574 [Assembly 



Captain Minie's ball is not the best, for the reason that after 

 nine or ten discharges the barrel of the gun becomes clogged with 

 lead, and cannot be loaded without thorough cleaning. The prin- 

 cipal object is to prevent windage, and this has been obtained in 

 a simpler and more advantageous manner by different forms of 

 elongated balls. 



The hollow ball without an iron cap was thought to answ^er the 

 purpose pqually as well, without leading the barrel. 



The elongated ball is better than all when firing at a long 

 range ; the elongated form causes the ball to fly end foremost like 

 an arrow, and to adapt itself to the parabolic curve described by 

 its flight, whereas the round ball does not follow the line of cur- 

 vature, and at the latter part of its course the spiral motion im- 

 parted to it is at right angles to its descent. A new bullet has 

 been patented in England which promises to supercede the minie 

 ball ; it is externally of the form of the minie, and is cast upon a 

 cap of stout metal plate, tinned, the cap being formed upon the 

 principle of a copper cap. The tin and lead unite together. The 

 powder forces out the sides, and the tin plate keeps them in that 

 position, so as to insure perfect rifling. The entire bullet does 

 not exceed the weight of the ordinary round ball. 



The experiments that have been tried at a range varying from 

 two hundred to two thousand yards were perfectly successful; 

 the bulls eye was struck several times at four hundred yards. A 

 correspondent of the Tribune reports that there is now in the 

 hands of more than fifteen thousand of the French army a gun 

 which is loaded with a balle-a-tige, with which a well practiced 

 soldier will hit a man thirteen hundred yards off. It is of pecu- 

 liar construction, to wit : there is a stout pin three-sixteenths of 

 an inch in diameter, which is screwed into the breech ; upon it 

 the ball strikes when put into the barrel ; this pin is surrounded 

 by powder. A heavy iron ramrod, concave at the end, is used, 

 which strikes down the ball, and causes the pin to enter it, 

 spreading it out on all sides firmly against the walls of the barrel. 

 The same principle is produced in both balls ; the balle-a-tige by 

 slugging, the minie by explosion. The balls both possess precisely 

 the same exterior form and weight. 



