The older four-inch gun of the French Army, which the seventy-five displaced, could never have shown the efficiency in this direction that the _soixante-quinze_ demonstrates. In the first place its rate of shooting was much too slow, but even if it had been a great deal faster a continuous accuracy was impossible. When it was first aimed its fire could be carefully controlled, but the trouble with it was it threw itself out of place every time it shot. The recoil from such guns is very considerable and the older gun made no provision for it, consequently it had to be aimed all over again every time it was fired because the rebound caused it to dig into the earth and change its entire position. The new _soixante-quinze_ makes careful provision for this factor of recoil and is fitted up like a Ford car with shock absorbers, so that it is ready for the second shot as soon as the first is fired, and for the third as soon as the second is fired. It maintains a fixed position, accelerating very greatly the speed at which it can be fired at any given target. The old four-inch gun fell down just here. The result was that its highest rate of speed was only a quarter of that which could be attained when a field piece was invented, absorbing its recoil and thus leaving its position unchanged. The only limit to the speed of the new gun, therefore, is the rate at which it can be loaded and the degree of temperature it can stand without exploding shells prematurely, but even this latter danger is provided for in this gun, thus keeping it to the minimum. The only elements that prevent absolute accuracy today are slight differences in the shells or perhaps a change of wind, which are, however, practically negligible factors. Formerly, in the use of the other gun there was the personal variation of the man who aimed the gun quickly, after each shot had displaced or disarranged it, and the other man who assisted him. Each new aiming and shooting of the piece required an absolutely distinct series of movements and thus for every shot there was that much more possibility of error on account of the imperfect coordinating of the two men engaged. In this connection let me say that the curtain fire, which was evolved by the modern quick firing seventy-five, was very soon discovered and quickly adopted and utilized by Germany also.