Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 219 



steamers for crossing the ocean came into use. 

 The compound engine was in use on the Great 

 Lakes before 1850, but salt-water owners refused 

 to adopt it until after 1870. Ericsson made a 

 practical screw propeller before 1840, and men-o'- 

 war used it within five years; but the merchant- 

 ship owners were building side-wheel Atlantic 

 liners until after 1860. The gun that could be 

 fired from the shoulder to throw a bomb into a 

 whale was to come into universal use only after 

 the whaling business had died down to a small 

 fraction of what it was when the gun was intro- 

 duced. 



The muzzle-loading gun described in the Nan- 

 tucket paper is now known as the Brand gun, 

 and it is still popular on Cape Cod, though about 

 as much out of date as the hand lance. Three 

 sizes have been in use in the fishery, the bore 

 being from seven-eighths of an inch to an inch and 

 a quarter in diameter, and the weight of the gun 

 from 23 pounds down to 18. The charge of 

 powder was but three drams. C. C. Brand of 

 Norwich, Connecticut, was the inventor of the old 

 smooth-bore shoulder gun. 



