MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 428 



modified, in consequence of its first and most powerful efiects 

 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 

 €qual to that generated at the first impulse of the burning powder, 

 and therefore could not burst the barrel at this point, if it did 

 not do it at the point of ignition, where the dletal in the ex- 

 perimental guns was no stronger, and the force applied we assume 

 to be much greater. 



This position being correct, the gun would not be so readily burst 

 from an explosion, under these circumstances, as it would if the 

 whole force was exerted upon the one point, as is the case when 

 the ball is rammed home upon the charge; and consequently it 

 would require a larger proportion of powder to develope the same 

 degree of force, without the immediate pressure of the ball, as 

 would be generated if the ball were rammed tight upon the 

 charge. 



This, however, would not be the case with a fowling-piece, for 

 the reason that the barrel being of unequal thickness, and the 

 breech four or five times as heavy as the muzzle and in a propor- 

 tionate degree heavier than all other parts of the barrel as you 

 advance towards the mouth, if a ball therefore become impacted 

 in it, and offer considerable resistance to the escape of the powder, 

 the lateral pressure created by this shock might be more than 

 sufiicient to rend the gun in pieces at this point, when three times 

 the same force would have no effect upon the breech end. 



From the foregoing remarks, therefore, it appears evident to us 

 that it would reqmre far more powder to burst a small gun with a 

 regular home-charge than it would to burst it, if, when set in 

 motion, it should meet with a sudden and powerful resistance any 



