There is a great saving, amounting to upwards of £300,000, in the cost of powder, when compared to the price paid to the merchants in seven years of the war from 1809 to 1815, from the Government having Waltham Abbey, Faversham, and Ballincollig.
Improved Quality.
At Waltham Abbey, in a very few years after it was constructed, the powder was so improved, that the charge of powder to the weight of shot was reduced from one-half to one-third; therefore two barrels were used instead of three—an advantage in stowing on board ship as well as in the field.
Made by Contract.
A great part of the powder for H. M. Government has at present to be supplied by merchants. The contracts are made out sometimes for them to supply their own saltpetre, and at others for the Government to furnish it pure, at the rate of 77·5 lbs. per barrel of 100 lbs., they finding the other materials and manufacture, a corresponding reduction in price being made: as, however, it has to come up in nearly all respects to the sample, the requirements of which we shall state, certain proofs have to be undergone before being received for the different services.
Note.—The foregoing is mainly compiled from Robins’s New Principles of Gunnery, by Hutton; Engines of War, by Wilkinson; and Projectile Weapons of War, by J. Scoffern, M.B.