Present:—Major-General Millar; Colonel Adye, C.B.; Colonel Tyer, C.B.; Colonel Drummond, C.B.; Sir Alex. Dickson, K.C.B.; Major Dundas.
“Woolwich, 29th August, 1836.
“Sir,—
“I have the honour to report that, in obedience to your minute, dated the 22nd inst., I assembled the Select Committee for the purpose of considering a new invented cartridge for rifles, made by Mr. William Greener, gunmaker, of Newcastle. Patterns of these cartridges, with a report from Major Walcott, Royal Horse Artillery, of a day’s practice with them at Tynemouth. Several balls that have been discharged at and collected after that practice were submitted to the Committee, who, after an attentive consideration, is of opinion that the ends purposed by Mr. Greener have not been accomplished; that his plan is useless and chimerical. The Committee do not, therefore, recommend any further trial in the terms solicited by Mr. Greener in his memorial of the 6th inst.
“I have, &c.,
“William Millar, Dep.-Adjut.-Gen.”
I then disputed the fact of its being a French invention before the juries of the French Exposition in 1855; there, however, my evidence was inadmissible, from the fact of it not having been exhibited, and the invention not being a recent one. In spite of all this, I still persevered; and my next step was to submit the subject to royalty. I first submitted it to the Emperor Napoleon, who carefully investigated the facts of the case, and admitted the Englishman’s priority. Eventually the British Government, after much trouble, also admitted the fact, (though not until after it had been submitted to the successors of the original select committee) and awarded me the sum of 1,000l. in the army estimates of 1857.
It is a fact, which all will acknowledge, that the principles involved in an invention should be best known to the inventor himself; and if he is unable to explain the very principles of such invention, then it is quite fair to presume that he was not the original inventor.
Now there is no evidence that either Delvigne or Minié had any profound knowledge of the science of gunnery, and their knowledge of the principles of the expansive rifle was so meagre as to justify the assumption, that their only connection with its production was that of copying from the Times newspaper, or from my works published in 1842 and 1846. My observations certainly appeared before any of theirs; and I believe that no straining of facts can in any way connect them with the invention, which was as perfect in 1841 as when they reproduced it in 1848 and 1849.
With these remarks, I pass on to what is of more importance, viz., the principle of the expansive rifle.