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As his system was initially adopted in 1858 'for special service in the field', at first Armstrong produced the smaller equipments only, ie the 6-pr (2.5-in) mountain or light field, 9-pr (3-in) for horse artillery, and 12-pr (3-in) for field. Although he did not consider his system suitable for heavier guns defence chiefs later prevailed upon him to produce a 20-pr (3.75-in), a 40-pr (4.75-in) and a 110-pr (7-in), being field, siege and heavy pieces respectively. All except the 20-pr saw service in New Zealand, and all were used by the Navy in various sea-service roles. Apart from size they all looked very much alike and worked in the same way. As the 12-pr was without doubt the most successful and saw extensive service in this country we shall take it as an example for detailed study.
The term RBL was given to Armstrong guns in later years to distinguish them from the 'BL' types introduced from 1880.
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WL Ruffell Issue 96 December 1997 |
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