338 



Experiments 

 mule in the 

 span air. 



IMPROVEMENT IN FOWLING PIECES. 



hopes of rendering them more perfect; but not being able 

 to procure the instruments necessary for this purpose, I have 

 resolved to communicate them to the learned, in hopes that 

 these feeble attempts might perhaps induce them to turn 

 their eyes toward this interesting subject, and give us at 

 length a true theory of evaporation. His principiis via ad 

 major a sternitur *.. 



I had intended to add to this paper the experiments on a 

 large scale, which I made ou evaporation with cylindrical 

 vessels full of water, the apertures of which were from 

 three inches to eleven in diameter, and the height of 

 which varied from eleven inches to eighteen. These 

 vessels were placed in the open air in my garden, and 

 buried within three lines of their apertures, at a little dis- 

 tance from each other. It was from these experiments I 

 inferred evaporation to be proportionate to the surface of 

 the water in contact with the air. I would also publish a 

 journal kept for several months, to compare the evapora- 

 tion that took place in the open air, and in a large vessel, 



room. I mention it, however, to show, that I have not 

 always operated on confined air. 



IV. 



Remarks on the Construction of Fowling-pieces, pointing out 

 Methods, by which they may be made to throio Shot very 

 close, and the contrary. In a Letter from a Corres- 

 pondent. 



To W. NICHOLSON, Esq. 

 SIR, 



Improvement JL HE following circumstance led me to take into considera- 

 a fowlingpiece. t»on the construction of fowlingpieces, and to make what 

 I conceive to be a useful improvement in that part, which is 

 called the breech. Meeting by chance with an old foreign 

 made gun barrel, of a construction that accorded much with 

 my fancy, I purchased it, and determined to have it fitted 

 up (first having tried it at a mark two or three times). 



* Is. Newtoni Tract, de Quadrat. Curvarum, ad calcem. 



I then 



