ACCOUNT OP TWO MUSQUETS. \ \\) 



I fuppofe this laft to have been the contrivance, of which the Accounts of in- 

 (ketch is given in Plate 8. ventions of 



'* 72. A way for a harquebufs, a crock, or fhip mufquet, Jh^Marqufs of 

 fix upon a carriage, {hooting with fuch expedition, as without Worcefter. 

 danger one may charge level, and difcharge them fixty times 

 in a minute of an hour two or three together. • 



" 73. A fixth way, moil excellent for fakers, differing from 

 the other, yet as fwift. 



"74. A feventh way, tried and approved before the late 

 king (of ever blefled memory) and an hundred lords and com- 

 mons, in a cannon of eight inches half quarter, to (hoot bullets 

 of 64 pounds weight, and 24 pounds of powder twenty times 

 in fix minutes ; fo clear from danger, that after all were dis- 

 charged, a pound of butter did not melt being laid upon the 

 cannon-breech, nor the green oil difcoloured that was firft 

 anointed and ufed between the barrel thereof and the engine, 

 having never in it, nor within fix feet, but one charge at a 

 time." 



The diameter of this piece is fully fufficient to carry an iron A Chlnefe can- 

 ball of 64lb. I fuppofe this contrivance to have been the non with a num - 

 fame as one which was ufed in China much later, viz. in the chambers, 

 year 1725, in the third * year of the emperor Yong-tcheng, 

 and made from a model prefented by the chief of one of the 

 provinces. Its bore was about one inch, and confequently it 

 threw a ball of lefs than four ounces of iron, or fix of lead. A, 

 receptacle was made in the hinder part of the barrel, fimilar 

 to the mufquet juft defcribed ; but infiead of the charge being 

 lodged in the kind of iron cartridge, Fig. 3, Plate VIII. there 

 was an a&ual breech piece for containing the charge, which 

 piece was lodged in the receptacle when in fervice, and could 

 be placed or replaced by an handle like that of any other vef- 

 fel. The gun was provided with four of them. If the Mar- 

 quis of Worcefter's great gun was of this defcription, the heat 

 would be chiefly produced in the fhifting piece, and confe- 

 quently the gun would, as he fays, continue cool. This fhift- 

 ing piece muft have been very weighty, even without its 

 charge, and little durable in its fitting. 



'** 75. A way that one man in the cabin may govern the Inventions of 

 whole fide of fliip mufquets to the number, if need require, of Worcefter fo°r 

 2 or 3000 fhots. quick firing. 



* Memoirs concernant les Chinois, vol. 7. Paris, 1782. 



" 7 6 . 



