M 



RICOCHET. 



RIFLE, OR RIFLED. 



E6 



crest with a lower elevation, it would at that place be in the ascending 

 branch of the curve, and then the ground behind the covering parapet 

 would not, to a considerable distance from thence, be struck. In pro- 

 portion as the elevation of the piece is increased above the same limit, 

 the vertex of the trajectory is nearer to the battery, and thus the 

 shot is in the descending branch when it passes over the crest of the 

 work. 



When the parapet over which the shot ia to pan has little elevation 

 above the battery, it requires considerable charges to allow the vertex 

 of the trajectory to coincide with the crest ; but the charges diminish 

 rapidly as the height of the parapet increases, or as the distance of the 

 battery from thence diminishes : the effect of this is to produce the 

 land of ricochet first mentioned above, for the angle made by the 

 ^rjtutitig branch with the horizontal ground being greater, the re- 

 bounds of the shot arc more numerous within a given extent of ground, 

 and between the successive graces the curves are higher and shorter. 

 In this case, and when the descending branch passes through the crest, 

 the shot falls almost immediately behind the parapet, and no part of 

 the ground to be rieochetted is free from it* action : this U not always 

 certain, when by great charges and low elevations the second kind of 

 ricochet is used, since it may happen that the shot will pass above the 

 object* which it should strike within the limits of the ground. In the 

 modern system of fortification the greatest length of the faces of works 

 which are liable to the ricochet is about 100 yards ; therefore when 

 there are no traverses on the terreplein, and it is merely required to 

 strike an object somewhere between the crest of the covering para- 

 pet (supposed to be about 8 feet high) and the further extremity of 

 any such face, the dfenmding branch of the trajectory will make with 

 the horizon an angle of about one degree, and the charge and elevation 

 of the gun should be determined so that this condition may be 

 fulfilled. From shot so fired a traverse near the covering parapet 

 would entirely protect the ground, since the projectile would lodge in 

 it, and do no harm to the defenders ; and in order that the fire of shot 

 may do execution, whether made in that manner or with an increased 

 elevation of the piece so is to produce ricochets, it U necessary 

 previously to destroy the traverse by shells fired as above described. 

 For such a purpose Oeneral Millar's 8-inch howitiers will probably be 

 found to be the moat serviceable ; and if the large shot subsequently 

 fired a-ricochet to dismount the artillery should not succeed in clearing 

 an enemy's work of the troops who defend the parapet, spherical case 

 abut find from 24-pounder guns might be advantageously employed. 

 One gun in a ricochet battery should be exactly in the prolongation 

 of the crest of the parapet on the face to be enfiladed, in order Out its 

 shot may graze, with the long ricochet, the interior slope of such 

 parapet. 



Experiments in ricochet Bring were carried on at Woolwich, in the 

 Liu of June and October, 1821, when a work 100 yards long, and 

 nbling the face of a bastion or ravelin, wae enfiladed in that 

 with iron and brass ordnance of different natures ; the covering 

 owe was eight test high, and its crest was newly on a level with the 

 axes of the guns in the battery. The results were, that with a range 

 equal to 400 yards, and a charge of powder equal to ^ of the weight of 

 the shot, about two-thirds of the number of round* took effect ; at (100 

 yards, with charges varying from 4 to 4 of the weight, from one-third 

 to one-half took effect ; and at 000 yards, with charges from J, to f,, 

 between one-third and two-thirds took effect. It was concluded there- 

 fore that ricochet batteries ought, if possible, to be at a distance vary- 

 ing from 400 to 800 yards from the nearest part of the line of rampart 

 to be enfiladed ; for beyond the Utter distance the effect of the fire is 

 mxwtain The long ricochet, with high 

 or depressions of the guns, may, however, 



in firing from the ramparts of a fortress on the ground in front, 

 against extensive lines of works when the battery is at a much greater 

 distance. 



It appears from the experiments ab**e-mentioned that the best 

 elevations of ordnance for enfilading a work a-ricochet with shot or 

 hells is that in which the axis of the piece is directed at an angle 

 varying from 6' to V above a line drawn from the chamber of the gun 

 or howiUer to the erest of the parapet over which the projectile is to 

 PM. It is stated that of 170 shells filled with powder which were 

 fired, 68 took (fleet, but only 33 burst in the work. Before the 

 traverses were constructed several guns on the work were struck snd 

 rendered useless ; but afterwards, though the traverses were much 

 injured, none of the gun* protected by them wen disabled. 



When employed against troops in the field, ricochet firing is found 

 to be of essential service ; for the shot making on the ground eight or 

 ten grates, it cannot fail at some of these to take effect. In 1757, the 

 King of Prussia had several six-inch mortars mounted on travelling 

 carnage*; and from these he caused shells to be thrown a-ricochet, in 

 an obbqne direction, against the enemy'* line, which it immediately 



sance e eec o e re s 



charges and small elevations 



r, be advantageously employed 



ess on the ground in front, or 



put in great disorder. 

 Ricochet fi 



firing, when first 

 not being prepared with mea 

 immediately a strong i 



employed in sieges, from the defenders 

 to diminish its destructive effects, pro- 

 pression of its power ; and the opinion 



n of its power ; and the opinion 



of it* superiority to the direct mode of firing has continued to prevail 

 from the time of Vauban to the pressnt day, though the service of 

 artillery ia now so precise, that when the guns in an enemy's work can 

 be seen, they can be as readily dismounted by the latter mode ss by 



the ricochet. It ought also to be remembered that before the latter 

 can be usefully employed, the parapets, traverses, or blindages which 

 cover the artillery of a fortress must be ruined by other means ; and 

 it may reasonably be concluded that the rapid reduction, or the most 

 protracted defence of a place, will always be owing to a judicious com- 

 bination of the different modes in which, according to the circum- 

 stances, artillery can be used during the siege. [SiEOE.] 



Though it has been stated that with Mr. Whitworth'a rifle guu some 

 very good ricochet practice has been made, it is very doubtful whether 

 rifle cannon can be employed for this purpose, as from the rotation of 

 the shot it is deflected immensely on striking the ground. In fact, 

 this is one of the disadvantages of rifle guns. 



RIFLE, or RIFLED, a term applied to muskets or pieces of ord- 

 nance when their bores are furrowed with spiral grooves. It is 

 probably derived from an Anglo-Saxon word signifying to rive or tear ; 

 the grooves or channels being formed by a machine which scrapes 

 away the substance of the barrel interiorly in parallel and spiral 

 directions. 



It is not precisely known at what time rifled barrels were first 

 employed in warfare, but P. Daniel states (' Hist, de la Milice Fran- 

 caiae,' liv, vi.) that the carabiniern of the French cavalry were 

 furnished with such arms ; he also observes that they had been 

 invented long before the time at which he wrote, and that he had seen 

 them used before that class of troops was formed into a regiment. 

 This circumstance took place in 1692, and we may therefore conclude 

 that rifled arms were known on the continent about the middle of the 

 17th century. The historian describes the carabines rnytei, as he 

 calls them, as being grooved in a circular manner along the whole of 

 the barrel ; and he asserts that the range of the balls fired from them 

 was very considerable. Rifled arms do not appear to have been intro- 

 duced in the British service till the time of the American Revolu- 

 tionary war. 



It is sometimes asserted that grooved barrels were introduced by 

 Oaspard Zollner of Vienna, in 1498, but these grooves were parallel to 

 the axis of the piece, and were only intended to take off the foulness 

 of the discharge and assist in loading. It may accidentally have been 

 discovered that by mlcing the grooves spiral, greater accuracy was 

 obtained. It is also asserted that elongated projectiles were fired from 

 rifles many years ago, as, for instance, it is stated that Hamilton of 

 Bothwell-haugh shot the regent Murray with a cylinclro-conical bullet. 

 But it is difficult to determine this with any certainty. Under the 

 head of QVMNERY the effect of the rotation of a projectile has been in- 

 vestigated, and it is there shown that, except when the axis of rotation 

 ia coincident with the line of flight, or speaking more correctly as the 

 trajectory is a curve, except when the axis is tangential to the trajec- 

 tory, the effect of rotation on a projectile passing through the air is to 

 deflect it more or less from the direction in which it is projected. 

 This effect is due to the fact of the surface of the projectile being more 

 or lees rough, and to the atmosphere being more condensed in front 

 than behind it from its high velocity. But it not the direct result, 

 if we may so term it, of the greater friction in front than behind the 

 centre of gravity, as is often erroneously stated, and this the experi- 

 ments of Professor Magnus of Berlin have shown. Indeed, the direct 

 effect of this friction would be to deflect the ball in exactly the 

 opposite direction to what in practice is found to be the case. A ball, 

 for instance, rotating on a vertical axis, when the anterior surface is 

 moving from right to left, would, the air being mro condensed before 

 than behind, meet with a great resistance to rotation from the friction 

 of the air in front, which would not be counter-balanced by an equal 

 resistance in the opposite direction behind ; but as the rotation in 

 front is from right to left, this resistance would in effect tend to 

 deflect the centre of gravity from left to right. Now in practice it is 

 found that a rotation from right to left deflects the ball to the' left, 

 so that it is evident that some other force must be called into action 

 which overcomes this direct effect of friction. Now one half of the 

 ball, supposing it to be cut into two hemispheres by the plane of the 

 trajectory, is rotating with, and the other half in a contrary direction to, 

 it* motion of translation, and the surface of the ball not being perfectly 

 smooth, the air is assisted in rushing past the former hemisphere, 

 while it is retarded in passing the latter, and becomes more condensed. 

 The experiments of Professor Magnus, in which a current of air was 

 thrown on a rotating cylinder, clearly showed by an arrangement of 

 vanes, which it is unnecessary to explain here, that the rotating 

 cylinder caused a current in the air in contact with it, in the direction 

 >f tl>" rotation which, where it met the current thrown on it by the 

 blowing fan, produced a greater pressure of the air on that portion of 

 the cylinder : that is, where the latter current was moving in an 

 opposite direction to the former. Returning again to the ball rotating 

 from right to left, this will account for a greater pressure on the right 

 ride than on the left, tending to deflect the ball to the left, and this 

 cause of deflection in found to overcome the tendency before spoken of 

 to deflect it to tlie right. The fiyt. 1 and 2 on the accompanying 

 diagram may make this clearer. The motion of rotation is in both cases 

 indicated by the arrow on the circumference, the motion of translation 

 by the arrow in the circle. Fi;/. 1 gives the resultant direction from 

 friction only ; fy. 2 shows the condensation of air In. MI tli. i .\>< nrrentu 

 meeting. It is most probable that the velocity of rotation is not so 

 rapidly destroyed a* the velocity of translation, which will account for 



