Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/642

* FIELD. 586 FIELD ARTILLERY. decisions in which he delivered the opinions of the court that the law of real property in Cali- fornia, was placed on a permanent basis. In 1863 he was appointed by President Lincoln an Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a position which he held with increasing distinction until 1897. Here he played a conspic- uous and important rode, expressing himself with great force and freedom on all the great con- stitutional questions which came before the court for consideration during his long term of ser- viee and being intrusted by the court with the duty of preparing some of its most important opinions. His opinions in the celebrated test- oath cases, in which the Supreme Court de- clared the invalidity of the 'ironclad oath' im- d by act of Congress on all persons holding office tinder the Government of the United States, and his dissenting opinions in the legal-tender, slaughter-house, and income-tax cases were dis- tinct contributions to American constitutional law. and have become justly celebrated. In 1869 he was appointed professor of law in the Univer- sity of California : in 1873. as one of a commis- sion to examine the codes of the State, he pre- pared amendments which were adopted by the Legislature. He was a member of the famous electoral commission of 1876 which decided the Presidency in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes, and he voted with the minority in favor of Samuel J. Tilden. As a judge, Field was noted for his independence of judgment and the strength of his convictions, as well as for the sanity and reason- ableness of his views. He was a learned lawyer. but it was the breadth of his information and the range of his experience which contributed most to his judicial equipment. His service on the bench of the Supreme Court, the longest in the history of that august, tribunal, was also one of the most useful in its history. FIELD ARTILLERY. In the contest for military superiority among the great powers of the world, the greatest activity, the heaviest ex- pense, and the largest number of experiments are in the direction of the development of field artil- lery. The twenty years succeeding the Franco- Prussian War saw practically no transformations of field-artillery material. At the end of these two decades the usual method of correcting de- fects by remodeling old types had become im- practicable. The years 1890-96 marked t he end of the old systems (see Artillery i . and the be- ginning of experiments, culminating in a general rearmament, which at the opening of the twen- tieth century has been practically completed. tin- gun of 1890, a comparatively modern breech loading rille, was already considered no longer ei gh in 1900; The resuli oi this rivalry of nations is the present rapid-lire field gun, a single one of which will deliver more aimed shots in a minute than a whole batter] of the old "Jin-. In nearly all of the yearly budgets of European iiiilitui powei extraordinarily large credits ap pear for the purchase of new field-artillery ma 1. idea of the enormous expense incurred btained from the fad thai the cost of a le complete gun and carriage is, in round numbers, i .1 each military nation re- i ;il thousand of l hese ■■ i apon ■ i ms governing the e I - ■ t . 1 1 dtmenl i field artillery are brieflj as fol- low*: The maximum weight to be drawn bj the team of four or six horses; say 3500 to 4500 pounds in Europe, for a six-horse learn, it is generally agreed that the weight for field artil lery should not be greater than 7-4 pounds per horse, and the weight for horse artillery 618 pounds per horse : however, these figures are con- siderably exceeded in practice. In general terms it may be said that to increase the weight de- creases the mobility, but increases the stability when firing. After having determined the maxi mum weight the problem is to get the greatest rapidity of fire, the highest ballistic power, and the most destructive projectile possible within these limits. Other important considerations closely allied to these are mobility, stability of carriages, accuracy of fire, and many other de- tails, of interest only to technical readers. Even with the numerous improvements that have been made in field guns, it has recently been found necessary «to have a more effective long-range weapon against troops under cover, in intrenched positions, behind walls, natural irregularities of the terrain, etc. This has brought about the adoption in different countries of one or more of the following devices for this purpose: the field mortar or howitzer, the torpedo shell, and the use of varying charges in the ordinary field gun. The standard field gun in all countries is so nearly similar that it is not necessary to describe each one separately. As being one of the most modern and at the same time one of the most powerful weapons of this class, a brief description of the proposed Swiss gun, provisionally adopted in 1901, is here given. This gun was manufac- tured by Krupp, and is the result of several years of careful study on the part of the Swiss tech- nical commission appointed for the purpose. It is of nickeled steel of 7.5 cm. (about three inches) calibre, provided with a sight of the Corrodi system. The breech mechanism is a wedge of the Leitwell system. Obturation, as the act of closing the breech of the gun to prevent the escape of gas is termed, is secured by the metal- lic cartridge-case; the trigger is a re] ter, the firing spring armed only at the instant of fire. and a safety arrangement permits the piece to be manoeuvred without danger while it is loaded. The carriage is a rigid one. with a spring trail spade, provided with a traveling brake, which may also be used for a firing brake. In firing the whole piece recoils upon the spade, which re lieves itself by compressing the column of springs, whose extension causes the return of piece to 'battery,' as the position of readiness for firing is technically known. The ammunition consists of shrapnel with metallic cart ridge case The cartridge-case can be used ten or twelve limes-, the shrapnel has a double-action fuse made of aluminum, and its effective range is 5600 meters (over 5750 yards). The limber of the piece and caisson are identical, each carrying 40 pounds; the caisson-bodj is composed of a single i In i cairying 56 pounds. The armament of the field artillery of Ihe various nations of the world varies to a i extent with different armies, and is constantly changing with t In- new developments of each 9UC ceeding year. The main features of the equip mini of the more important powers, as fai be determined from the small amount of informs lion allowed to leak out, are given in the sue feeding paragraphs.