462 THE CENTURY, 



of steam could the proposed ebbing and flowing be 

 effected on a river &quot; twenty feet over/ and be managed 

 by &quot; a child s force,&quot; as in article No. 100. 



58- 



How to make a Piftol to difcharge 

 a dozen times with one loading, and 

 without fo much as once new Pri 

 ming requifite, or to change it out 

 of one hand into the other, or flop 

 ones horfe. 



[An often-discharging Pistol.~\ About the year 1575, 

 a description was given of the operation and advantages 

 of a certain newly invented engine of war, whereby 

 twenty-four bullets could be discharged from one piece 

 at a time. And it appears that at that period there 

 were in the Tower 200 of the engines and 3000 bullets. 

 -Cal. State Papers, Vol. 106. 



About 1580 (?) John the Almain of Walsyngham, 

 recommends one of his countrymen, who had invented 

 an harquebuse, u that shall contain ten balls or pelletes 

 of lead, all the which shall go off, one after another, 

 having once given fire ; so that with one harquebuse 

 one may kill ten thieves or other enemies without 

 recharging.&quot;- - Cal. State Papers, Vol. 146. 



Porta, in his &quot; Natural Magick,&quot; folio, English edi 

 tion, 1658, gives an account, in the 12th Book, how &quot; A 

 brass gun once fired, may discharge ten times.&quot; He 

 says, u It is a new invention, that a great brass-gun, or 

 hand-gun, may discharge 10 or more bullets one after 

 another without intermission. Make a dark powder, 

 such as I used in the precedent part, and fill it thus : 

 First, put in a certain measure of gunpowder, that 



