Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/429

* GUNS. 379 GUNS. Lorenzo and Xiiestra .S'e/io/o del Iloaario. were better armed. The former carried four (iO-pouiui- ers, eight 30-pouiiders. si.K 18-pounders, six 9-pounders, ten Upoiinders, and sixteen small guns — 50 t;uns in all; the latter mounted three 30pounders. seven 24pouii<lers, four IS-pound- ers, one Sl-pouniler, and 21) small guns, or 41 guns in all. The Triiiniiili, the largest Knglish ship in the lleet whieh opjiosed the Armada, earried four tiO-pounders. three 30-pounders. seventeen 18- pounders, eight 0-pounders. six G-pounders, and 30 small guns, or 68 guns in all. Sir Jonas Moore, writing in 1G89, says: "All artillery are commonly reduced to three sorts: The tirst is that of the Culvering. the second Cannons of Battery, the third Cannons Pelrieri. To oll'end afar off. in case of strong resistance, the Culve'ings do serve, which carries a ball of iron from 14 to .'5(1 pounds weight, though some make these to 120 pounds. As to calibre they are called Whole-Culvering, Culvering, and Demi- Culvering. The Whole-Culvering are called anciently Dragon-Drakes, and carry a ball of iron from 40, 50 to 60 pounds, etc. The Culver- ing from 35. 30. 25. 20 pounds. The Half- Culvering from IS.. 16. and 14. As to length, the.v distingui-sh the Culvering into ordinar.v. e.v- traordinarv. and bastard. The ordinary Culver- ing are long from the touch-hole to the muzzle. 32 calibres. The extraordinary are longer than the ordinar.v. viz.. to 30. 40. and 41 calibres. The bastard are shorter tlian the ordinarv. viz., only 28, 27. and 26. The Cannons of Battery are pieces ordinarily shorter than Culverings. The One-fourth Cannon carries a ball of iron from 16 to 18 pounds. The Demi-Cannon from 20 to 28 pounds. The Cannon from 30. 40. 45 to 50 pounds. The hole-C'annon from 70 to 120 pounds. The Cannon-Ro.al from 130 to 150 and 200 poinid hall, used by the Turks. The Pitrieroes are so called from its hall of stone, with which they are loaded, from 2 to 100 and 150 pounds." An illus- tration of the Culverin will be found in the article Artillery. During the .seventeenth eenturv ships increased in size and in batterv power, but there was lit- tle change in the guns from the muzzle-loaders of 1000. Earh" in the eighteenth eenturv the method of boring out the guns instead of casting them hollow and not boring out, added some- thing to their accuracy and power. Robins, who published his treatise on gunnery in 1742. in- vented the irallistic pendulum (see B.^llistics ) for measuring velocities, and pointed out th,-" advantaaes of rifling and of elongated projectiles. Until' after the War of 1812 the heaviest pieces in <ise were the long 32-pounder of 55 hundredweight, and the 42-pounder of 57 hundred- weight. The advantages of large calibre were un- derstood, as may be seen liy the adoption of car- ronades, but long giuis firing projectiles of this size were too heavy for use on board the ships of the day. These pieces were generally tired by means of a priming and slow match ; Sir Charles Douglas brought out the flint-lock about 1780. but it was not until after Rodney's battle of April. 1782 — in which action was the Duke, pre- viously commanded liy Sir Charles, and having guns fitted with flint-hicks at his own expense — that the advantages of the lock were appreciate.!. Xo measures were taken to supply these locks until 1700. when brass locks of a new pattern were supplied, and used up to 1818. The dis- VoL. IX. — 25. covery of a composition which could be ignited by friction or percussion was made in 1807 by U. Forsyth, a clergyman. Sir Charles Doug- las designed quill primers for his locks about 1780, and a modification of these was used for the new percussion locks. Flint-locks continued in general u.se up to 1835 or 1840. In 1828 jxr- cussion locks were tittcd to the guns of the U. S. S. tndaUii, but they were not exclusivelv used in the United States service until 1842, when Hid- don patented the hammer with a slot permitting it to be drawn back from the vent. In 1832 an cllicient percussion lock was introduced into the French Nav'; the British continued to use some Hint-locks until about 1S45, when they adopted a modilicd form of Iliddon's lock. Sighting was ctTcelcd by looking along the 'line of metal.' and decisive actions necessarily took place at close range. Soon after 1801 fixed sights on guns were adopted in the British Navv. but the invention of the movable rear-sight, attrib- uted to Colonel Jure of the French Army, did not take place until much later, the method of al- lowing for distance being to shoot at certain parts of the ship which were higher tlian the point to be hit. The ne.xt important imjirovement was the de- velopment of the shell gun by General Paixhans; In his Xouvelle Arnie, published in 1821, he most strongly advocated the abandnnment of the use of solid shot in long guns and the adoption of e.x- ])losive shell, which had hitherto been fired from mortars and howitzers onl.v. General Paixhans's views were adopted, and shell ginis were intro- duced in all navies. The consequences of the intro- duction of shell guns General Paixhans also foresaw: in 1824, after the new guns were adopted in the French Xavy. in an oflicial letter to the Government he prophesied that the new departure in projectiles would force the creation of ar- mored ships. His prophec.v was fulfilled and the armored ships in turn caused the development of the rifled gun. In this, France was again the leader. During the Crimean War some 6.5-inch cast-iron rifles'were made and mounted for trial on board ship. These were muzzle-loaders of crude design modeled after the Paixhans .shell guns, and used studded projectiles; but they jjroved to be so much more powerful against armor that they immediately gained favor. C)ther countries followed suit in the development of rifled guns. Prussia decided upon a breech- loading rifle, and in England Armstrong and Whitworth brought out breech-loaders. Krupp's earlier pieces were muzzle-loaders, but in 1862 he exhibited at London his first five cast-steel breech-loading guns. Armstrong brought out his breech-loading rifled field gun in 1S55, and naval guns a year or more lati'r. In 1858-50 a series of competitive trials of Wliitworth and Armstrong breech-loading rifles resulted in the adoption of the latter. But the method of breech-closure w,ls very defective, and after numerous serious acci- dents, the navy demanded a return to muzzle- loaders. The French adopted breech-loaders in 1862, hut adhered to east iron as a cannon-metal until IS75. The retention of cast iron by the French and the return to muzzle-loading in Eng land left Krupp's primacy undoubted (as we view the question now), but of course this was not acknowledged at the time. In the United States the perfection to which muzzle-loading smooth-bores had been brought