TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES In this e-text, the following transcriptions are used: italics are represented _between underscores_, bold face text is represented =between equals symbols=, and small capitals have been changed to ALL CAPITALS. More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of the text. [Illustration: _PLATE. 1._ ANGULARLY LAMINATED STEEL BARRELED GUN LAMINATED STEEL BARRELED GUN] GUNNERY IN 1858: BEING A TREATISE ON RIFLES, CANNON, AND SPORTING ARMS; EXPLAINING THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE OF GUNNERY, AND DESCRIBING THE NEWEST IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS. BY WILLIAM GREENER, C.E., INVENTOR OF THE EXPANSIVE PRINCIPLE AS APPLIED IN THE MINIE AND ENFIELD RIFLES, AND AUTHOR OF “THE GUN,” ETC. ETC. _WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS._ LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 56, CORNHILL. 1858. (_The Right of Translation is reserved._) PREFACE. The urgent need for practical information on the important subject of Gunnery is evinced by the numerous patents taken out during the last few years, most of which have fallen still-born, through deficient practical science on the part of the inventors. My aim in producing this book has been to point out the errors into which many ingenious inventors have fallen, and to show how similar failures may be avoided in future, by indicating the only right road to improvement in Gunnery,--the strict observance of scientific principles in every old process and in all new inventions: for it is to the ignorance or neglect of the principles of the science that failures in Gunnery are due. The necessity for progress in the science of Gunnery is now rendered more than ever imperative on our Government by the prodigious energy and activity of foreign Governments in providing armaments for land and sea service, the efficiency of which is ensured by adopting all the newest improvements in fire-arms. But the obstinate reluctance which all our previous Governments have shown to enter upon the, to them unwelcome, duty of investigating and experimenting on warlike inventions, necessitates strong “pressure from without;” for it may be truly said that all great improvements in Gunnery in England have been forced upon the authorities by absolute necessity, and it is still a question whether we shall profit by our recent experiences, or, as before, allow war to find us unprepared. We have, doubtless, armaments of gigantic proportions, and mammoth vessels of war, capable of discharging an ordinary ship’s cargo of shot and shell at a broadside; yet while millions have been thus expended, the _improvement of the Gun_, without which they would be mere masses of wood, and targets for more skilful opponents, has been neglected.