A Text-book of Ordnance and Gunnery, prepared for the use of Cadets of the U. S. Military Academy. By Captain Lawrence L. Bruff, Ordnance Dept., U. S. Army. Published by John Wiley & Sons.
In the preface to this volume of 675 pages the author states that “the present text-book has been compiled with the object of presenting as clearly as possible the elementary principles of the course in Ordnance and Gunnery as taught at the Military Academy, and of so arranging it that it can be readily used for recitations in the section-room. . . ."
The contents are arranged in chapters as follows: I. Gunpowder and Interior Ballistics; II. High Explosives and Smokeless Powders; III. Guns; IV. Projectiles and Armor; V. Fuzes and Primers; VI. Exterior Ballistics; VII. Artillery Carriages; Theory of Recoil; VIII. Pointing; Probability of Fire; IX. Portable Arms; X. Machine and Rapid-fire Guns. Index. H. G. D.
Hand-book on Naval Gunnery, by Cyrus S. Radford, Lieut., U. S. Marines; revised and enlarged with the assistance of Stokely Morgan, Lieut., U. S. Navy. Published by D. Van Nostrand Company, New York.
The revised second edition of this excellent manual is well up to date. The book has already proven so useful that a frank criticism of the errors of the present edition can do it no injury.
A serious blunder is made on page 19, where the Fletcher (modified Farcot) breech mechanism for large b. 1. guns is correctly described, but illustrated (with lettered references) by a plate of the older and quite different mechanism which it has supplanted.
The new telescope sight is well discussed on pages 38 and 39. but the answer in regard to compensation for drift is a little misleading, for the permanent angle of inclination of trunnions will differ in different guns, as it now does for their sight-bars.
A misnomer occurs on page 54, where an 8-inch turret mount is called a rapid-fire mount.
The statement on page 82 that 53-mm. H. R. C’s are to be found on board ship might lead to the belief that there are some 53’s in the U. S. Navy, whereas there are none.
It is stated in error on page 120 that brown prismatic powder grains are the same size for all calibers. The forms of smokeless powder grains described on page 123 have been discarded in favor of flat strips.
The catechism on automobile torpedoes should be rewritten, now that the Bureau of Ordnance publications upon those weapons are available.
As evidences of careful attention to progress, there will be found in this edition a description of the Fletcher rapid-fire breech mechanism and of the new electric primers, with illustrations of each.
The hand-book is to be furnished to all ships’ libraries, and has been issued to officers and non-commissioned officers of the U. S. Marine Corps and of the Naval Reserve. Considering its wide field among the latter, a chapter upon arming and equipping boats and a good cutlass drill might be profitably added. J. M. E.
Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Vol. CXXIII., 1895 to 1896, Part I. Published at Great George St., Westminster, S. W.
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Report 1894, Part 2. Published at Government Printing Office.
Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. XV., 1895. Published at Government Printing Office.