scale 12 or 14 in. long divided on its flat surface into divisions
proportional to the tangents of angles with a base equal to the
distance from the notch on the base ring to the dispart notch. A
slit was made along the rule, and a thread with a bead on it was
mounted on a slider so that it could be moved in the slit to any
required graduation. By sighting along the bead to the dispart
the gun could be laid on any object. Later still, the requisite
elevation was obtained by cutting a series of notches on the side
of the base ring and one on the muzzle ring. These were called
“Quarter Sights” and allowed of elevations up to 3°; the lowest
notch with the one on the muzzle swell gave a line parallel to the
axis of the bore but above it so as to clear the cap-squares of the
trunnions. This system was also used in bronze field guns and
in all cast iron guns up to the 32-pdr. Difficulties in laying
occurred unless the direction was obtained by looking over the
top or dispart sight and the elevation then given by the quarter
sights. This was the system of sighting in use during the great
naval actions of the end of the 18th century and the beginning
of the 19th century. A pointed dispart sight was often used,
and for naval purposes it was fixed on the reinforce near the
trunnions, as the recoil of the gun through the port would
destroy it if fixed on the muzzle swell.
The double sighting operation was rendered unnecessary by the use of “tangent scales” introduced by Gribeauval. Similar scales were soon adopted in the English land service artiDery, but they were not fully adopted in the English navy until about 1854 (see Naval Gunnery, by Sir Howard Douglas, p. 390), although in the United States navy a system of sighting, which enabled the guns to be layed at any degree of elevation, had been applied as early as 1812. These tangent scales were of brass fitting into sockets on the breech end of the gun; they were used in conjunction with the dispart fore sight and gave elevation up to 4° or 5° over the top of the gun. For greater elevation a wooden tangent scale was provided which gave elevation up to 8° or 10°.
In the British navy, before tangent sights were used, the plan often adopted for rapidly laying the guns was by sighting, with the notch on the breech ring and the dispart sight, on some part of the masts of the enemy's vessel at a height corresponding to the range.
With sailing ships about the middle of the 19th century the angle of heel of the vessel when it was sailing on a wind was ascertained from the ship's pendulum, and the lee guns elevated or the weather guns depressed to compensate by means of a graduated wooden stave called a “heel scale” of which one end was placed on the deck or last step of the carriage whilst the upper end read in connection with a scale of degrees engraved on the flat end of the cascable.
Subsequently the term “tangent sight” was given to the “tangent scales,” and they were fitted into holes made in the body of the gun—the foresight usually being fitted to a hole in the gun near the trunnions. Two pairs of sights—one at each side—were generally arranged for, and in rifled guns the holes for the tangent sight bars were inclined to compensate for the drift of the projectile. As the drift angle varies with the muzzle velocity, the tangent sights of howitzers were set vertically, so that for the various charges used the deflection to compensate for drift had to be given on the head of the sight bar. Modern forms of sights are described and illustrated in the article Sights.
Breech-loading ordnance dates from about the end of the 14th century, or soon after the introduction of cannon into England (Brackenbury, Proc. R.A.I. v. 32). The body, in some cases, was fixed to a wood cradle by iron straps and the breech portion kept in position between the muzzle portion and a verticalBreech-loading Ordnance. block of wood fixed to the end of the cradle, by a wedge. Accidents must have been common, and improvements were made by dropping the breech or chamber of the weapon into a receptacle, solidly forged on or fastened by lugs to the rear end of the gun (fig. 7). This system was used for small guns only, such as wall pieces, &c., which could not be easily loaded at the muzzle owing to the position in which they were placed, and in order to obtain rapidity each gun was furnished with several chambers.
Fig. 7.—Early Breech-loader.
Guns of this nature, called Petrieroes a Braza, were used in particular positions even at the end of the 17th century. Moretii states that they carried a stone ball of from 2 ℔ to 14 ℔, which was placed in the bore of the gun and kept in position by wads. The chambers, resembling an ordinary tankard in shape, had a spigot formed on their front end which entered into a corresponding recess at the rear end of the bore and so formed a rude joint. Each chamber was nearly filled with powder and the mouth closed by a wood stopper driven in; it was then inserted into the breech of the gun and secured by a wedge. Even with feeble gunpowder this means of securing the chamber does not commend itself, but as powder improved there was a greater probability of the breech end of the gun giving way; besides which the escape of the powder gas from the imperfect joint between the chamber and gun must have caused great inconvenience. To these causes must be attributed the general disuse of the breech-loading system during the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries.
Robins mentions (Tracts of Gunnery, p. 337) that experimental breech-loading rifled pieces had been tried in 1745 in England to surmount the difficulty of loading from the muzzle. In these there was an opening made in the side of the breech which, after the loading had been completed, was closed by a screw. The breech arrangement (fig. 8) of the rifled gun invented
Fig. 8.—Cavalli Gun, 1845.
by Major Cavalli, a Sardinian officer, in 1845, was far superior to anything tried previously. After the projectile and charge had been loaded into the gun through the breech, a cast iron cylindrical plug, cupped on the front face, was introduced into the chamber; a copper ring was placed against its rear face; finally a strong iron wedge was passed through the body of the gun horizontally just in rear of the plug, and prevented it being blown out of the gun. In England the breech of one of the experimental guns was blown off after only a few rounds had been fired. In Wahrendorff’s gun, invented in 1846, the breech arrangement (fig. 9) was very similar in principle to the Cavalli gun. In addition to the breech plug and horizontal wedge there was an iron door, hinged to the breech face of the gun, which carried a rod attached to the rear of the breech plug. The horizontal wedge had a slot cut from its right side to the centre, so that it might freely pass this rod. After loading,
