6 0 
early accounts. In various subsequent reports, however, it 
was stated that fragments of the fore part of the gun were 
blown about in all directions. So that the gun, instead of 
having simply broken in two, must have burst like a shell 
in front of the first shoulder. This fact placed the pheno- 
mena in an altogether different light. The explosive burst- 
ing of the zone of the gun into fragments implied an 
enormous excess of pressure at this point of the gun. 
In order to cause the tube of the gun to burst longitudi- 
nally at all would require several times the normal pressure, 
and the breaking up of the wrought-iron tube into fragments 
would show that the force was largely in excess of what 
was necessary to burst it. 
After seeing these reports it appeared certain that the gun 
had been subjected, at the point of rupture, to a pressure 
enormously excessive, and the question became, whence 
could such a pressure have arisen ? To me it appeared that 
nothing short of such an action as might, with a detonating 
fuse, result from the explosion of gun cotton or dynamite 
would explain the breaking of the gun into fragments. 
Had the shot become jammed the pressure might have been 
raised sufficiently to burst the gun, but with pebble powder 
even this seemed doubtful, and such an action seemed alto- 
gether inadequate to explain the breaking of the gun into 
fragments. It appeared, therefore, that there was but one 
conclusion to be drawn — there had been something abnor- 
mal in the loading. Had the gun been loaded with small 
grained powder, gun cotton, or dynamite, instead of pebble 
powder, such a result might have been produced; but then, 
the gun would, if it had burst, have burst at the breach 
unless the shot had slipped forward, and that there should 
have been two accidents appeared highly improbable. Be- 
sides, it was necessary to consider what sort of a mistake 
was most likely to have occurred; and the only possible 
mistake that could have been made on the spot appeared to 
be that of double loading. 
