A USTRIA. The new field gun is of east steel, calibre 7 cm. (2.76 inches), using a metallic •a•t ridge separated from the projectile. Six bat teries of these guns (36 guns) were issued ill 1901 to the troops for trial. For curved fire the Austrian artillery has the 15 cm. (5.9 inches) mortars and howitzers in \\lint are called *mobile siege batteries,' of which there are five groups, each group comprising three batteries and a park of siege ammunition. Each battery has four siege howitzers, to which is attached a company of fortress artillery requiring for mounted in struction IS drivers and 22 horses. This howit zer is of bronze, weighs 2491 pounds, with all its accessories weighing 2976 pounds. The ordinary shell weighs 70 pounds. Canister is also used.
dorf. The Ehrhardt, which undoubtedly opened up a new phase of the quick-firing gun question as far as the European Powers are concerned, is one of the two really 'rapid-fire field guns' in ex istence to-day, the other being the mysterious French gulls. In the United States tests, the Ehrhardt gun fired 45 armed shots, involving two changes of trail, in 6m. 18sec.; 15 aimed shots at a range of 1000 yards struck in a rectangle of by 5 feet. It is impossible to fire the gun before it is safely locked, the eccentricity of the block not bringing the firing-pin into line with the primer until the block is safely locked. The commission appointed to report on these tests and consider the question of the most suitable weapon decided upon a gun which combined the best and essential features of both. This new gun has a
calibre of 3 inches, and fires a projectile fifteen pounds in weight at about six times the rate of speed that the older United States field guns are capable of. Fixed ammunition is used and the projectile will have an initial velocity of 1700 feet per second. With the increased rate of fire one of the new gums will he able to throw as many shells as a whole six-gun battery of the form which it succeeds.
By ]902 the English had acquired 18 complete Three are four charges of smokeless powder varying from 9 to 26 ounces, and giving veloci ties of 538 foot-seconds to 854 foot-seconds for the ordinary shell and 512 foot-seconds to 905 foot-.seconds for the shrapnel. The field artil lery has a torpedo shell weighing pounds loaded with 'ecrasite.' which is furnished with a double-action fuse, and has an initial velocity of 1460 foot-seconds; this shell to be used against troops under cover. Each battery of eight guns carries 15 shells of this kind. or 11.7 per cent. of the whole number carried (1024). The old 9 cm. gun (1875) has been considerably modified, so that it now six shots per minute, using a shrapnel] shell which weighs 6.9 kilograms (15.2 pounds), and contains 250 bullets. each weighing 13 grams (somewhat less than one-half ounce). Austria had, in 1900, 511 regiments of field artil lery. consisting of 15S3 officers and 25.502 enlisted men. The guns numbered 1048. which is 2.9S guns for every thousand men in the whole army.