PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 613 



by the Minie ball, instead of being small openings as by the 

 ordinary ball, were elongated rents. 



Captain Bartlett attributed that effect to the size and shape of 

 the ball, and not to any deviation of the point before it struck. 



The President stated that, several years since, a rifle was 

 ordered to be manufactured by the War Department, called the 

 Lyman gun, with three successive charges and explosions. Ex- 

 periment showed that an inch ball was fired through sixty inches 

 of hard wood, and that the range was four miles. One of these 

 guns burst at the first charge. The results of modern science in 

 warfare seemed to be that the strongest and most available 

 force must conquer at last, and that with comparatively little 

 bloodshed. 



Mr, Nash remarked that if Major Anderson had had 300 more 

 men in the fort and had been supplied with shell, his garrison 

 could have resisted for an indefinite period all the forces that 

 South Carolina could bring to bear. The idea that the world 

 was coming to an end because bloodhounds bayed was ridiculous. 

 God does not interfere with battles at all. When the ship Con- 

 stitution was built of the toughest oak that ever grew on the 

 sterile granite hills of New England, and was mounted with the 

 largest guns that had ever before been used for the same amount 

 of tonnage, and so arranged that five of these guns could con- 

 centrate at a certain distance and all hit a target the size of a 

 hat, it was no wonder that she whipped the Guerriere. Timber 

 and gunnery won the battle. 



The President adverted to the fact that chemists were now 

 directing their attention to the purification of metals by new 

 combinations. As regards iron, the Franklinite of this country 

 was acknowledged to be the best in the world. 



Captain Bartlett considered that there had been a great mis- 

 take made by our government a few years ago in ordering six 

 ships, built at a cost of about $1,200,000 each. Twenty-four 

 small ships with a few guns on each, would now be able to line 

 and blockade the whole southern coast. A vessel with the 

 highest speed and the longest range of guns would whip anything. 



Mr. Butler inquired if the covering or packing of General 

 James' projectile was any larger in proportion than the patch of 

 a rifle ball. 



Captain Bartlett — Plardly as large. 



[Am. Inst.J QQ 



