12 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Table for regulating Striking Velocity by altering the Weight 
of Powder Charge. 
Charge 
Initial velocity 
Charge 
Initial velocity 
Charge 
Initial velocity 
lb3. 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
f. s. A x 
959 + 31 
999 + 29 
1019+ ii 
ioie ! iL 
1071 
1095 I 22 
1117 + 
1137 t 18 
1155 + 1® 
lbs. 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
f. s. A, 
H71 ,,, 
1187 tl5 
1202 + 
1215 ! 12 
1227 + 
1288 + “ 
1248 + o 
1257 + 9 
1266+ g 
lbs. 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
f. s. A t 
1274 4- 8 
1282 + ° 
1290 + ° 
1298+ « 
1306+ « 
1314 + ° 
1322+ 5 
1329+ / 
The following paragraph from the Pall Mall Gazette will 
not form an uninteresting conclusion to my observations : “ In 
the recent great sortie made by the French from Paris, 
General Ducrot brought into action one of those new en- 
gines of destruction to the invention of which the present 
war has given so great an impetus. This is an armour- 
plated locomotive, furnished with two powerful mitrailleurs, 
also protected by armour, and originally intended for the 
railway bridge at Point du Jour, whence it was to throw 
bullets on to the heights of Meudon. This novel machine, 
which weighs altogether only some six tons, has been manu- 
factured at Cail’s, the well-known mechanical engineer of Paris, 
to whose establishment the city is so much indebted for the 
extraordinary efforts that have been made to supply it with 
cannon and other means of defence. The Prussian invasion 
has certainly contributed a great deal to develope the inventive 
talents of the French ; for hardly a day passes without some 
new implement of destruction being submitted to the Govern- 
ment of National Defence. Under the spur of defeat they 
have produced the Marekderberg mitrailleur, firing 250 balls a 
minute, and the Montigny, firing 480 ; as well as the Durant 
steam mitrailleur, which discharges no less than 4,500 in the 
same space of time, and the Faucheuse, or 6 mower,’ which is 
said to operate without noise, smoke, or fire, to have a range of 
from 500 to 600 yards, and to cost only 35/., with all the 
necessary apparatus for firing 300,000 projectiles ; so that, if 
every bullet really had its billet, the French, by employing 
this weapon, might rid themselves of the whole of their enemies 
for something less than 100/. In addition to the above, many 
novel descriptions of shells have also been proposed, if not 
actually tried, among which are the Gaudin fire-bomb, the 
improved Menestrol shell, bombs emitting suffocating vapours, 
and so on.” 
