EVOLUTION OF GUNS AND RIFLES 
the end of the eighteenth century. The arrangement of two barrels side 
by side is to be found in a very few seventeenth -century weapons. Double 
guns for sporting purposes were, however, a novelty as late as 1789. 
They soon came into general use, although, like other improvements, 
they did not commend themselves to all of the older generation. Their 
production coincides with the period at which English gunmakers began 
to come to the front, and their popularization is attributed to Joseph 
Manton, of Davies Street, the best gunmaker of the beginning of the 
nineteenth century. 
An improvement at this period was the patent breech, invented by 
Henry Nock in 1787. Hitherto a plain plug with a flat face had been screwed 
into the breech end of the barrel. Nock’s patent breech was longer and had 
in it a thimble-like chamber of diameter less than that of the barrel, and 
designed to contain the powder charge. A hole communicating with the 
touch -hole entered the chamber at the rear end. This form of breech was 
designed to make the combustion of the powder more rapid and effective; 
it was also considered to diminish the accumulation of fouling in the barrel. 
A further improvement was effected by Joseph Manton, who, instead 
of a deep chamber, formed in the face of the false breech a hemispherical 
cup of the full width of the barrel. Another improvement of his was to 
cut away a part of the solid portion of the breech so as to shorten the 
length of the touch -hole, and at the same time to enable the locks of the 
double gun to be brought closer together, thus removing a chief element 
of clumsiness in the double gun. That most sporting of parsons, the Rev. 
W. B. Daniel, tells us in his “Rural Sports ” that the joining of the two 
barrels was commonly effected by filing away half the thickness of each at 
the breech end, and then soldering them together. This weakened the 
barrels but reduced the over-all width of the gun; Manton’s device enabled 
the full amount of metal to be retained in each barrel without loss of com- 
pactness. Having so joined them, Manton inserted a rib, to fill the 
greater part of the groove between the barrels; he also, by elevating it at 
the breech, made it serve the purpose of a sight, throwing the charge 
fully up to the line of aim. To these improvements he added another. 
It had become customary in best quality guns to inlay the edges of the 
touch -hole and to line the inside of the pan with gold, to save the iron 
from the damage caused by the powder. Manton was the first to sub- 
stitute platinum for the gold, a metal harder and much more proof against 
such damage. John Manton, of Dover Street, made guns only next in 
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