70 Experiments upon Gunpowder. 



The barrel may be made of gun-metal, or of cast-iron, 

 as that is a cheaper commodity ; but great care must 

 be taken, in boring it, to make the cylinder perfectly 

 straight and smooth, as well as to preserve the proper 

 dimensions. Of whatever metal the barrel is made, it 

 ought to weigh at least 50 Ibs., in order that the velocity 

 of the recoil may not be too great ; and the rods by 

 which it is suspended should be five feet in length. 

 The vent may be about one twentieth of an inch in 

 diameter; and it should be bouched or lined with gold, 

 in the same manner as the touchhole is made in the 

 better kind of fowling-pieces, in order that its dimen- 

 sions may not be increased by repeated firing. 



The bullets should be made to fit the bore with very 

 little windage; and it would be better if they were all 

 cast in the same mould and of the same parcel of lead, 

 as in that case their weights and dimensions would be 

 more accurately the same, and the experiments would of 

 course be more conclusive. 



The stated charge of powder may be half an ounce, 

 and it should always be put up in a cartridge of very 

 fine paper ; and after the piece is loaded it should be 

 primed with other powder, first taking care to prick the 

 cartridge by thrusting a priming-wire down the vent. 



As it appears, from several experiments made on pur- 

 pose to ascertain the fact, that ramming the powder more 

 or less has a very sensible effect to increase or diminish 

 the force of the charge, to prevent any inaccuracies that 

 might arise from that cause, a ramrod such as is repre- 

 sented Fig. 15 may be made use of. It is to be made 

 of a cylindrical piece of wood in the same manner as 

 ramrods in general are made, but with the addition of a 

 ring, C, about one inch and a half or two inches in 



