Handbook of Artillery Material
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HANDBOOK ABTILLEBY MAT^BIEL HANDBOOK 01" AETILLEEY MATEKIEL BY F. C. MOKGAN LIEUT.-COLONEL BOYAL ARTILLERY WITH PLATES AND INDEX LONDON: WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED 13 CHAEING CKOSS 1899 Entered at Stationers' Hall PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. THIS work, which has now reached the sixth edition, is brought up to date with the latest changes in materiel. It has been necessary to entirely rearrange the chapters; and much additional matter has been added. F. C. M. "WOOLWICH, 1898. Royal Artillery Regimental Order No. 60 authorises this work to be used as a text-book for Officers R.A. qualifying for promotion in Subject "Artillery." N.B.—The numbers in brackets thus (5304), appearing throughout the work, refer to the paragraph in the ' List of Changes in War Materiel' issued monthly with 'Army Orders? CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GUN CONSTRUCTION 1 II. BREECH-LOADING (B.L.) ORDNANCE 6 III. QUICK-FIRING GUNS 24 IV. R.M.L. ORDNANCE 34 V. R.M.L. CONVERTED GUNS ; R.B.L. GUNS ; AND S.B. ORDNANCE 46 VI. MACHINE GUNS 51 VII. EXPLOSIVES, CARTRIDGES, &C 56 VIII. PROJECTILES, R.M.L., R.B.L. AND S.B. ORDNANCE 68 IX. PROJECTILES FOB B.L. GUNS 78 X. FUZES, TUBES, &C 84 XL B.L. AND R.M.L. FIELD AND SIEGE CARRIAGES 99 XII. MOUNTINGS OF HEAVY B.L. ORDNANCE 106 XIII. MOUNTINGS OF HEAVY R.M.L. ORDNANCE 110 XIV. TRANSPORTING CARRIAGES AND MACHINES 117 XV. TACKLES, CORDAGE, SKIDDING, &C. .. 122 XVI. SHEERS, DERRICKS, AND STORES FOR MOUNTING AND DIS MOUNTING ORDNANCE 129 XVII. LAYING ORDNANCE, RANGE AND POSITION-FINDING 137 INDEX 141 LIST OF TABLES. TABLE I. B.L. Ordnance To face page 12 II. Q.F. Guns „ 28 III. E.M.L. Ordnance „ 30 IV. E.M.L. Converted and R.B.L. Guns „ 48 V. Weights of Full Charges and Projectiles for B.L. and Q.F. Ordnance „ 67 VI. Weights of Full Charges and Projectiles of E.M.L. and R.B.L. Ordnance „ 67 VII. Charges of S.B. Ordnance In text, page 11 VIII. Time Fuzes. (Wood) „ 84 IX. Metal Fuzes for Rifled Ordnance B.L. and R.M.L. „ 87 X. Electric Tubes, &c „ 96 LIST OF PLATES. PLATE I. E.M.L. Guns To face page 3 II. B.L. Guns „ 12 HI. „ „ 12 IV. Breech Mechanisms „ 12 V. „ ,> „ 16 VI. Instruments Measuring Velocities „ 22 VII. Q.F. Guns „ 26 VIII. Manufacturing Operations „ 34 IX. „ „ .. .. „ 34 X. E.M.L. Ordnance „ 36 XI. Jointed Gun, Grooves, &c. .. „ 37 XII. Converted and E.B.L. Guns M 46 XIII. Cartridges .. .. „ 64 XIV. E.M.L. Projectiles „ 72 XV. B.L. Projectiles „ 80 XVI. Driving Bands, &c „ 80 XVII. Time Fuzes „ 86 XVIII. Metal Fuzes „ 90 XIX. „ \ M 90 xii HANDBOOK OF ARTILLERY MATERIEL. PLATE XX. Vent-Sealing Tubes To face page 92 XXL Howitzer and Siege Platform „ 102 XXII. Overbank Carriage „ 103 XXIII. 40-pr. Side-closing Gun Carriage „ 104 XXIV. E.M.L. Heavy Mountings „ 110 XXV. Hydraulic Jack and Gyn „ 118 XXVI. Tackles „ 124 XXVII. Sheers „ 128 HANDBOOK OF ARTILLERY MATEEIEL. CHAPTEE I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GUN CONSTRUCTION. FOB. some years past all ordnance manufactured for the Service have been of steel and breech loading. These modern ordnance, as they are termed, differ considerably from the wrought-iron and steel muzzle-loading pieces which, as regards manufacture, they have entirely superseded. The great improvements in ballistic power and in range and accuracy in modern guns have been brought about by the employ ment of more suitable steel in gun construction, and, secondly, by considerably altering the relative proportions of calibre and length of bore. In addition, the change to breech loading rendered practi cable the provision of a better system of rifling and the more perfect application of the principle of chambering for the charge in a gun. Other defects, also, that were inherent in a piece loaded at the muzzle were removed by the adoption of breech loading. These advances, however, in gun construction called for the introduction of more suitable forms of gunpowder, without which they would have been of little value; and, more recently, by the use of cordite as the propelling agent, gun ballistics have been still further developed. In the old type of guns using cubical and granulated black powders, high initial chamber pressures were set up, and suffi ciently large charges could not therefore be used without exceeding 2 HANDBOOK OF ARTILLERY MATERIEL. safe working pressures, so that whilst pressures were excessive the corresponding muzzle velocities were low. This was chiefly due to a percussive rather than a propelling effect being produced on discharge, in consequence of the form of powder employed. By the introduction, however, of slow and regular-burning prismatic powders, and, more recently, by the use of cordite powder, higher muzzle velocities without exceeding the safe working pressures have been obtained, and the total pressure on the base of the pro jectile is spread over a longer period, acting, in fact, throughout the shot's entire travel in the bore. The forward pressures thus occurring necessitate, however, the walls of the bore of a gun being strengthened up to the muzzle to a greater extent than formerly, and in order to allow of the whole pressure of gas evolved acting on the shot before leaving the bore the latter had to be lengthened considerably, hence there is a very marked difference between the external appearance of an old and new type piece. The radical changes in gun designs occurred at the commence ment of the era of so-called modern ordnance, but subsequently so many improvements have by degrees arisen that B.L. guns of latest designs differ very materially from those first constructed, and the details of this matter will be referred to in a subsequent chapter. Improvements in the gun are necessarily accompanied by cor responding ones in gun mountings, and in the ammunition used, and stores in general. This fact, therefore, tends to widen and complicate the subject of war materiel, a large proportion of which comprises ordnance and the stores in connection. Again, owing to economical and other reasons, long periods will frequently elapse before materiel of a pattern no longer manufactured is finally passed out of the service, and during its obsolescent stage a knowledge of the manufacture and use of the materiel must still be maintained. As regards the history of ordnance it is briefly as follows. Until about the year 1854 all ordnance were constructed of bronze or iron, and were smooth-bored, these metals being found suffi ciently strong, and otherwise suited for the purpose. But the in troduction of rifled ordnance necessitated a more tenacious metal being employed, owing to the greatly increased strains occurring on discharge, due to the use of elongated projectiles in a rifled gun to which both a rotary and forward motion had to be im parted, the spherical projectile in a smooth-bored gun experiencing but slight resistance to motion. Not only were wrought iron, in conjunction with steel, substi tuted for cast iron or bronze in rifled ordnance, but, in order to gain additional strength, guns were constructed or built up in Toface p. 3.] PLATE I, GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GUN CONSTRUCTION. 3 layers, with a view to each layer, from the interior to the exterior, bearing a proportionate share of the strain on discharge. In the case of a solid mass of metal in a gun, the inner portion may yield to a pressure from within before the outer part has been subjected to the maximum stress it will bear. Advantage also was taken of the fibrous condition to which soft iron can be brought by rolling and hammering; the fibre being arranged to give the maximum resistance to rupture, and, as regards the gun, being made to run circumferentially to resist the transverse stress, and lengthways over the breech to withstand the longitudinal one set up. The earliest rifled guns were of Armstrong Original Construc tion, a gun being built up of several small coils of wrought iron, shrunk over an inner barrel of steel, which at first was made of wrought iron also. A forged breech-piece was placed over the breech portion of the gun. The Woolwich System was a modified form of the above, but the coils were fewer in number, and a coil breech-piece was sub stituted for the more expensive forged one originally employed. In both these systems the breech end of the steel tube was solid, being supported by a cascabel screw inserted through the breech. Shrinking Process.—By this process an outer layer was ex panded by heat to a suitable temperature, and dropped over a tube or inner layer, the latter being kept cool by water and slightly contracted; the result being that on the layers regaining the normal temperature, the outer one remained in a state of tension, the inner being slightly compressed. The B.M.L. built-up guns in the service were, constructed for some years on the Woolwich System, their manufacture ceasing about 1880, when the era of modern or B.L. Ordnance com menced. Loading at the breech became a necessity owing to the increased length of bore required in a piece, due to the use of a slow-burning powder, and in addition, as has been said, " cham bering," or enlarging of the powder chamber, was difficult of application in a muzzle loader. These and other reasons finally condemned the muzzle-loading system for future manufacture. The change to steel in the manufacture of ordnance was due to former ideas as to the suitability of the metal for ordnance having undergone considerable modifications.