838 
G U N 
GUN 
GUN 
.peculiar excellence, and the circumstance in i 
which it so eminently surpasses all other in- 
vention:-:, either ancient or modern ; for ns 
to the momentum of these projectiles only, 
tu'nv of the. warkke madi n^s of the an ients 
produced in this' a degree far surpassing that 
of our heaviest cannon-dot or shell > ; but the 
great celerity given to these bodies cannot 
be in the ion -t approached by any other means 
but the {lame of powder. The best means 
<>t pro ring gunpowder is, that of the pendu- 
lum, already described under the article 
Gunnery. "■ 
To recover damaged powder. ' The me- 
thod of the p hvder-'.nerchants is this: they 
put part of the powder on a sail-cloth, to 
which they add an equal weight of what is’ 
really good ; their with a shovel thev mingle 
it well 'together, dry it in the sun, and barrel 
it up, keeping it in a dry and proper place. 
Others again, if it is very bad, restore it 
by moistening it with vinegar, water, urine, or 
brandy ; then they beat it fine, sift it, and 
to every pound of powder add an ounce, or 
an ounce and a half, or two ounces (according 
as it is decayed), of melted nitre ; and after- 
wards these ingredients are to be moistened 
and well mixed, so that no particular sub- 
sfanc e may be discerned : which may be 
known by cutting the mass, ami then they 
granulate it as usual. 
In case the powder is quite spoiled, the 
only thing to be done is to extract the salt- 
petre with water, in the usual way, by boil- 
ing-, filtrating, evaporating, and crystallizing; 
and then, with fresh sulphur and charcoal, to 
make it up afresh. 
Gunpowder, and combustibles, lazes con- 
cerning. No person shall make gunpowder 
but in the regular manufactories established 
at the time of making the stat. 12 Geo. III. 
c. 61. or licensed by the sessions, pursuant to 
certain provisions, under forfeiture %f the 
gunpowder, and 2s. per lb. nor are pestle- 
mills to be used under a similar penalty. 
Only 40 lbs. of powder to be made at one 
time under one pair of stones, except Battle- 
powder, made at Battle and elsewhere in 
Sussex. 
Not more than 40'cwt. to be dried at one 
time in one stove ; and the quantity only 
required for immediate use to be kept in or 
near the place of making, except in brick or 
stone magazines, 50 yards at least from the 
mill. 
Not more than 25 barrels to be carried in 
any land carriage, nor more than 200 barrels 
by water, unless going by sea or coastwise, 
each barrel not to contain more than lOOibs, 
No dealer to keep more than 200lbs. of 
powder, nor any person not a dealer, more 
•than 50lbs. in the cities of London or West- 
minster, or within three miles thereof, or 
within any other city, borough, or market- 
town, or one mile thereof, or within two 
miles of the king’s palaces or magazines, or 
half a mile of any parish-church, on pain of 
forfeiture; and '2s. per lb. except in licensed 
mills, or to the amount of 300 lbs. .for the use 
of collieries, within 200 yards of them. 
GuN-sMfTHERY, the business of a gun- 
smith, or the art of making (ire-arms of the 
smaller sort, as muskets, fowling-pieces, pis- 
tols, &c. The principal part of these instru- 
ments is the barrel, which ought to have the 
following properties: 1. Lightness, that it 
may incommode the persftn who carries it as 
little as possible. 2. Sufficient strength, and 
other properties requisite to prevent its burst- 
ing by a discharge. 3. It ought to be con- 
structed in such a manner as not to recoil 
with violence. And, 4. it ought to be of suf- 
ficient length to carry the shot to as great a 
distance as the force of the powder employed 
is capable of doing. 
The manufacture of fire-arms is now car- 
ried to such a degree of perfection by dif- 
ferent European nations, that it may perhaps 
be justly doubted whether any farther im- 
provement. in the requisites just mentioned 
can be made. For the materials the softest 
iron that can be procured is to be employed, 
l lie best in this country are formed of stubs, 
as they are called, -or old horse-shoe nails ; 
which are procu, ed by gun-smiths from far- 
riers, and from poor people who subsist by 
picking them up on the great roads leading to 
London. These are sold at about ten shil- 
lings per cwt. and 28 pounds are requisite to 
form a single musket-barrel. The method of 
manufacturing them from this material is as 
follows : A hoop of about an inch broad, 
and six or seven inches diameter, is placed in 
a perpendicular situation, and the stubs, pre- 
viously well cleaned, piled up in it with their 
heads outermost on each side, till the hoop is 
quite filled and wedged tight with them. The 
whole then resembles a rough circular cake of 
iron ; which -being heated to a white heat, 
and then strongly hammered, coalesces into 
one-solid lump. The hoop is now removed, 
and the heatings and hammerings repeated 
till the iron is rendered very tough and dose 
in the grain ; when it is drawn out into pieces 
of about 24 inches in length, half an inch or 
more in breadth, and half an inch in thick- 
ness. It is, however, not easy to conceive 
liens-' old stubs can be procured sufficient to 
supply iron for the number of barrels which 
go under this denomination. Nor do we, 
upon any principles of science, see any far- 
ther advantage to be derived from this ma- 
nufacture, than that nail-iron is generally the 
best of iron, and well hammered. 
Four of the pieces, prepared as has been 
described, are required for one barrel ; but 
in the ordinary way a single bar of the best 
soft iron is employed. The workmen begin 
with hammering out this into the form of a 
flat ruler, having its length and breadth pro- 
portioned to the dimensions of the intended 
barrel. By repeated heating and hammering 
this plate is turned round a tempered iron- 
rod called a mandril, the diameter of which 
is considerably smaller than the intended bore 
of the barrel. One of the edges of the plate 
being laid over the other about half an inch, 
the whole is heated and welded by two or 
three inches at a time, hammering it briskly, 
but with moderate strokes, upon an anvil 
which lias a number of semicircular furrows 
in it, adapted to the barrels of different sizes. 
Every time the barrel is withdrawn from the 
lire, the workman strikes it gently against the 
anvil once or twice in an horizontal direction. 
By tliis operation the particles of the metal 
are more perfectly consolidated, and every 
appearance of a seam in the barrel is oblite- 
rated. The mandril being then again intro- 
duced into the cavity of the barrel, the lat- 
ter is very strongly J a umcr'ed upon it in one 
of the semicircular hollows of the anvil, by 
small portions at a time ; the heatings and 
1 
hammerings being repeated until the whole 
barrel has undergone the operation, and its 
parts rendered as perlectly continuous as if 
they had been formed out of a solid piece. 
To effect tins completely, tiiree welding heats 
are necessary when the very best .iron is made 
use of, and a greater number lor the coarser 
kinds. The French workmen imagine that 
by giving the barrel, while in the lire, slight 
horizontal strokes with the hammer, so as to 
communicate a vibratory motion to the iron, 
those particles are thrown off which are in a 
state of f usion, aud cannot easily be convert- 
ed into malleable iron : but considering the 
great number of operations already described 
which the metal lias undergone, w r e can 
scarcely suppose this to be of much conse- 
quence. 
1’lie next operation in forming the barrels 
is the boring ot them, which is done in the 
following manner: Two beams of oak, each 
about six inches in diameter, and six or se- 
ven feet long, arc placed horizontally, and pa- 
rallel to one another ; having each of their 
extremities mortised upon a strong upright 
piece about three feet high, and firmly fixed. 
A space of three or lour inches is left between 
the horizontal pieces, in which a piece of 
wood is made to slide by having at either end 
a tenon let into a groove which runs on the 
inside of each beam throughout its whole 
length. Through this sliding piece a strong 
pin or bolt of iron is driven or screwed in a 
perpendicular direction, having at its upper 
end a round hole large enough to admit the 
breech of the barrel, which is secured in it by 
means of a piece of iron that serves as a wedge, 
and a vertical screw passing through the up- 
per part of the hole. A chain is fastened to a 
staple in one side of the sliding piece which 
runs between the two horizontal beams; and 
passing over a pulley at one end of the ma- 
chine, has a weight hooked on to it. An up- 
right piece of timber is fixed above this pulley 
and between the ends of the beams, having 
its upper end perforated by the axis of an 
iron crank furnished with a square socket ; 
the other axis being supported by the wall, or 
by a strong post, and loaded with a heavy 
wheel of cast iron to gi ve it force. The axes 
of this crank are in a line with the hole in the 
bolt already mentioned. The borer beiiw 
then fixed into the socket of the crank, has 
its other end, previously well oiled, intro- 
duced into the barrel, whose breech part is 
made fast in the hole of the bolt : the chain is 
then carried over tiie pulley, and the weight 
hooked on ; the crank being then turned 
with the hand, the barrel advances as the 
borer cuts its way, till it has passed through 
the whole length. The boring bit consists of 
an iron-rod somewhat longer than the barrel, 
one end of which tits the socket of the crank; 
the other is adapted to a cylindrical piece of 
tempered steel, about an inch and a half in 
length, having its surface cut after the man- 
ner of a perpetual screw, with five or six 
threads, the obliquity ot which is very small. 
The breadth ot the furrows is the same with 
that of the threads, and their depth sufficient 
to let the metal cut by the threads pass 
through them easily. 'Finis the bit gets a 
strong hold of the metal ; and die threads 
being sharp af the edges, scoop out and re- 
move all the inequalities and roughness from 
the inside of the barrel, aud render the cavity 
smooth and equal throughout. A number of 
