Voiv. 6, 1920 
PHYSICS: A. G. WEBSTER 
649 
explosions in the bomb at constant volume, but we shall here show how 
all the properties may be determined by experiments in the gun alone. 
It is customary among ballisticians to make many more or less crude 
hypotheses, and it is even denied that it is possible to apply the strict 
principles of thermodynamics to the gun as a heat-engine. It shall be 
our endeavor to show that this is not the case, and to relieve the subject 
from some of the approximations that have usuall}^ been made. The 
latest and most distinguished writers upon this subject are General Char- 
bonnier and his pupil Sugot, both members of the celebrated Commission 
de Gavre (the latter its chief engineer) from which emanated al) the knowl- 
edge of ballistics that was used during the war, not only for the French 
army but for ours. 
