190 ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF GUNNERY. 



ascertained fact, and has, consequently, been laid aside as 

 that which need never again be questioned. It has become 

 so intimately associated with the science of gunnery, that 

 the attempt to substitute another theory, to assign another 

 law of force, may be deemed by many the wandering of an 

 erratic mind, or the presumption of an ignorant man. But 

 the general acceptance of a theory is no proof that it is the 

 most true and most perfect that will ever be presented ; nor 

 is it any evidence of a want of reverence for such men as 

 Robins and Hutton, that we believe and assert that no indi- 

 vidual is without error or has attained the whole truth ; that 

 no authority, however great, should determine and settle 

 every principle in philosophy. 



" The theory of recoil, as at present established, has, no 

 doubt, formed the groundwork for the belief of many who, 

 unfortunately, in making their calculations, make no allow- 

 ance whatever for the friction alluded to in the formula, 

 nor for other causes of retardation. Military experiments, 

 which were carried on in the United States on a large scale, 

 have proved, that * by increasing the charge of powder beyond 

 one-third of the weight of the shot, the recoil is increased 

 in a much higher ratio than the initial velocity of the shot.' 

 The results of experiments with the gun-pendulum have also 

 been found to be frequently at variance with those obtained 

 from the ballistic pendulum ; and these variations I have 

 found increased more and more as the distance was increased 

 from the gun. Indeed, the great difficulty of hitting the 

 ballistic pendulum fairly in the centre at long ranges has 

 rendered that mode of carrying on experiments next to im- 

 possible. There are, however, other methods of conducting 

 experiments, by which, with collateral evidence, great addi- 

 tional light may be thrown on the subject in question. 



" The cause of all motion is the presence of force in the 

 moving body. The degree of the effect is in proportion to 

 the cause j in other words, add to, or take from, the force in 

 action upon given matter, and the quantity of motion is 

 changed proportionally. A certain quantity of gunpowder 

 contains a certain amount of force ; the question then is, how 

 can we employ that force so as to obtain the greatest bene- 

 ficial result from it ? The explosion or force of gunpowder 



