326 THE SPORTING RIFLE. 



lead, expanding the outer surface, and thus either filling the 

 grooves of the rifle, or destroying the windage of the musket, 

 as the case may be. The result of this experiment was beyond 

 my calculation : and for musketry, where the stupid regula- 

 tions of the service require three sizes of ball difference for 

 windage, it is most excellent, as remedying this considerable 

 drawback upon the usefulness of the arm as the facility of 

 loading is as great, if not greater, than by the present. As 

 regards its application to rifles, there can be no question of 

 its advantage if there exists any requirement for the ball to- 

 be acted upon by the grooves at all, which I do not think is 

 advantageous in fact, there exists no question." This ball 

 was rejected by the then existing Government as " a com- 

 pound," and lay dormant until Captain Minie invented a plan, 

 of expanding a ball on somewhat the same principle by means 

 of a metal cup, which is sunk into a chamber twice as deep, 



but so arranged that the cup 

 does not project from the base of 

 the bullet. (See fig. 77 a and b.) 

 The former is the French bullet, 

 having three cannelures, the latter 

 being the English pattern with- 

 out them. For a time this in- 

 vention was thought to be of great 



CHBHULATED AND PLAIN Valu6 > alld > ^*g adopted ill the 



CYLINDKO-CONOIDAL BALLS. English service, Mr. Greener laid 

 claim to a compensation, and 



obtained it to the extent of 1000?., although it is quite 

 clear that his bullet in its original form, as tried by the 

 Government officer, differed in many essentials from the 

 pattern afterwards adopted, and particularly in not having 

 the centre of gravity always in front, because he expressly 

 says' that it might be fired either end forward ; and, more- 

 over, the plug being only slightly inserted in the socket, it 

 was liable to be driven home by the ramrod in forcing the 

 bullet down the barrel as soon as this had become foul. 

 Hence, although it certainly contained the germ of the in- 

 vention to a still greater degree than Captain Norton's hollow 

 shell previously invented, it was in a perfectly useless state 

 when discarded by the Government; and, moreover, it was- 



