Publisher's Synopsis
CONTENTS.
I. Sea-coast Fortification.
II. The Fifteen-inch Gun; an account of the same, with considerations as to ' the probable uses of guns of extraordinary calibres for sea-coast defence.
III. Casemate Embrasures; an account of the facts and principles which have governed the design of the "American Embrasure," and a review of Sir Howard Douglas's strictures on the same, in the 5th edition of his "Naval Gunnery."
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From the introductory.
The march of invention and improvement in all the machinery of war has been so rapid, of late years, as to make necessary frequent scrutiny of all existing "systems," whether of military organization or construction, lest they should be found no longer adapted to their purposes.
Indeed, it is more common by those who would be regarded as illuminated by the new lights of the age to lay the charge of "obsolete" against such systems than to scrutinize their validity.
The existing system of American "Sea-coast "Defence" has been always a chosen subject with such. To examine whether it is still a safe reliance for the nation, and whether it is capable of opposing to new and probable means of attack new and sufficient counteracting agencies, -to ascertain, in fact, whether it has in itself a faculty of adaptation to the changes of the times, without which nothing old can long survive, -is the object of these "Notes."
