THE PERCUSSION SYSTEM. 335 



the recoil in practice with artillery. He means, 

 that no advantage is gained by stopping at three 

 feet a gun accustomed to recoil to the distance of 

 six. The statement is perfectly true. If he were 

 to allow a gun to recoil only an inch, and then 

 strike against a solid substance, he would gain 

 nothing. For if it recoil ever so little, the shoot- 

 ing force is as much weakened as if it recoiled twice 

 as far. 



" To increase that force, a steady fixed resist- 

 ance is required. The velocity of the projectile 

 depends on the force of the immediate impulse. 

 Before a gun, suffered to recoil, could rebound from 

 striking some solid substance in its recoil, the 

 oharge would be gone, and could, therefore, receive 

 no additional impetus from that rebound. The 

 truth of this fact may be illustrated by throwing a 

 hand-ball against any loose body with sufficient 

 force to displace it. However hard or elastic that 

 body might be, the ball would not rebound from it, 

 but would fall perpendicularly down. Fix and 

 secure that same body, and then the ball will re- 

 bound with little less force than that with which it 

 was thrown against it. So it is with gunpowder. 

 If it meet with a firm resistance, it will rebound 

 and project the ball or shot with additional force." 



THE LOCK THE PERCUSSION SYSTEM TRIGGERS 



WADDING AMMUNITION, &C. 



The flint-and-steel lock, like the matchlock, has 

 had its day ; and the one is as likely as the other 

 to supersede the detonator. There were some 



