116 Chins and Projectiles. 



hundreds of yards, provided it was ma.de to revolve with suf- 

 ficient velocity about its long axis all the time. So successful 

 were the Swiss in applying these principles, that, as Mr. 

 "Wilkinson showed in an able pamphlet published in 1822, they 

 could put twenty bullets in succession into a target ten inches 

 square, and 200 yards off, and at 800 paces they put forty bullets 

 into a target fifty-five inches square. At 1000 paces, on a 

 calm day, 100 bullets in succession struck a target eight feet 

 six inches square* 



Qui" Government, from its unfortunate antagonism to science, 

 was, of course, one of the latest in the field, atid then, after an 

 expensive blunder with the so-called " Minie pattern/'' it 

 adopted the Enfield, an immense advance on the former rifle, 

 but constructed in defiance of the principles thoroughly estab- 

 lished by scientific experimenters. The faults of the Enfield 

 rifle were, and are, its feeble power of spinning a long pro- 

 jectile, and the consequent necessity for using one of a clumsy 

 shape that moves like a cart-horse, and in a course needlessly 

 elevated above the ground. 



Mr. Whitworth — that great master of accuracy in things 

 mechanical — soon after turning his attention to the subject, 

 produced the most perfect rifle yet seen. As might have been 

 expected from his extraordinary talent in devising the best 

 mode of ensuring a close approximation to mathematical truth 

 in workmanship, he is able to produce uniformity of excellence 

 to a wonderful extent. As stated in Sir Emerson Tenncnt's 

 work, the principle of Mr. Whitworth's success " was found to 

 consist in an improved system of rifling, a turn in the spiral 

 four times greater than the Enfield rifle ; a bore, in diameter, 

 one-fifth less ; an elongated projectile of a mechanical fit ; and 

 last, but not least, a more refined process of manufacture.^ 

 In the Enfield rifle " the spiral course to be traversed by the 

 bullet makes one torn round the interior of the barrel in ad- 

 vancing six and a half feet ; but this moderate degree admits 

 only of the use of short projectiles, as long ones turn over on 

 issuing from the muzzle, and short ones become unsteady at 



•mat ranges. Mr. Whitworth adopted with his reduced 

 bore one turn in twenty inches, which he found ample for 

 securing a comparatively steady Sight over a range of 2000 

 yards." 



Mr. Y/liitworth's rilling is commonly described as hexago- 

 nal ; but, as Sir Emerson Tenneni says, this is scarcely correct. 

 " He converts the entire inner surface of the barrel into some- 

 thing approaching a hexagon, leaving in the middle of each 

 division of the plane surface a small curved portion coincident 



* Jinny wrili-rs confound llio Swiss military rifle witli that employed in village 

 I -hooting, which is not constructed for long range. 



