Notes on Artillery. R.M.A.

Hardcover. Fine. Illustrated. 4to. Half morocco binding with title embossed in gold to front board, front inner hinge reinforced, text in very good clean condition. Original manuscript notebook, neatly written in ink on paper on both sides, beautifully illustrated. 438 numbered pages (of which some 80 pages are blank), with divisional titles, a few small text illustrations, tables within text, and 7 full-page illustrations, some hand-colored. (ca. 1855). A neatly written mid-nineteenth century manuscript notebook, dated 1855 on spine. The manuscript is an officer's notebook from the Royal Marine Artillery (RMA). The RMA was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in bomb vessels. The author was Edmund Charles McNaghten, his name is gilt embossed to the front cover and he has signed the manuscript E. C. MacNaghton RMA in pencil above several chapter headings. MacNaghten entered the RMA as a QC on May 10, 1853, and was promoted Lieutenant on August 1, 1855. He was killed in action at Te Arei, Taranaki, New Zealand, on March 17, 1861, twelve months to the day after he fired the first shot in the Taranaki Wars, while observing the enemy position from a point near the end of Pratt's Long Sap. Contents include: History of Artillery; General Construction of Guns; Foundry; Remarks on Casting iron Ordnance; Boring Department; Drilling and Bouching Machine; Proof Department; Cutting the Visual Lines on Bronze Guns; Carriage Department; Notes on Gunpowder; Portfires; etc. A beautifully executed manuscript, with careful and detailed descriptions by the officer who fired the first shot in the Taranaki Wars. A very nice piece of New Zealand history. Fine.