448 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



dent to every one of the least thought that a certain charge of 

 powder would have a very different effect upon a gun of this kind 

 than it would on one constructed upon the principle of an ordinary 

 fowling-piece, which has the weight of metal in the breech nicely 

 harmonizing with the length and calibre of the weapon. 



The experiments therefore cannot hold good in the one case as 

 in the other; because, when the powder is exploded in the large 

 gun, (such as used by Commodore Stockton,) the greatest pressure, 

 as before stated, in this as well as in all other fire-arms, is at 

 the point of ignition, the breeches. Now, the breeches, or that 

 portion of the barrel surrounding the chambers in the experimental 

 guns, were exactly of the same size as the other parts of the 

 barrel; and consequently, if the gun contained at any time suf- 

 ficient powder to burst it, it would necessarily be burst at the point 

 where the greatest pressure was exerted, and that of course would 

 be at the breech, as already admitted. Again, when the ball is 

 rammed home and the powder exploded, the force of the shock 

 would of course be more confined to the breech than if the ball 

 was far up the barrel. Moreover, the force expended on the breech 

 at the instant of explosion under these circumstances that is, with 

 a regular home-charge would be necessarily greater than that 

 generated at the same point if the ball was not directly on the 

 powder, for the ample reason that in the latter case there would be 

 less positive resistance for the powder to overcome 'at the moment 

 of ignition, owing to the absence of the ball from its ordinary 

 position. The shock of the explosion would also be somewhat 

 modified, in consequence of its first and most powerful effects 

 having been exerted at the moment of combustion at the breech, 

 and subsequently to a certain extent expended during the passage 

 along the space intervening between the chamber of the gun and 

 the point where the ball was impacted in the barrel. At this 

 point the propelling fluid, we grant, would necessarily meet with a 

 sudden check to its farther progress towards the muzzle, in conse- 

 quence of the mechanical obstruction presented by the wedged 

 ball. This check, however, would not produce, possibly, a shock 



