In consequence of the relaxation of our custom laws, foreign gunnery is now admitted at ten per cent. duty; and as soon as this change was made, the Belgians sent large quantities of their guns and pistols to London; whence they found their way through different parts of the country. Regular establishments were opened for the sale of their very highly ornamented barrels: ten different varieties were produced, even to the imitation of laminated steel.
These barrels were at first sent in the bored and ground state, in large quantities; their apparent low price and great beauty quite captivated some of the “Brums,” so that for a period they were all the rage; and the Belgians began to boast of the extensive trade they were doing. But nothing in this world runs smooth. “The best laid schemes of mice and men oft gang agee;” and so it was with the Belgian importations. Our proof was not exactly to their liking, or perhaps the iron was not equal to the proof; losses and discoveries began to accumulate: “Too soft, by far,” says one; “They are all plated,” says another; “Filed it through, by jingo!” exclaimed a third; “Common iron, by all that’s wonderful!” protested a fourth; “Oh, twisted iron, under such inimitable Damascus!” growled a fifth: in short, steel over iron turned out to be the secret of the whole business.
It is very probable that such facts as these soon established the inferiority of “the beautiful Damascus and arabesque” of the Belgian manufacturers; and they have, I trust, disappeared for ever from the English market: at least, they are not held in estimation by those qualified to judge.
Their advocates have for years adduced the fact, that the Belgian laws required guns to be twice proved; and our old laws not requiring this, they had certainly a tangible argument; but our improved proof laws have now removed that anomaly, and certainly our proof is now much superior, even to that of the Belgians: so much so, indeed, that I have now before me a letter from a Belgian barrel maker, who, in reply to the inquiry why he did not send any more barrels, says very truly, “your English proof is too severe.”
A very carefully conducted experiment on at least twenty best Belgian barrels, satisfied me of the indisputable fact, that at least nineteen out of the twenty were plated, and principally on twisted iron of the softest description; as was shown by eating it entirely away, by a lengthened immersion in a solution of the sulphate of copper. This may be done in the course of a few hours, leaving the Damascus, and the arabesque plating comparatively untouched. The production of that extremely beautiful figure has to be effected by using metals of considerable dissimilarity in their state of carbonization; the iron evidently being entirely decarbonized before mixing with the steel, and the steel even appearing extremely soft; although, no doubt, much of this would be effected during the heating of the barrels to solder with brass: and it is well known this cannot be done, except by heating them to nearly a white heat.
As this is the universal practice with all barrels which the Belgians finish, a good shooting gun is, by all fixed laws of science, a scarcity with them. But a point of still greater importance arises from this injurious proceeding. In the act of heating two tubes like gun barrels, it is an impossibility to heat them equally, so that neither shall be at a higher temperature than the other; and again in lifting them from the furnace, and in cooling, all are subject to bend by expansion and contraction alone; the result is that perfectly straight Belgian hard soldered barrels are utterly unattainable. To an unpractised eye the bending in and out appears trifling, but professionally, it is a very serious defect indeed; and on that score alone, the Belgian can never compete in quality with our own manufacture. Time, however, will no doubt remedy this; already they are great imitators, and they will, no doubt, become greater. They are competitors whom respectable manufacturers need not fear; and though they eschew the imitation of our higher quality, they imitate, even to the name, the “marks” of our leading makers. I still would welcome and fraternize with them, as highly skilled workers in elaborate mixtures of metals suitable for ornamental gun-barrels.
The French gunmakers have not yet realized the true value of the shooting of their fowling-pieces. This arises, in a great measure, no doubt, from the want of a proper field for improvement. Necessity has always been an important improver, and wild game creating the necessity for good guns in England, a different direction has been given to the manufacturer, owing to the continual cry for long killing guns; and not a doubt can exist that English guns are better constructed for that purpose, than those of any other country. Attention to the shooting has always been the first study of every English gunmaker, and great progress has been made during the last twenty years; indeed, a comparison between the largest “target” of to-day, and the best that Colonel Hawker ever made with his crack Joe Manton, will show a progressive improvement of nearly 100 per cent., not only in closeness of shooting, but also in penetration. All this may not be due entirely to the gun, but in part to the gunpowder; and to the sensible course we now pursue of using less weight of shot, avoiding artificial friction in the barrels, instead of increasing it to retard the shot with the view of increasing its power: also by having the expellant agent accelerative to the greatest extent, closeness and strength of shooting are obtained, with the least amount of recoil possible.
Our French competitors have paid much more attention to the artistic decoration of their guns than to their usefulness; and the universal result of this sort of proceeding, ever since the invention of gunnery, has been a total neglect of their power of extreme projection. The metal, like other portions of their work is, in all cases, manipulated with a view to beauty only; as the fact of their veneering, or plating, their barrels proves.
If at all masters of the science, they must be aware that this weakens the shooting of the barrels, and is an injurious practice. But the greater fact remains, that they continue to fix all their barrels together, by brasing them with brass from end to end, as they do in Belgium; thus lessening the strength of the barrels in point of safety, and nearly destroying any smart shooting power they might have possessed.
The French appear to me to have only reached that stage of progress which we attained forty years ago, when every intelligent mechanic was seeking after that “useless thing,” even when attained, “a perfect safety gun;” which, from its complex character, might have been designated “the dangerous gun;” indeed, experience taught (though not without great cost) that few would use it when attained, and the consequence was that it fell into disuse. Our Continental neighbours, however, are mining it with great energy. A little more of our experience, and they, also, will see the folly of the attempt. All the facts go clearly to establish the truth of the assertion, that for all useful purposes they are half a century behind us in the essential part of gun manufacturing. The anxiety shown by all leading Continental sportsmen to obtain a first-class English gun, and more especially of laminated steel, is very strong evidence in support of this assertion. All the guns I exhibited in Paris in 1855 were eagerly bought up at high figures; and I have since executed many orders for France, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and Russia, as well as for other northern states.