This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...that mathematics, while a good servant, might be a very bad master. All the formulae to which reference had been made were very well, if the values of the different letters could be obtained; bnt if those values were not ascertained by experimental data, the formulae were simply so much juggling with letters of the alphabet. Of course the Woolwich system was theoretically wrong, and no one knew that better than the constructors of the guns. But they were perhaps practically the best available in the present state of metallurgical knowledge. A hard steel tube was put inside, and.soft metal outside. What could be worso than that? Of course the soft metal outside expanded much more than the tough steel inside, and if it was overstrained it would get the "set" first. It was, however, necessary to look at such matters practically. If wrought iron were put inside heavy ordnance, as in Sir William Palliser"s system for light guns, what would happen? It would not stand the erosion, and the interior of the bore would be guttered and soon destroyed. It might be said, " Why not put on steel jackets outside?" As far as he had been able to gather from the progress made of late, makers were constantly improving the manufacture of steel, so that probably in a few years they would be able so to manipulate steel as to produce any amount of ductility, or tensile strength, or any other quality, that might be required. He looked forward to the possibility of putting outside, not wrought-iron jackets, but steel jackets. It might be said that the plan had been already tried; and so it had. In Krupp"s guns a steel jacket was used. It could not be urged that the Germans knew nothing of war, and never fought; or that they were a spendthrift nation, who liked to pay d...