Figure 7. — Mrs. Charles Henry Cummings, painted 

 by Alvan Clark. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, 

 Boston, Massachusetts. 



during loading. 15 At long range rifles fitted with this device were more 

 accurate than any others of that period. 16 Rifles equipped with Clark's 

 false muzzle were made exclusively by Edwin Wesson, who paid him 

 two dollars for each such rifle made. Wesson later sold to other riflemakers 

 the right to make these instruments, at a cost of three dollars each, two 

 of which he passed on to Clark. 17 



15 U.S. Patent 1565 (24 April 1840). 



ia "The Muzzles of Rifles and Rifled Cannon," Scientific American, n.s. vol. 4 (1861), 



P- 337- 



17 Ned H. Roberts, The Muzzle-loading Cap Lock Rifle (Manchester, N.H., 1940), 

 pp. 99-101. 



284-281 O — 68 2 



I I 



