In the sketch (Plate No. 6) the general character of the screws is shewn.
A cursory notice must now be taken of the ordnance in use with the regiment. In the early times, 6–pounders were chiefly used; they were afterwards mixed with 3–pounders with the native corps, and 6–pounders with the artillery companies; the former most probably of 3¾, and the latter of 4¾ cwt. A heavier 6–pounder (6½ cwt.) superseded this light gun, and was in general use to the end of the century. This gun Major Woodburne’s committee proposed replacing again by a lighter one.
During the wars with Hyder and Tippoo, brass 18–pounders constantly accompanied the armies, and were used in all the actions; and in the campaigns of 1791–2, iron 12–pounders were attached to the European regiments, and found very useful in keeping the hordes of cavalry at a respectful distance; brass 12–pounders had previously been attached to the artillery and to European regiments.
The relative merits of light and heavy guns has been a vexata quæstio from the earliest date, nor is it entirely set at rest up to the present day, though general opinion has decided in favour of a via media, rejecting both extremes. Still some members of the profession maintain that, by a judicious disposition of metal, a light gun may be made as effective as a heavy, while others, on the contrary, run into the other extreme, and would introduce guns heavier even than those at present in use. Late experiments at Woolwich on a 9–pounder of 10 cwt., nearly similar to the Bengal pattern, strengthen the opinion that the two extremes should be avoided.
A curious experiment was tried at Dum-Dum in 1787, with a view to deciding the point at issue; and it furnishes some data which, combined with practical experience, would tend to prove that a medium gun will give a range so slightly below that of a heavier one, that the increase would be dearly purchased by the increased difficulty of draught. A 6–pounder was cast, weighing 10 cwt. and 24 lbs., and fired a certain number of rounds, after which a portion equal to a calibre in length was cut off, and the firing continued; this process was carried on, diminishing the gun, calibre by calibre, until it weighed only 3 cwt. 3 qrs. and 2 lbs., the elevation and charge of powder being in all cases the same. The result was, that of the first sixteen lengths, the seventh carried the furthest,—2,305 yards, the gun weighing 8 cwt. 2 qrs. 20 lbs.; at the fourteenth length the gun threw 2,098 yards, the gun weighing 6 cwt. 1 qr. 3 lbs.; and at the seventeenth length, 2,106 yards, the gun weighing 4 cwt. 3 qrs. 23 lbs.
It would have been more satisfactory had the first graze, as well as the extreme range, as has been the case, been given; however, it appears that 200 yards are gained by nearly doubling the weight of the gun, and the conclusion would be in favour of the very light gun, were it not that experience shews that a light gun shakes its carriage very much, and therefore that what is gained in metal is lost in strengthening the carriage to bear the shock; it is also found that a gun giving a long point-blank range does not give a proportional extreme range; and the result has been to make 6–pounders of the present day 6 cwt. in weight. The best test perhaps is a range of 800 yards, with the least elevation for a field-gun.
One other point now only remains to be noticed to bring up the matériel to the end of the last century,—the pattern of siege-carriages. From the faults found with it by the committee in 1793, we can make a tolerable guess at it; the lowness and narrowness of the wheels, the projection of the pintle behind, to make room for a large store-box, and the height of the limber-wheels are complained of; and it therefore must have been something similar to that represented in sketch No. 8; in all probability, up to this time little alteration had taken place in the pattern in use.
While preparing the siege-train for Seringapatam, at Bangalore, in 1792, Colonel Duff made considerable alterations in the siege-carriages; he cut off the projection from the limbers, and placed a pintle on a bolster on the axle-bed, carried the draught-chain back to the gun-carriage, and cut travelling trunnion-beds in the cheeks, to divide the weight better on the axles, and make the carriage travel easier; in fact, rendered the carriages very nearly what are now known as the “old pattern.” All the alterations were continued by the committee, and they directed that the carriage should be five, and the limber-wheels three feet high, to enable them to turn under the cheeks when limbered up. Minor improvements were added: the draught-chain was made in pieces, so as to allow of a portion of the cattle being taken off in sharp turnings, or on ground where all could not act; and a carriage was then built, which, with slight changes (reducing the gun-wheels two inches) in 1801 by Colonel MacIntyre’s committee, became the standard, and remained so till 1823.
A fancy existed to obtain the use of a mortar from an howitzer, by fitting its carriage with a sliding transom, on withdrawing which, the howitzer could be elevated to 45°, its cascable resting on an additional transom fixed underneath. Major Green constructed a carriage of this kind in 1796, which was experimented on at Dum-Dum, and spoken favourably of, but eventually not found to answer, and therefore discarded.
Whether the result of imitation, or of half-informed mechanical taste, we find Lena Sing Majeetiah, commandant of the Punjab artillery, indulging in a similar fantasy: a carriage adapted for the double purpose. It is scarcely possible that such a one could be useful; the shock acting vertically on the axle, would be too severe for any moderate dimensions to bear; this was found in Major Green’s carriage, and the proposed remedy was shortening the axle, which would, while strengthening, have rendered it very likely to overturn.