572 [Assembly 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 

 The Secretary read the following : 



[For the American Institute Mechanic's Club. Extract by H. Meigs from the Mechanics' 

 Magazine, London, Jan. 27, 1856.] 



" THE RIFLE AND THE EXPANDING RIFLE SHOT. 

 "As to the intention of the government (British) for the future, 

 Mr. S. Herbert stated in the House of Commons, that it was 

 resolved to arm the whole of the troops with the Minie rifle, 

 and that they were being issued to them as fast as they could be 

 supplied from the manufactory. 



" More than a year ago Lord Hardinge, Commander-in-Chief, 

 reported to her Majesty the Queen, that I am the original inventor 

 of the elongated exploding rifle shot. His Majesty the Emperor 

 of the French, out of his private purse, presented Capt. Minie 

 with 20,000 francs, for putting an iron cup orculot (bottom) into 

 the hollow base of this shot; and Lord Raglan, as Master General 

 of the Ordnance, prevailed on the British government to give Mr. 

 Pritchett, an intelligent gun maker, a thousand pounds sterling 

 for allowing ray rifle shot to remain as it was, without the addi- 

 tion of the iron cup. J. NORTON." 



" December 23, 1854." 



[Extract from the New Haven Palladium.] 



« We have seen and fired a pistol, recently invented and pa- 

 tented, which bids fair to excel ever)^ thing in that line that has 

 yet been offered to the public attention. 



" It seems to combine all that could be desired in such a 

 weapon. Colt's pistol, compared with it, seems like a distortion, 

 or a clumsy, uncouth, and ridiculous affair for a fire-arm. The 

 volcanic pistol carries a Minie or conical ball, in a rifle barrel, 

 and will put it through a three inch plank at a distance of ninety 

 rods, (say 500 yards.) The receiving tube will hold ten ball 

 cartridges which may be put in it in two seconds. The pistol may 

 be discharged thirty times in fifty seconds, and is so contrived as 

 to be not liable to accidental discharge. There is no priming, no 

 cap, no danger therefore to the eye, no recoil, to disturb a true 

 aim. It is so simple that it cannot get out of order, even in long 



