178 APPENDIX. 



altliougii large manufactories can bs carried on with greater advan- 

 tage in the coimtry, in cii'cnmstances where moderate abihtv is 

 requii-ed, and many hands used, and machinery can also be called 

 into play upon the same terms, yet superior manual dexterity will 

 always overcome the difference of dearness of hving and present 

 itself where there is and ever must be the greatest^ mart, and most • 

 continued as well as highest bidders for it ; to wit, in that place : 

 where the manufactm-e to be produced is in the highest credit and 

 perfection. And as these two will, therefore, contmue to operate 

 upon each other, the demand for guns, and the perfection of their 

 manufacture, will draw the best workmen, and they will agaia pro- 

 duce the most perfect gims : and London will thus continue the 

 best mart for the buyer as well as the seller, until some other city 

 spring up, where the purchasers of the article become more 

 numerous, and the talents of the workmen more appreciated." 



THE RIELE. 



The following statements are interesting to sportsmen at the 

 present moment : — 



I have made many experiments, and thought a good deal, by way 

 of ascertainuig the best calibre for answering the particular or 

 gejieral purposes to which the rifle may be apphed. We all know 

 that the resistance of the air is the chief obstacle which projected 

 bodies have to encounter. It is so very great, that the range of 

 projected spheres is more regulated by the degree of this resistance 

 than by the velocity they receive from the powder, — the iacreased 

 velocity of the ball being met by a geometrically increased ratio of 

 atmospheric resistance. The larger bullets, therefore, having less 

 surface in proportion to their mass, are, proportionately, much less 

 resisted ; so that the flights of the larger exceed those of the lesser, 

 in more than the proportion of their respective diameters. Eor in- 

 tance,_a thirty-two pound shot, whose diameter is about sis inches^ 



ill, with even a less proportionate charge of powder, and at an 

 equal elevation, range half as far again as a nine pound, whose dia- 

 meter is four inches. The proportion which the surface of a sphere 

 bears to its mass, increasing in a geometrical ratio to the decrease 

 of its diameter — ^the smaller the sphere, the greater is the propor- 

 tionate resistance it meets with in its flight. At length, we find 

 that small particles of the heaviest metals, becoming, as it were, 

 nearly all surface, ^vill actually float in the atmosphere, or remain 

 suspended for a considerable time in the hghtest fluids. Hence it 

 is, tliat from the same piece, and with a similar charge of powder, 

 wc shah find that the range of an ounce of bird-shot will regularly 

 extend with the increased size of the shot employed, until, in pro- 



