only 100 feet, and at 500 yards it was reduced to 31 feet; showing that after a flight of some 600 yards the lighter projectile is overtaken by the heavier. It may be remarked here that the average velocity of these two rifles during a flight of from 500 to 600 yards, is as high or higher than the initial velocities of many European guns! Thus the French Tige Rifle has an initial velocity of 1023 feet, the Enfield Rifle 1115 feet, the Belgian chasseur carbine 1007 feet, United States new rifle musket 963 feet and the altered Harpers Ferry rifle 914 feet per second. Certainly Maj. Barnard is justified in his animadversions on the evils which have attended the introduction of the "shot-gun principle" into modern rifles; and with much reason he exclaims-"a decided step has been made backwards in losing that most essential element to range and accuracy, initial velocity."*

Position of the Centre of gravity. In many European projectiles, every effort is made by hollowing out the base to throw the centre of gravity "well forward," in order that the disposition of the ball to fly point-foremost may be encouraged as much as possible, and for the furtherance of the same desirable end, grooves are usually made about its cylindrical portion That the first proceeding exercises a notable influence (at low velocities,) is generally admitted; that it virtually lowers the specific gravity of the ball and therefore retards the flight is no less certain; and if the rudder-like action of the grooves is admitted, their presence also entails a farther loss of velocity.

I have not as yet found time to experiment with either hollow or grooved balls, but the results obtained with solid projectiles, seem to show that it is of small moment whether their centre of gravity be situated a little before the middle of the longer diameter, or a little behind it; thus, in the double cone of which mention has been made the centre of gravity was forward of the middle of the axis, but in spite of this, it was found to require almost (if not quite) as many revolutions per second as ball No. 4. Balls were also constructed like Fig. 8 and fired with an initial velocity of 1682 feet when with a rate of 477 revolutions per second; they struck the target sidewise at 165 feet: a velocity of 1060 feet was then tried, when 268 revolutions proved wholly insufficient to project them point-foremost a distance of 12 feet.

It may not be amiss in closing this article to offer a few remarks on the accuracy of the American rifle as compared with those now used in Europe.

8.

In England it is admitted that the best practice has been obtained by Mr. Whitworth of Manchester with his hexagonal projectile 3 diameters in length, in a covered gallery 500 yards

* This Journal, vol. xxix, p. 197.

long. Mr. Whitworth states, or is reported to state, that he succeeds in projecting ball after ball into a circle but little more than two inches in diameter, and that he will not rest satisfied till he has fired a ball from one of his rifles down the barrel of another, placed at that distance! This excessive hopefulness of Mr. Whitworth might cause some to hesitate at the story of the two inch circle; assuming it however to be true, it may possibly be shown that the American rifle under like circumstances will do as well or better.

9.

The anexed target was made by Lewis with a rifle similar to No. 1, (provided only with globe and bead sights), at a distance of 220 yards, in the presence of over a hundred persons at the yearly trial of skill held at Waltham, Mass.-of course in the open air. air. The average distance of the shots from the centre is 1.038 inches. Any marksman upon inspecting it will at once see that shots a and a' were carried to the right and left merely by the wind, and that in a properly constructed gallery all the shots except b, would have been included in a circle one inch in diameter. It will also be acknowledged that in shots fired in a covered gallery the deviation with a good rifle is proportional to the distance traversed, though in the open air it is always somewhat greater owing to the wind producing more effect proportionally on the flight of the ball as its velocity becomes lowered.* Therefore as 220

One-half of full size.

yards: 500 yards :: 1 in.: 2-27, or nine out of the ten shots, at 500 yards, would have been in a circle 2.27 inches in diameter -practice as good as reported by Whitworth.

But what was the nature of the manipulation in each case? In Mr. Whitworth's by the help of "certain appliances with reference to the recoil, guarantees were obtained that each shot should be taken under similar circumstances. The gun was fitted accurately into a frame resting upon a perfectly level plane, and the recoil was compelled to take place in a line precisely

The anterior probability of this statement may perhaps be rendered stronger by a comparison of the actual with this theoretic deviation. Rifle No. 1 when fired in the open air by only moderately skilled marksmen, gave

parallel to its axis and could be calculated to a nicety. Again, when the object was to prevent any recoil, there was no difficulty in doing so."* All of the above mentioned precautions being no doubt essential to counteract the evil effects of the heavy recoil and of the twisting of the piece. With the American rifle no such artificial bolstering was employed, the barrel was rested on a common shooting bench and the stock held honestly to the shoulder of the marksman, the friction and recoil being so insignificant as not to require other contrivance.

But the Whitworth-gun was tried in the open air at Hythe, April, 1857, in competition with the Enfield rifle, to which it appears to have been greatly superior. We are not informed whether "the firing machine" was transported and used on this occasion; be that as it may, the statement made as to the results obtained is, "that when both had a range of 500 yards the superiority of the Whitworth was in the proportion of three to one." As the absolute deviation of the Enfield rifle at that distance is 28 inches, the deviation of the Whitworth rifle must have been about 9.3 inches, or the shots averaged that distance from the centre of the target. Chapman states that the absolute deviation of the American rifle at 550 yards is 11 inches; his work was published in 1848 since which time very considerable improvement has been effected by our best makers. Knowing this to be the case, I instituted some experiments at 500 yards with rifle No. 1: after it had been sighted

for that distance ten shots were fired by a friend, who was but a moderate marksman; a reduced cut of the target is given. The distance of each shot from the centre was measured, the sum of the distances was 67.1 inches: the absolute deviation therefore in this experiment was 6 inches or 2 inches less than that of the Whitworth rifle.

This may serve to show how greatly the American rifle, as made by our best gunsmiths, must, and in fact does surpass in accuracy of fire the various rifles used at the present day in Europe, which are confessedly in this respect inferior to the Whitworth. By reference to the tables below it will be seen that the performance of Rifle No. 1 in the

10.

One-tenth of full size.

above target made at 500 yards, was superior to that of the Swiss rifle at 200 yards.

"The Rifle," by Hans Busk, M. A., page 94.

No less demonstrable is it, that the American rifle-pistol, with a barrel only 12 inches in length, but constructed on the same principle as the larger arm, surpasses in the accuracy of its fire, up to a range of 500 yards, most of the rifles now used in Europe.* This may seem incredible; it is highly significant as pointing out, that the principles on which rifled-guns should be constructed, have been better apprehended by our countrymen, than thus far at least, by the ordnance boards of European gov

ernments.

Absolute Deviation of 12 in. Pistol according to Chapman. Weight of

Ball 100 to 115 grains.

Diameters of Circles containing the best half of the shots.†

Diameters of Circles containing a certain proportion of the shots from

* Although Gen. Jacob has printed no particulars relative to his rifle practice at distances under 1000 yards, still that it cannot have been remarkably accurate, is patent from the table of the time of the flight of his projectiles given on page 35 of his "Rifle Practice," which is copied without comment by Lieut. Busk, page 165 of his work, and again by Lieut. Wilcox, page 210. By reference to either of these books it will be seen that the time of flight for 100 yards is 325 sec., for 200 yards exactly twice as much, for 300 yards just three times as much, and so on up to 600 yards; which is equivalent to saying that the velocity remained undiminished during a flight of 500 yards! A manifest absurdity, which cau only be explained by the surmise that the path of the balls was irregular, and therefore allowed no determination of the time of flight to be made with accuracy. I was first unable to comprehend the meaning of this table, until in experimenting with a ball whose flight was known to be irregular, similar results were obtained. Gen. Jacob himself remarks that the table is a little curious.

According to Lieut. Wilcox. § Trials by Mr. Lewis.

Chapman, plate VI.

An experiment of my own.

Strange indeed is it, that Lieut. Wilcox in his recent treatise on "Rifles and Rifle Practice," while describing each minute variation in the faulty construction of the European arm, should wholly ignore the existence of this most remarkable product of the experimental skill and mechanical ingenuity of his countrymen.

Inasmuch therefore as our own rifle for years has stood without a rival, how happens it that for the use of our army we have been induced to import an inferior arm from France? Were it not better policy to furnish our soldier with the weapon which has became so famous in the hands of our hunters? If greater accuracy or power be required, might it not be well to institute a minute investigation into the causes to which our home-product owes its success, rather than to spend time and incur expense in the study of the inferior rifles of Europe, which although owing their existence to the labors of boards of ordnance, composed of highly educated men, still have never approached in perfection the weapon devised by the experimental skill of our American backwoodsmen.

Below are a few of the initial velocities obtained in these experiments. Instead of the average merely, I have given each determination by itself. The powder employed was of very moderate strength, such indeed as is for the most part used in these rifles by our best marksmen:

Fig. 11 is a section of an universal bullet mould which is per