3"28 MEASURING THE STRIKING FORCE OF SHOT. 



flattened to almost twice its original diameter and was 

 found sticking tightly in the sixth sheet. 



In the spring of "75 Mr. W. R. Schaefer, the Bos- 

 ton gunmaker, whose name I have before mentioned, 

 became dissatisfied with the powder he had long been 

 in the habit of selling to his customers, and inquired 

 of me what kind, in my opinion, was the best. I an- 

 swered : ' ' The Oriental. " " That is clean, ' ' said he, 

 " but I think rather weak ;" and he then showed me 

 some powder that had been sent him for trial by the 

 Warren Powder Co., of Maine. I insisted that the 

 Oriental was strong as Avell as clean ; and so next day 

 we made a comparative test of the two brands, using a 

 rack and pasteboard target. With one gun, using 

 " Oriental," eleven sheets were perforated repeat- 

 edly ; at no discharge a single sheet more or less ; 

 while with the " Warren" the same gun gave records 

 of ten sheets with equal regularity. From a second 

 gun the " Oriental" scored twelve sheets, the " War- 

 ren" eleven. Schaefer was very much pleased with 

 the target, then seen by him for the first time, and 

 since has used it exclusively for testing the hard 

 shooting qualities of his guns. But the result of the 

 trial was not so satisfactory to him, he having had his 

 mind made up that the " Oriental" was to be beaten ; 

 and so another day was fixed upon for a test of all the 



