ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



rifle bullets are made by moulding, from perfectly pure, and consequently very 

 soft lead, obtained by Pattinson's process. A million and a half of these bul- 

 lets may now be made per week by machinery. Shrapnel shell bullets are 

 cast from an alloy of lead and antimony. The crude alloy is obtained from 

 Hamburg, and is cheaper than either lead or antimony. The English mis: 

 chlorate of potash, the French nitrate of potash, with the fulminating mercury 

 used for filling percussion caps. The English caps are less liable to corrosion 

 than are the French. The substitution, in the percussion cap department, of 

 methylated spirit for pure spirit, has prevented that imbibition of alcohol by 

 the work-people which it was formerly impossible to prevent. English gun- 

 powder is as a rule denser and more uniform in its composition and effects 

 than foreign gunpowder, and keeps much better. From the more porous con- 

 dition of the foreign powder, the whole of the charge is invariably consumed ; 

 whereas, with the English powder, portions of the unconsumed charge fre- 

 quently escape from the aperture of the gun, and are occasionally blown back 

 upon the gunners by the force of the wind. The French method of purifying 

 nitre by washing has been substituted for the English process of crystallization 

 and fusion, with great advantage. 



The subject of the recent applications of science to the art of war, is thus 

 reviewed by a recent lecturer before the Ijondon Royal Institution : 



Infernal machines want but little to be brought to destructive perfection. 

 Incendiary and poisonous materials have been concocted with Satanic inge- 

 nuity* and only not used because men hesitated to have recourse to such ter- 

 rible instruments of killing. Gunpowder has undergone the ordeal of extended 

 experiment with a view to its improvement ; it has received powerful pres- 

 sure, and thus been rendered superior hi its uniformity and power of resisting 

 the effects of transport and of exposure to the atmosphere, although the softer 

 powder used on the Continent is superior in an economic point of view, pro- 

 vided it is required for rapid consumption, and also for its greater inflamma- 

 bility. New explosive materials have been introduced ; thus, fulminate of 

 mercury has been demonstrated to possess advantages over other detonating 

 mixtures. Alcohol and methylated spirits have been employed in large quan- 

 tities for moistening highly combustible compositions. Resin, bituminous 

 coal, pitch, boiled oil, Venice turpentine, zinc, antimony, and coal tar naphtha 

 have been employed or recommended as incendiary or smoke-producing 

 agents. "In endeavoring to prepare a compound of the chlorate of cop- 

 per with ammonia, as a material for a brilliant purple fire, Mr. Nicholson 

 obtained a beautifully crystalline compound of so powerfully explosive cha- 

 racter that even its syrupy solution detonated sharply when struck with a 

 hammer upon an anvil." 



Improvement in the Manufacture of Gun Barrels. An English patent recently 

 granted to Samuel Pearson, refers to the manufacture of twisted barrels and 

 pipes. According to the method of forming such barrels as now practised, a 

 strip of metal is wound spirally round a centre, the edges of the strip form- 

 ing butt or scarf joints, which are found in practice to be faulty. . Now this 

 improvement consists in forming barrels and pipes of two Y-shaped strips of 

 metal, which are wound spirally round a centre ; the base of the V in one 



