MEASURING THE STRIKING FORCE OF SHOT. 327 



their striking powers can be made. The delicacy of 

 the test may be extended to almost any required de- 

 gree by the employment of thinner sheets of paste- 

 board or even paper ; and with such targets correct 

 comparisons of striking force may be made between 

 breech and muzzle loaders, coarse and fine powders, 

 powders of different makes, brands and charges, laiige 

 and small shot at different ranges, and many other 

 circumstances of greater or less importance, which 

 have hitherto been mere matters of conjecture, can 

 now be definitely ascertained, and the knowledge 

 thus acquired applied to practical and profitable 

 use. 



To prove to a doubting friend the superiority of the 

 method above advocated for measuring strength of 

 shooting, I fired a small rifle loaded with about | 

 diam of powder, first at eighty sheets of medium 

 thick pasteboard, placed separately in a rack. Every 

 sheet was perforated, and the bullet, which also in- 

 dented a pine board at the end of the rack to the 

 depth of about an eighth of an inch, showed no signs 

 beyond the marks of the lands in the rifle of ever hav- 

 ing been fired. A second shot, loaded in precisely 

 the same way was then fired at an equal number of 

 sheets of similar pasteboard packed closely together, 

 and only twelve sheets were broken ; the bullet was 



