Mr.  hutton  on  the  initial  Velocities , See.  5 r 
foon  tranflated  into  feveral  of  the  languages  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  the  famous  Mr.  l.  euleb  honoured  it  with 
a very  extenfive  commentary  in  his  tranflation  of  it  into 
the  German  language.  That  part  of  it  hath  always  been 
particularly  admired  which  relates  to  the  experimental 
method  of  afeertaining  the  aftual  velocities  of  llrot,  and 
in  imitation  of  which  were  made  the  experiments  re- 
lated in  this  paper.  Experiments  in  the  manner  of  Mr. 
robins  were  generally  repeated  by  his  commentators 
and  others,  with  univerfal  fatisfaftion,  the  method  being 
fo  juft  in  theory,  fo  fimple  in  practice,  and  altogether  fo 
ingenious,  that  it  immediately  gave  the  fulleft  convic- 
tion of  its  excellence,  and  of  the  abilities  of  its  author. 
The  ufe  which  that  gentleman  made  of  this  invention 
was,  to  obtain  the  actual  velocities  of  bullets  experi- 
mentally, in  order  to  compare  them  with  thofe  which  he 
computed  a priori  from  his  new  theory,  and  thereby  to 
verify  the  principles  on  which  it  is  founded.  The  fuc- 
cefs  was  fully  anfwerable  to  his  expectations,  and  left  no 
doubt  of  the  truth  of  his  theory,  when  applied  to  fuch 
pieces  and  bullets  as  he  had  ufed : but  thefe  were  very 
fmall,  being  only  mufket.  balls  of  about  one  ounce 
weight;  for,  on  account  of  the  great  fize  of  the  ma- 
chinery neceffary  for  fuch  experiments,  Mr.  robins  and 
other  ingenious  gentlemen  had  not  ventured  to  extend 
H 2 their 
