, are such as frequently could not be met by a reduction of the charge, and, therefore—for it comes to very much the same thing—could not be guarded against by making our guns stronger; but there are those who say, "Why don't you make your guns stronger? Why don't you provide a greater margin of safety? Look at boilers and at railway bridges, and the percentage of extra strength allowed in these cases." The gun-maker might retort by saying, that neither bridges nor boilers have been found to be absolutely safe, but he would do better to give the true answer, which is this; that the exigencies of the case will not admit of these extra strengths being given, and that of necessity the strains to be endured by the metal in the Big Guns, must be far in excess of those, which could be imposed upon the metal of either bridges or of boilers.

But let us imagine what might happen if we acted on this principle of putting more metal in our guns.

It will be admitted, I presume, that there must be some limit to the weight of artillery, a given size of ship is capable of carrying; having regard to the load of her armour, her machinery, her coals, and her stores. Say, for the sake of illustration, that in some particular ship this weight was 440 tons, and that it was to be used up in four 110-ton guns. Let us take two such ships, one belonging to the enemy, and one to us; the enemy,