248 PROPOSED improvement: 



ning into the pan by means of two inclined planes, the one 

 formed by the iliape of the breech-plug, the other by tliat of 

 the touch-hole. The butt is excavated, fo as to admit the hand 

 eafily,,,aiid it is ftrengthened by a plate of iron, which runs from 

 the end of the breech-plug, round to the. end of the fteel-tubc 

 which holds the ramrod. 



The advantages which it poffefles over the common carabine, 

 are thefe : It is flronger, becaufe it is fortified all round with 

 iron J it is upwards of two pounds Jighter ;, and, although feven 

 inches Ihorter in the barrel, it carries as far as the other. 



One might exped, that as the touch-hole is fomewhat larger 

 than ufual, there mufl be a greater explolion through it, and 

 eonfequently a diminiuion of the explofion through the barrel, 

 as well as of the velocity of the bullet ; but the fad is, that the 

 touch-hole, although it be larger at the bafe, it is not much 

 larger at the fummit, where it opens into the barrel, than the 

 common touch-hole ; and, by frequent and accurate. experiment, 

 1 have found, that, with the fame quantity of powder, the fmall 

 carabine throws a ball with a force fully equal, if not fuperior, 

 to that of the common carabine. Perhaps the circumftance of 

 the length of the barrel, correfponding better with the diameter 

 of the bullet, may account for this fad, and likewife make up 

 for any trilling diminution of the explofion from the barrel, 

 vvhifih-may poffibly be occafioned by the fomewhat incrcafed 

 fize of the touch-hole. 



r.Asfhis carabine primes itfelf, it can be loaded. ou horfe- 

 back, at ifpeed, or in the dark, or in windy weather, and 

 under the cloak wdien it rains. I have never known it to 

 mils, priming; and, by way of experiment, I have fired it up- 

 wards, of twenty times fuccefiively, and have always found, 

 on opening the pan, that it was as well primed at the lafl, 

 as at the firfl Ihot. It can be fired eafily five tim.es in a 

 pji^pcj, \yith the ailiftance of a fecond ramrod, (fig. 3.) which, 



when 



3nin 



