GUMRI 



<;r.\ 



germ-tubes can enter the cellular tissues in which 

 alono they can spread. Unfortunately such in 

 juries occur from many causes in the class of trees 

 named, and probably insects arc tin- cliief agents 

 in carrying the contusion from tree to tree. In 

 pri-M-ribing remedies, those that are preventive 

 ihvioiisly beat. Wounds as soon as they are 

 oliM-rvcd should be coated with a thick paste of 

 quicklime or coal- tar. Hummed branches utoold IKJ 

 out away witliout delay and burned, and the 

 wounds dressed at once with coal-tar. It is con- 

 jectured that Coryneuin or some similar fungus is 

 tin- cause of the disease that produces gum-traga- 

 canth, and probably other gums and gum-resins. 



I. ii inri. See ALEXANDROPOL. 



(.unit!, a river of India, rises in the North 

 western Provinces, in a small lake in 28 37' N. lat. 

 and 80 7' E. long. , and, after a sinuous but gener- 

 al ly south-easterly course of nearly 500 miles, enters 

 the ( ianges ."> miles below Jaunpur. It is navigable 

 by U>ats of 17 tons for over 400 miles ; at Lucknow 

 it is spanned by live bridges, and at Jaunpur by 

 a bridge of sixteen arches. There is also a Guniti 

 Kiver in Bengal, which Joins the Meghna after a 

 course, inclusive of windings, of 66 miles. 



Gllll* The term gun formerly comprised many 

 varieties of the weapons now more correctly termed 

 Firearms (q.v.), and is still applied in a general 

 sense to Cannon (o.v. ) and large ordnance, also 

 to quick-firing or Machine Guns (q.v.); but it is 

 now more specially held to signify the sporting 



fun as distinguished from the military Rifle (Q.V. ). 

 he modern shot-gun is invariably breech-loading, 

 and usually upon the 'drop-down' principle (see 

 CH-LOADINQ). The manufacture of shot- 

 guns is an important British industry, and one 

 of the processes of manufacture barrel-welding 

 i- .-iillieiently interesting to warrant descriptive 

 details. The other processes, some eighteen or 

 twenty in number, call only for the skill of the 

 trained workman. 



Shot-gun barrels are generally hand-forged from 

 a rod of special material which is usually composed 

 of iron or two distinct varieties, or of iron and 

 *teel. It is necessary that one of the metals be 

 softer than the other ; and the greater the pro- 

 portion of the harder metal, and the harder the 

 quality of the softer metal, the better will be the 

 quality of the welded barrel. Some varieties of 



gun-iron con- 

 tain 70 per 

 cent, of steel ; 

 in others a 

 good quality 

 and an in- 

 ferior quality 

 of iron are 

 used together, 

 and no steel 

 enters into 

 the composi- 

 tion. The 

 rod of gun- 

 iron is built 

 up of alter- 

 nate layers of 

 the hard and 

 soft metals, 

 and in. the 

 manufacture 



of a Damascus barrel this rod must l>e twisted 

 upon itself before it is welded side by side to 

 one or more rods, or welded into a barrel. These 

 twisted rods are drawn out between rolls into a 

 flattened rod or ' riband ' of metal, the riband 

 being composed of one, two, three, or more twisted 

 rods according to the quality of the barrel or the 

 238 



mm ftf ui *k 



<i, Kim-barrel iron, twisted and laid into a 

 rilttinl ; b, jHirticm of Klin-barrel co il ; 

 c, portion of silver-steel Damascus barrel. 



finenexa of figure desired. The Belgian welder* 

 are more exp.-rt than the British in making the 

 finest figured barrels, putting as many as hix 

 (lillerentlv twisted rods together to form a Mingle 

 riband ; (nit licl^ian barrels are not KO hard :i- the 

 Knglish, and are generally considered t l>e inferior 

 to the best Birmingham hand welded barrels. The 

 welder, having prepared his iron and received it 

 from the mill rolled down to tin- proper -)/. pro- 

 ceeds to form the barrel by twisting the riband 

 upon a mandril, just as one would cover a whip- 

 stock with a narrow strip of leather. This coil has 

 then to be heated, a few inches at a time, and the 

 edges welded to each other, the result lieing a tub*; 

 four times heavier than it will weigh when finished 

 by boring, grinding, and filing, which are the next 

 three processes through which the Iwirrel must pass. 

 In double shot-guns the two tul>es to form the 

 barrels are bra/ed together for a few inches at the 

 breech end, and soldered to each other and to the 

 two ribs and ' packing ' which unite them through 

 out their entire length. The breech actions are 

 fitted to the barrels, the lock-work and bolting- 

 mechanism adjusted, and the gun is ready for the 

 stocker ; he roughly fashions the piece of walnut 

 to which the ironwork is secured by the 'screwer,' 

 who passes the gun on to the ' finisher ' to prepare 

 for its final embellishments, in which are comprised 

 the processes of polishing, engraving, hardening, 

 blueing, and tempering. The oarrels when finely 

 polished are treated with acid, which rusts the 

 surface of the metals of which they are composed, 

 and eating more readily into the softer metal turns 

 it a darker colour. This process, termed ' brown- 

 ing,' occupies several days, and when successful 

 shows clearly the damascening or curls of fibre 

 obtained by twisting the gun -iron rods in the 

 earliest stage. A barrel not showing such curls 

 would be termed a ' scelp ' barrel if it were a twisted 

 welded barrel, but if of one uniform colour, un- 

 broken by regular markings, it would probably 

 be composed of plain iron or steel only. 



The superiority of the Damascus barrel to one of 

 best modern steel remains a vexed question. The 

 evidence adduced on behalf of the Damascus is 

 sufficient to prove its superiority over certain 

 qualities of steel, but it is not overwhelming ; and 

 it is now generally admitted that steel can be 

 obtained of sufficiently g^ood quality and possessing 

 sufficient strength to withstand any normal strain 

 to which as a shot-gun barrel it may be subjected. 

 The advocates of the welded barrel contend that 

 Haws, which cannot be detected by the eye or by 

 the most searching test, occasionally exist in steel, 

 making it unreliable for use as a gun-barrel. Sir 

 Joseph Whitworth's fluid compressed steel has 

 been used very successfully as a material for shot- 

 gun barrels, but the immunity from flaws which 

 barrels of this steel enjoy is said to result from the 

 careful testing and examination of each individual 

 tube rather than from absolute perfection in the 

 metal itself. The complete ana almost perfect 

 heterogeneity of the material of the Damascus barrel 

 produces a homogeneous whole, which, when soundly 

 welded, has no weak spot, and will neither split 

 longitudinally nor break on" short as steel barrels 

 have done, b'ut when burst is pulled, as it were, 

 from shred to shred, exhibiting great tenacity in 

 every direction. The steel ban-el here referred to 

 is that drilled from a solid rod of best mild steel. 

 Steel barrels drawn from blanks in the same manner 

 as ordinary tules are inferior to the drilled barrel. 

 Still less reliable are the lap-welded steel barrels in 

 which the two edges of a strip of metal are brought 

 together and welded as it passes at welding heat 

 between the rolls. Cold drawn steel barrels were 

 at one time manufactured, but proved too expen- 

 sive, and twisted steel barrels are not yet a 



