54 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



all run together, an instrument might be produced combining all the 

 requisite qualifications. This has been successfully accomplished, and 

 the great transit-circle or meridian instrument is now at work in the 

 Royal Observatory, to the satisfaction of the Astronomer Royal, on 

 whose designs the whole has been constructed." 



A full-sized model of the telescope was in the room, by which it was 

 shown that the pivots are six inches in diameter, and the axis about six 

 feet in length. The object-glass is eight inches aperture, and about 11 

 feet focal length ; and, after a rigid examination of the form of the pivots, 

 the Astronomer Royal has concluded that no correction for the shape 

 of the pivots is required. 



JENNING'S PATENT RIFLE. 



THIS rifle is by far the most terrible implement of modern war- 

 fare yet invented. It is designed, principally, to be an almost end- 

 less repeater, and also to avoid the difficulty of capping or priming at 

 each load. In appearance the rifle is of the ordinary size, without en- 

 cumbrance of any kind. Its weight is no greater than the ordinary 

 weight of a common gun, and it only differs from the latter externally 

 in having an iron breech with a wooden stock, which breech is hand- 

 somely finished and engraved. By a simple contrivance within this 

 stock, the breech-pin is withdrawn as the gun is cocked. A cartridge 

 (of which we shall speak) is placed in this opening, and, on pulling the 

 trigger, the pin closes the barrel tight, a strong block of steel falls be- 

 hind it, and the gun primes itself and is discharged at one motion. 

 There is nothing complicated in the machinery, but, on the contrary, 

 it is so simple that it can hardly by any accident get out of order, and, 

 in case of such accident, any worker in iron can repair the break. By 

 this contrivance a rifle is made capable of being loaded at the breech as 

 often as it is fired off, and as rapidly as a man's hand can move to throw 

 in the cartridges. This is at the rate of twelve shots per minute for a 

 person not acquainted with the gun ; a velocity sufficient to make one 

 man fully equal to a dozen armed with ordinary rifles. 



Another variety of the same gun is now completed, and nearly per- 

 fected by the patentees, which differs not at all from this in external 

 appearance, except that, in place of a ramrod, is a tube of the same 

 size, capable of containing thirty cartridges, which, by a very simple 

 contrivance, are so arranged that they are placed in the barrel one by 

 one, and fired successively without any interruption. The moment that 

 the thirtieth ball is fired, this gun may be used as the first one, loaded 

 at the breech, and be fired at the rate of fifteen in a minute. But the 

 chief strength of this formidable weapon rests on the cartridge which 

 is used. This cartridge, which is also patented, is simply a loaded ball. 

 A bullet, elongated on one side to a hollow cylinder of about an inch 

 in length, is filled with powder, and, at the end, covered with a thin 

 piece of cork, through the centre of which is a small hole, to admit fire 

 from the priming. As each ball goes out of the barrel, the cork cap 

 remains in the barrel, and is carried out in front of the next ball, sweep- 

 ing thoroughly all the dirt with it. The gun may thus be discharged 



