MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 55 



from sixty to seventy times in good weather without needing a swab. 

 The barrel may be detached at a single blow of a hammer or stone, and 

 a swab run through it in a moment at anytime, the operation of clean- 

 ing occupying no longer than the ordinary loading of a common gun. 

 The priming of the rifle is in small pills, of which one hundred are 

 placed in a box, from which the gun supplies itself without fail. These 

 rifles are now extensively manufactured at Windsor, Vt. ; and, from 

 their long range, will, it is said, completely destroy the efficacy of 

 light artillery. *" 



MAYNARD'S SELF-PRIMING RIFLES. 



IN this rifle, the invention of Dr. Maynard, of Washington, D. C., no 

 caps are used ; but the priming consists of a patent preparation of per- 

 cussion paper, made into a coiled ribbon, placed inside a small box adjoin- 

 ing the vent or nipple. This strip of priming paper passes over the top 

 of the nipple, and, by means of a notch in the hammer, a small portii >n 

 of the paper is cut off each tune the hammer descends. When the 

 hammer strikes the prepared paper, it being percussive, the powder is 

 ignited, and the gun discharged. The question may now be asked, 

 " How is the paper fed over the nipple for a new priming, after having 

 been cut off by the hammer ? ' This is done by a small flat steel spring, 

 secured on the periphery of the ring of the hammer joint. When the 

 hammer is drawn back, the flat spring is moved forward, pushing the 

 priming slip over the orifice of the nipple for the next discharge. When 

 the hammer falls down on the nipple, the spring is drawn back for a 

 new feed of the paper : this would draw back some of the paper, were 

 it not for another small stationary spring, which holds the paper so as 

 to allow it to be fed only up and along the metal incline to cover the 

 nipple. 



This invention has been examined by an army commission, and the 

 right of use purchased for the United States. 



IMPROVEMENT IN GUN BARRELS. 



A NEW method of manufacturing twisted gun and pistol barrels has 

 been introduced in England, which is thus described: An iron or 

 steel rod, or a mixture of both, of sufficient length and thickness to form 

 a gun or pistol barrel, is wound into a compact coil, and then placed in 

 an anvil having a semi-circular groove, where it is submitted to the 

 action of the tilt-hammer. The coil is then submitted to a welding 

 heat in an air furnace, then hammered and rolled, a stream of water 

 being used hi both cases to wash away the scale. 



The tilt-hammer has a groove on its face, corresponding with the 

 anvil, to act upon the coil, before the welding. 



ANTIQUITY OF REPEATING FIRE-ARMS. 



Ix the museum of the United Service Club, London, there is a pistol, 

 supposed to be two hundred years old, which, with the exception of the 



