Popular Science Monthly 

 Firing Bullets from a Slot at the 

 End of a Shotgun 



FROM the time British sportsmen 

 learned that hitting flying things was 

 entirely possible, there has been a hundred 

 years of endeavor to make a shotgun 

 fire its shot charges more compactly, to 

 the end that the density of the "pattern" 

 be sufl!icient to insure hits even at very 

 long range. 



Now comes an inventor with a 

 device to make a shotgun spread 

 its charge even more than the 

 normal "cylinder" barrel, and 

 not only to make it spread, but 

 to produce a spread of a certain 

 shape so as to increase the chances 

 for a hit. 



For war usage/ this inventor 

 has produced for the shotgun, a 

 muzzle flattened horizontally, until it is 

 nothing more than a slot of a width equal 

 to the diameter of the buckshot to be 

 used; and of course running horizontally 

 as the gun is held by the shooter. The 

 result, says the inventor, is a "pattern," 

 made with twelve buckshot, fourteen 

 inches high by eight feet wide at a 

 distance of thirty yards. In other words, 

 at this range the gun shoots a horizontal 

 line of round bullets, not one of which is 

 higher or lower than seven inches from 

 the average, all traveling in a "line of 

 skirmishers," eight feet wide. Were 

 men charging the 

 trench at yard 

 intervals, which is 

 not now true, three 

 or four of them 

 would be hit with 

 a bullet each. 

 The device can be 

 applied to cannon 

 also, the load being 

 changed to a charge 

 of loose leaden bul- 

 lets and the muzzle 

 flattened out to 

 allow them to pass 

 out in a horizontal 

 line only. 



For game shoot- 

 ing, what is needed 

 is a Httle lever for 

 quickly changing 

 the horizontal po- 



107 



de is flattened out so that 

 the bullets issue in a horizontal line 



sition to a vertical one. Where the 

 crossing duck or quail would have to 

 run the gauntlet of a shot charge spread 

 out, say, fifteen feet from east to west, the 

 walked up game, rising suddenly, or the 

 soaring duck, would call for a vertical 

 position of the flattened muzzle. 



A cobblestone fireplace with a brick 

 chimney built into the wall of the 

 veranda is an attractive innovation 



An Open Fireplace On the 

 Veranda — What Next? 



N Los Angeles, Cal., the 

 hottest day is followed by a 

 cool evening. Hence the open- 

 air fireplace is not so incongru- 

 ous as it seems. It has been 

 built into the cor- 

 ner of the veranda, 

 the low walls of 

 which are of cob- 

 blestones. The 

 fireplace itself is of 

 the same construc- 

 tion, with a brick 

 chimney extending 

 high enough into 

 the air to conduct 

 the smoke cloud- 

 ward. 



Here on cool 

 evenings a bright 

 log fire is built, 

 which makes it 

 possible for the res- 

 idents to enjoy the 

 out-of-doors. 



