BARRELS. 19 



two feet eight inches, or forty-four diameters, at Mr. 

 Manton's iron door, against one of three feet, and 

 there will probably be no difference. But go out in 

 an open field, and particularly on a windy day, with 

 the two feet eight inch barrel, and try it at sixty 

 yards, and after the shot have gone about two-thirds 

 of the distance, they will begin to open in oblique 

 directions, where the three feet barrel keeps the shot 

 together. For instance : Take a funnel (or a paper 

 cut triangularly like one) four inches in diameter : 

 pin up a sheet of brown paper, and stand at three or 

 four yards from it. Then look along either edge of 

 the funnel, and you will see how very wide a cylinder 

 thus relieved carries the outer parts of its circle 

 beyond the paper. Then take a funnel of the same 

 diameter eight inches deep, and you will see how 

 much more of the funnel is filled with the paper. 



Now, as guns must be relieved in order to shoot 

 well, I take all this in the extreme, the more clearly 

 to demonstrate why length has the advantage at long 

 distances. But, on the other hand, go almost close 

 to the paper, the short funnel will lay the whole of 

 its circle within it ; and the long one can do no more, 

 and, therefore, at this distance you give no trial. So 

 it is with barrels that are tried in a gunmaker's yard, 

 and at the usual distances. Moreover, the extreme 

 friction that is absolutely required to send a charge 

 strong has the effect of scattering and recoiling so 

 much in a short barrel, that a certain sacrifice of 

 power must be made. But in a long barrel, which 



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