Captain Moncreiff's new method of mounting gun-carriages was again tried
on Friday week, and seems to have been completely suc- cessful. We could not explain this invention without a diagram, even if we understood its details sufficiently, but its results are clear. A heavy piece of artillery can be worked in a hollow made in the earth, the gun being raised and depressed at will without the gunners being exposed. At present they must either stand exposed to the enemy's shot or be protected by a heavy masonry wall with a great hole in it for the missiles to pass through. Now the earth acts as well as the masonry would, or rather much better, and there is no hole. The gunners can be hit only by a vertical shell, very unlikely to drop just at the right place. Consequently, the cost of building masonry walls is abolished, while the gunners fire in perfect security, a great increase both to the defensive power of a garrison and a great reduction in the expense of fortification. Captain Moncreiff will be as well known in Europe as Herr Dreyse.
Previous page
