the Force of fired Gunpowder. 275 
set of experiments ; the results of which, it must be confessed, 
were still more various, extraordinary, and inexplicable. 
The machinery having been repaired and put in order, the 
experiments were recommenced in July, 1793, the weather at 
that time being very hot. 
The principal part of the apparatus, the barrel, had under- 
gone a trifling alteration : upon refitting and cleaning it, the 
diameter of its bore at the muzzle was found to be a little in- 
creased, so that a weight equal to 8081 lbs. avoirdupois, instead 
of being equal to 10977 atmospheres (as was the case in the 
former experiments), was now just equal to the pressure of 
9431 atmospheres. 
Though I was not at Munich when this last set of experi- 
ments was made, they however were undertaken at my request, 
and under my direction, and I have no reason to doubt of their 
having been executed with all possible care. They were all 
made by the same persons who were employed in making the 
first set ; and as these experimenters may be supposed to have 
grown expert in practice, and as they could not possibly have 
had any interest in deceiving me, I cannot suspect the accu- 
racy of their reports. 
MDCCXCVII. 
Oo 
