Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/645

* FIELD ARTILLERY. 587 FIELD ARTILLERY. I mii:i> States. The field guns proper in I he United States service are the 3.2-inch gun, the 3.6-inch gun, and the 3.6-inch i tar I ei u companying table). The 3.6-inch gun is a breech Loading rifle of greater weight and power than the 3.2-inch gun, which hitter is more especially adapted to the service of the horse-artillery arm. The gun is essentially the same, as to form and characteristics, as the 3.2-inch gun, weighing 1181 pounds and using a 20-pound projectile. The 3.43-inch breech-loading field mortar for ver- tical fire is used to reach troops protected by iutrenclmients or otherwise from the direct lire id' tin- Held guns. It tires the same projectiles as the 3.6-inch field gun, and has an extreme mime of about two miles. Reduced charges are used for the shorter ranges. The mortar weighs 'ill pounds, and uses a charge of 15 pounds of powder with a 20 pound projectile. The United States has 30 batteries, six guns each, of field artillery, being about 2.4 guns per 1000 men in the army. Extensive tests of field-artillery material were held in 1902. The choice of weapons narrowed to a gun of the United States Ordnance Depart- ment, invented by Captain Wheeler, United States Army (see Ordnance), and the famous I n hardt gun, brought out by an amalgamation of German firms with headquarters at Diissel- bai tei Lea oi i bese guns. More Decent lv ' ordered 22 oi t beae batterie I I rdt gun caused Switzerland to hesitate whei the aei oi rearming ber field artillery with Krupp guns. German; and Austria madi Bive teats oi i be - ad K i app, Schneider- • anel. and Saini I lia In in pi." e oi l be Ehrhardl caj of two parts the lowei » h ii e, and telescopic I ra il, and i be upper. « hioh inelud Q-shaped cradle which contains the hydraulic hoi- buffer, allowing of aboui 17 inches recoil. At stsj . The new field calibre 7 em. (2.76 inches I . using a m ridge separated from t be pi oji ei tli Si bat teries of these guns 1901 to the troops for trial. For curved fire the Austrian art illery lias the L5 cm. i 5.8 mortars and howitzers in what are called i Biege batteries,' of which there are five •■■ each group comprising three batteries ami a park of siege ammunition. Each battery lias four siege howitzers, to which is attached a companv of fortress artillery requiring for mounted in- struction is drivers and 22 horses. This howit- zer is of bronze, weighs 249] pounds, with all its accessories weighing 2976 pound-. The ordinary shell weighs 70 pounds. Canister is also used. EORHABDT FIELD GUN. Side-view, with trail extended. dorf. The Ehrhardt, which undoubtedly opened up a new phase of the quick-firing gun question as far as the European Powers are concerned, is one of the two really 'rapid-fire field guns' in ex- istence today, the other being the mysterious French guns. In the United States tests, the Ehrhardt gun fired 45 armed shots, involving two changes of trail, in 6m. 18sec. ; 15 aimed shots at a range of 1000 yards struck in a rectangle of 4 ' j by 5 feet. It is impossible to fire the gun before it is safely locked, the eccentricity of the block not bringing the firing-pin into line with the primer until the block is safely locked. The l imission appointed to report on these tests and consider the question of the most suitable weapon decided upon a gun which combined the best and essential features of both. This new gun has a calibre of 3 inches, and fires a projectile fifteen pounds in weight at about six times the rate of speed that the older United States field guns are capable of. Fixed ammunition is used and the projectile will have an initial velocity of 17(10 feet per second. With the increased rate of fire one of the new guns will be able to throw as many shells as a whole six-gun battery of the form which it succeeds. By 1002 the English had acquired 18 complete Vol. VII.— 38. Three are four charges of smokeless powder varying from 9 to 20 ounces, and giving vi ' i ties of 538 font-seconds to 854 foot-seconds for the ordinary shell and 512 foot-seconds to 905 foot seconds for the shrapnel. The field artil- lery has a torpedo shell weighing 15", p loaded with 'ecrasite,' which is furnished with a double-action fuse, and has an initial velocity of 1460 foot-seconds; this shell to be used against troops under cover. Each batter; oi carries 15 shells of this kind, or 11.7 per cent, of the whole number carried (10^4). The old 9- em. gun (1875) has been i bly modified. SO that it now fires six slim lute, using a shrapnel! shell which weighs 6.9 kilograms i L5.2 pounds), and contains 250 bullets, each weighing 13 grains (somewhat less than one-half oi Austria had, in 1900, 56 regiments of field artil- lery, consisting of 15S3 officers and 25,502 enlisted men. The guns numbered 1048. which is 2.98 guns for every thousand men in the whole army. Belgium. The field artillery consists of eisrht regiments and four special companies, having 633 and 8032 men, until recently supplied with 204 Krupp guns, model of 1878, which have since been replaced. Various modifications of the old material now permit about twelve aimed