136 Experiments to determine 



And this weight turned into atmospheres, in the man- 

 ner above described, gives 54,750 atmospheres for the 

 measure of the force which must have been exerted by 

 the elastic fluid in bursting the barrel. But this force, 

 enormous as it may appear, must still fall short of the 

 real initial force of the elastic fluid generated in the 

 combustion of gunpowder, before it has begun to ex- 

 pand ; for it is more than probable that the barrel was in 

 fact burst before the generated elastic fluid had exerted all 

 its force, or that this fluid would have been able to have 

 burst a barrel still stronger than that used in the experi- 

 ment. But I wave these speculations in order to hasten 

 to more interesting and more satisfactory investigations. 



Passing over in silence a considerable number of pro- 

 miscuous experiments, which, having nothing particularly 

 remarkable in their results, could throw no new light 

 upon the subject, I shall proceed immediately to give an 

 account of a regular set of experiments, undertaken with 

 a view to the discovery of certain determined facts, and 

 prosecuted with unremitting perseverance. 



These experiments were made by my directions, under 

 the immediate care of Mr. Reichenbach, commandant 

 of the corps of artificers in the Elector's military service, 

 and of Count Spreti, first lieutenant in the regiment of 

 artillery. 



Though I was prevented, by ill-health, from being 

 actually present at all these experiments, yet being at 

 hand, and having every day, and almost every hour, 

 regular reports of the progress that was made in them, 

 and of everything extraordinary that happened, the 

 experiments may be said, with great truth, to have been 

 made under my immediate direction ; and as the two 

 gentlemen by whom I was assisted were not only every 



