THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
reputation to those of his brother Joseph ; he preferred, however, the flat 
breech, and the breech plugs of his guns were fitted over the outside of 
the barrels instead of inside them. The gun barrels made by the Mantons 
were remarkable in their day for the accuracy with which they were bored; 
this was done by mechanical means instead of merely (as was usual up to 
that time) by hand tools. 
Joseph Manton also invented a method of rifling cannon, the ball being 
fitted in a cup of soft wood which took the rifling and served as wadding. 
He brought his invention to the notice of the authorities in 1791, but after 
some haggling on their part, and attempts made at Woolwich to imitate 
his methods, the negotiations came to nothing, and the matter ended. A 
trial of the system is quoted by Daniel as having been made in the 
presence of the Duke of Richmond in 1791. Of eighteen rounds loaded in 
the ordinary way and fired from a six -pounder at a target 9 feet square, 
330 yards distant, ten only struck the target; of thirty rounds fired with a 
similar gun rifled by Manton and loaded with the wooden cups, twenty- 
nine struck the target, and the thirtieth only missed it by a few inches. 
We can but admire the ingenuity of Joe Manton, whose thirst for invention 
proved fatal to his solvency, but who did so much to raise English gun- 
making to a position of pre-eminence. His epitaph, written by Col. Hawker, 
calls him “ the greatest artist in firearms that ever the world produced,” 
and ” the father and founder of the modern gun-trade.” 
IV 
The reign of the flint lock as the perfect form of ignition lasted until 
well into the nineteenth century. It was probably an English monk 
who invented gunpowder; it was certainly a Scottish minister who secured 
the first successful patent for application of fulminate to igniting the 
charge of powder in a gun. More than one inventor had tried to ignite 
the charge by chlorate of potash or other material exploding when 
struck, but so far all had failed to produce a suitable mixture which 
should be both safe in use and certain in ignition. The Rev. A. J, 
Forsyth, minister of Belhelvie, in Ayrshire, patented his invention in 
April, 1807. His specification detailed the use of fulminating metallic 
compounds such as fulminate of mercury mixed with other substances. 
The principle of ignition was by so closing the touch -hole or vent by 
means of a plug or sliding piece, as to prevent any outward escape, 
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