Breech-loading gun

“ The measure of powder and the measure of shot usually made about the same. Over the shot is rammed a loose wad—it needs only to be tight enough to prevent the shot from rolling out when the muzzle of the gun happens to come lower than the breech. Disk-like wads of pasteboard or felt cloth are the latest invention.
The Breech Loaders.—The breech-loading gun is now before the public in considerable variety; and being really the gun of the day, and, consequently, engaging the best thought of inventors, it is constantly appearing in new forms. ”

“ The Breech-Loading Rifle.—Most of the rules suggested as aids in forming judgment upon the quality of the breech-loading shot gun, can be trusted as bearing with equal force in case of the breech-loading rifle. The makers of breech-loading rifles in the United States have won for themselves a noble reputation throughout the world ”

“ The long gun of modern days is of necessity breech-loading. The development of other elements gave, as a resultant, great length; and this, in turn, required a system of charging which would permit protection for the men while loading, and would obviate the intolerable inconvenience of ramming home powder and shot in a long muzzle-loader—an operation which was, in fact, impossible beyond a certain limit of length. The advocates of the older construction, especially in England, urged long and earnestly its simplicity and the superior strength of a solid breech ”

“ The modern breech-loading gun has been gradually and steadily improved since 1860. Westley Richards adopted and improved Matthews’ top-lever mechanism. About 1866 the rebounding lock was introduced, and improved in 1869. The treble wedge-fast mechanism for holding down the barrels was originated by W. W. Greener in 1865, and perfected in 1873. A very important improvement was the introduction of the hammerless gun, in which the mechanism for firing is placed entirely within the gun. This was made possible by the introduction of the central-fire cartridge. ”

“ The facility with which breech-loaders can be charged is generally trumpeted forth to the world as an advantage of vital importance; but let us carefully examine this point and see if it has not been exaggerated—whether, in fact, a solid gun cannot be charged and discharged as rapidly as a breech-loader.
In the first place, all guns recoil; this necessitates the relaying of the gun after every discharge, in order to obtain accuracy of aim; and if facility of loading is to be obtained at the expense of aim, it can scarcely be called an advantage. Aim consumes more time than loading. ”

“ The raising or depressing of the breech of a gun by means of the elevating screw; slewing to the right or left, spunging the gun, and ramming home the powder and shot, all consume time; hence we think that quickness of loading is worthless.
Breech-loading cannon cannot be constructed for bullets of larger diameter than that of the rifle bore, without a ductile bullet be used; for, as is usual in breech-loading small-arms, the bullet rifles itself as it is forced up the grooves. ”

“ In fact, the special object of a breech-loading gun—that of enabling its owner to deliver his fire with greater rapidity—is found in actual service to be an objection: the soldier being tempted, in the excitement of battle, to load and fire as rapidly as possible, and thus to waste the greater portion of his shots, whereas the primary object at such a time is to induce the deliberation which alone can insure efficiency. It must be obvious to any one who reflects upon the matter, that in reality the whole question of efficiency in battle must hinge upon the one point of precision of fire. ”

“ The endeavour to produce breech-loading cannon is an effort to obtain uncalled-for and superfluous facility in gunnery; and if a perfect breech-loading cannon could possibly be produced, what would it avail? What superior property could it possess over the solid gun? It could not be safety; for when we consider the very limited number of explosions by which the very best guns are destroyed, it can scarcely be possible for a gun composed of many parts to endure the intense vibrations to which large cannon are subjected. ”

“ As to the comparative value of breech-loaders and muzzle-loaders, we shall not offer an opinion. No doubt a muzzle-loader is the stronger weapon, because its breech is solid; but our cousins, the Germans, urge very justly that, since their guns do not burst, they are quite strong enough. Advocates of the muzzle-loading system argue again that their weapon is more simple in construction, and for this reason is to be preferred; but on the other hand the sponging and loading of a gun is more easy to effect if it opens at the breech. ”

“ There is yet one more point in which breech-loading has recently been found, in the Royal Gun Factory, to possess a great advantage over muzzle-loading as regards ballistic effect. With a shot loaded from the front, it is clear that it must be smaller all over than the bore, or it would not pass down to its seat. A shot thrust in from behind, on the contrary, may be furnished with a band or sheath of comparatively soft metal larger than the bore ”

“ The production of a perfect breech-loading small arm is as difficult as the production of a perfect breech-loading cannon, and that is so problematical as to amount, in my humble opinion, to nearly an impossibility. All experience teaches that a perfectly sound base of projection in the gun is indispensable, if good direction and velocity are required; without which there can be no good shooting. ”

“ The most effective range for artillery was about five hundred yards, and musketry-fire was exchanged at less than half that distance. Rifled weapons of long range have changed all this, and the introduction of breech-loading small-arms has worked a perfect revolution on the battle-field. In 1866 the Prussian needle-gun shewed in the fighting in Bohemia the terrible effects that can be produced by rapid rifle-fire. Every army in Europe was soon provided with breech-loading rifles ”

“ A twelve-inch breech-loading gun, fifty calibers long and weighing eighty-three tons, will propel a shell weighing eight hundred and eighty pounds, by a powder charge of six hundred and twenty-four pounds, at a velocity of over two thousand six hundred and twenty feet per second, giving an energy at the muzzle of over forty thousand foot-tons and is capable of penetrating at the muzzle, forty-five inches of iron. ”

“ Judging from this, the actual armament of the whole army with the English model of the Minié (the “Enfield” rifle of 1855) , which carried a bullet weighing sixteen to the pound, and of which a man could only carry sixty rounds of ammunition, would have been to him “Anathema Maranatha.” Similarly, the breech-loader had been introduced to Napoleon in 1809, but the weapon, being probably imperfect, met with little favour; none the less, the Prussians had already adopted, by 1841, the breech-loading needle gun. ”

“ To Take the Gun Apart.—With the muzzle-loading guns now in common use this is an operation so simple as to be scarcely worthy a mention. If the gun is an old-fashioned breech-pinned muzzle-loader, the first thing is to push out the small wire pins or bolts which pass through the stock, under the barrel, and through the barrel-loops. The next thing is to draw the breechpin screw; this lets the barrel out of the stock. If it is desirable to unbreech the gun, it is done by clamping the breechpin in a vise, and then turning the barrel by hand until it is screwed off the pin. ”

“ The gun has a patent breech, which is made of iron case-hardened. It is joined to the break-off by the old-fashioned hook, with the addition of a half-lap joint, secured by a square-headed screw. Such a mode of fastening the barrel destroys the necessity for wood forward of the breech, and gives a peculiarly elegant and striking appearance to the arm. The loading-muzzle is put on by means of four steel wire pins about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and three-eighths long, and the holes for these pins are located as near the outside as possible. ”

“ The Secretary of War in his report of December 1, 1859, had stated the result of the experiments in breech-loading arms: these arms were “nearly if not entirely perfected,” and he added: “With the best breech-loading arm, one skilful man would be equal to two, probably three, armed with the ordinary muzzle-loading gun. True policy requires that steps should be taken to introduce these arms gradually into our service.” ”

“ The guns are to be provided with arrangements for both breech and muzzle loading. With the breech-loading, as the block is turned to unlock it, a grip on the end of a hydraulic piston in rear takes in a slot in the block, and when the latter is unlocked, a movement of the piston to the rear withdraws it from the gun to a small car having a transverse motion by which the block is carried sideways so as to unmask the bore. An iron cylinder is then inserted and pushed up to the rear of the powder-chamber as a loading-plate, guarding the screw-threads from injury. ”

“ The breech-block is of the French type, and arrangements are made for moving the block as well as loading by hydraulic or steam power. The 100-ton gun has no carriage proper, its trunnions resting in heavy blocks on the fixed slide, being connected in rear with hydraulic recoil pistons which are themselves connected in such a manner as to equalize the strain of recoil. The movements of running out and in and loading are all performed by hydraulic power. The vent of the 100-ton gun is axial both in the breech and muzzle loader. ”

“ He also uses exterior coils of wrought iron in some patterns. /Systems of Loading. The comparative advantages of breech-loading and muzzle-loading for ordnance on service are fully discussed in the article GUNNERY. We have now to mention the principal modes of closing the breech, either permanently as in muzzle-loaders, or temporarily as in breech-loaders. The former is comparatively a simple matter. When the whole gun, or the interior of it, is formed of cast metal, iron, bronze, or steel, the block is merely bored to the required depth, and the end left un- bored to form the breech. ”

“ In modern warfare, breech-loading guns have largely supplanted the old muzzle-loading patterns, and the skill of the inventor has been applied to perfecting the mechanism whereby the breech may be effectually closed, to prevent the escape of gas, and at the same time rapidly and easily opened and thrown back for the reception of another cartridge. Various forms of breech-block are used, but the patent in suit relates to what is known as the mutilated or slotted screw form, which consists of a circular plug of metal, with equal parts of its threads cut away. ”

“ It was during the sixteenth century that the science of ballistics had its beginning. In 1537, Niccolo Tartaglia published the first scientific treatise on gunnery. Principles of construction were tried and sometimes abandoned, only to reappear for successful application in later centuries. Breech-loading guns, for instance, had already been invented. They were unsatisfactory because the breech could not be sealed against escape of the powder gases, and the crude, chambered breechblocks, jammed against the bore with a wedge, often cracked under the shock of firing. ”

“ The long debates over sails and steam had been settled; it was now the achievement of powerful breech-loading guns of large and small calibre which threw all existing ideas of warship design into the melting-pot. It became known that the French at last possessed efficient breech-loading guns; and artillerists showed that, in spite of the inconvenience of long-barrelled guns in ships, long barrels and slow-burning powder were necessary if greater powers were to be developed, and that our short-barrelled muzzle-loaders were already becoming obsolete. ”

“ A trustworthy breech-loading rifle has long been a desideratum with military men; but nothing has yet been produced which offers sufficient advantages, or seems sufficiently free from objections, to authorize its introduction as anything more than an experiment. ”

“ I have lately inquired in vain, whilst inspecting stock at half the armouries of the West End, for a single-barrel breech-loading pistol. Of double-barrels there were plenty, but none pleased me. The system of opening the breech is complicated by the presence of two cocks, and it is not what a man requires when looking around at the enemy; he must use the hands without the guidance of the eyes. ”

“ When momentarily expecting a bird to rise, and obliged to have the gun cocked, it should be carried across the breast with a sharp upward slope to the left. This is the only way the gun should be carried cocked. A breech-loader is so easily unloaded that there is no excuse for getting into a wagon or boat, or going around a house, without unloading. Never hand a loaded gun to any one who asks to look at it. Whenever you pick up any kind of a gun to examine it, always open it and see if it is loaded, and the habit will grow so that you will do this almost without knowing it. ”

“ The development of the rifle from the old smooth-bore musket, by cutting grooves or channels in the form of a screw in the interior surface, was found so advantageous in increase of precision of aim and length of range, that the rifling of cannon in time followed and is now universally used. Breech loading has also replaced muzzle loading, another vast advantage in the use of artillery. A form of breech-loading cannon was introduced in the sixteenth century, but the advantageous use of this device is of late invention. ”