STAINING BARRELS. 421 



time of a human being, and what made the transaction still 

 more unholy was, the full knowledge, on the part of the traders, 

 that the io;norant and degraded barterer in his own flesh and 

 blood, would soon pay the penalty of his wickedness in the loss 

 of a portion of his hand, if not his life, by the bursting of his 

 ill-gotten prize. 



Notwithstanding the parliamentary enactments for the govern- 

 ment of this important department, great frauds, as before stated, 

 still continue to be practised upon the public, and more par- 

 ticularly upon the foreign consumers. 



If all the gun-barrels that come to our country were properly 

 tested on the other side, we would not so often hear of the 

 bursting of guns and the distressing accidents consequent upon 

 these mishaps. The fact is, the London and Birmingham 

 proof-marks are not only forged in England, but they are even 

 imitated in Germany; and large quantities of the latter trash, 

 even f^ir worse than the worst English, is imported into our 

 country, and may be bought at almost any price ranging from 

 five to fifteen dollars, for a double-barrelled gun of quite respect- 

 able appearance, and warranted in good faith by the ignorant 

 dealers a regular stub-twist. 



Greener gives a proof scale of charges by which every bar- 

 rel should be tested at the established proof-houses, and also 

 furnishes a complete description of the whole business, all of 

 which is quite interesting and instructive. All the respectable 

 Gun-makers of America test their gun-barrels themselves, be- 

 fore they make them up for their customers. 



The London proof-house requires that double-barrelled guns 

 be joined together and breeched before testing, so that the Gun- 

 smith may be prevented from making them weaker by filing 

 and brazing after the proof is stamped on them. 



STAINING BARRELS. 



There are a great many recipes for the staining of gun-bar- 

 rels ; the basis of all, however, is the action of acids on the 

 metal. The following is given by Greener as au excellent mix- 

 ture for this purpose. We have not tried it, but doubt not 

 that it will give entire satisfaction : — 



