97 
R I F 
It is necessary, however, to notice in this place, that the 
principle of the rifle-musket has been applied to the forma¬ 
tion of calm on. 
The first attempt of this kind was made by Dr. Lind, and 
Capt. Alexander Blair, of the 69th regiment, in 1774. The 
pieces are of cast iron, and are not bored like the common 
cannon, but have the rifles moulded on their core, after 
which they are cleaned out, and furnished with the proper 
instruments. 
Guns of this description, which are intended for the field, 
ought never to be made to carry a ball of above one or two 
pounds weight at most; a leaden bullet of that weight being 
sufficient to destroy either man or horse. A pound gun of 
this description, of good metal, need not weigh above an 
hundred weight, and its carriage about another hundred, 
and may therefore be easily transported from place to place 
by a few men, and a couple of good horses may transport 
six of these guns and their carriages, if put into a cart. But 
for other purposes, in which a greater momentum is neces¬ 
sary, there is nothing to prevent them being made of the 
usual calibre. 
The following are the dimensions that have been recom¬ 
mended for these kinds of cannon. The length of the gun 
being divided into seven equal parts, the length of the first 
reinforce is two of these parts; the second reinforce 1 
of the diameter of the calibre; the chase diameter of the 
calibre. The distance of the hind part of the base ring to 
the beginning of the bore is calibre. The trunnions are 
each one calibre in length, and the same in breadth; their 
centres are placed ^ths of the length of the gun from the 
hind part of the base ring, in such a manner, that the axis 
of the trunnions pass through, the centre line of the bore, 
which prevents the gun from kicking, and breaking its car¬ 
riage. The length of the cascable is lp! of a calibre. 
The calibre of the gun being divided into 16 equal parts; 
then 
The thickness of metal from the base ring to the"! jg ^ 
bore, is .. J 
At the end of the first reinforce ... 17 
At the same place for the beginning of the second! yj 
reinforce. J 
At the end of the second reinforce .. 15 
At the same place for the beginning of the chase... 13.75 
At the end of the chase, or muzzle, the mouldings"! g 
excluded .. J 
At the swelling of the muzzle. 12 
At the muzzle fillet...... ...... 9.5 
At the extreme moulding..... 8 
Base ring ...... 5.5 
Ogee next the base ring ... 5.5 
The astragal, or half round.. 4.75 
Its fillet.... 1 
Total astragal and fillets at the vent-field .......... 4 
First reinforce ring. 4.5 
Second reinforce ring... 3.5 
Its ogee.... . 3 
Its astragal.. 1.5 
And its fillet... 1 
The muzzle, astragal and fillet. 4 
Breadth of the fillet at the base ring. 1 
Distance of the fillet at the button from the fillet at"! - 
the base ring .... ...... J 
Breadth of the fillet at the button. 1 
Diameter of the fillet at the button. 18 
Distance of the centre of the button from its fillet.. 12 
Diameter of the button........................ 18 
Diameter of its neck ... 10.5 
The vent should be placed about half an inch from the 
bottom of the chamber or bore, that the cartridge may be 
pricked, lest some of the bottom of the cartridges should be 
Vol. XXII. No. 1487. 
L E. 
left when the gun is sponged, which might retard the firing 
till the ball be again drawn, which is very difficult in pieces 
of this kind. 
The rifles in this gun make one spiral turn in the length of 
the bore, but go no nearer to the breech, in their full size, 
than two calibres, and terminate in a gentle slope in half a 
calibre more, so as not to prevent the cartridge, with the 
powder, from being easily sent home to the bottom of the 
gun, which would otherwise constantly happen with the 
flannel cartridges, and even sometimes with paper ones, if 
not made to enter very loosely. The shape of the rifles is 
semicircular, their breadth being equal to the diameter, 
which is jj.ths of the calibre, and their depth -ths of a 
calibre. The bullets are of lead, having six nobs cast on 
them, to fit the rifles of the gun; and being thus made of 
soft metal, they do do not injure the rifles. 
Rifle ordnance, however, of any calibre, might be made 
to carry iron shot for battering, or for other purposes; pro¬ 
vided holes, that are a little wider at their bottoms than at 
their upper parts, be cast in a zone round the ball, for re¬ 
ceiving afterwards leaden knobs to fit the rifles of the cannon; 
by which means the iron shot will have its intended line of 
direction preserved without injuring the rifles more than if 
the whole ball was of lead, the rotatory motion round its 
axis, or the line of its direction, which corrects the aberra¬ 
tion, being communicated to it by the leaden knobs follow¬ 
ing the spiral turn of the rifles in their progress out of the 
gun. It is particularly to be observed, that the balls must 
be made to go easily down into the piece, so that the car¬ 
tridge with the powder, and the bullet, may be both sent 
home together with a single push of the hand, without any 
wadding above either the powder or the ball, by which 
means the gun is quickly loaded, and the ball flies farther 
than when it is forcibly driven into the gun, as was found 
from many experiments. The only reason why, in com¬ 
mon rifle muskets, the bullets are forcibly rammed in, is, 
that the zone of the ball which is contiguous to the inside of 
the bore, may have the figure of the rifles impressed upon it, 
in such a manner, as to become part of a male screw, ex¬ 
actly fitting the indents of the rifle, which is not at all neces¬ 
sary in the present case, the figure of the rifles being, in the 
first instance, cast upon the ball. These knobs retard the 
flight of the ball in some degree, but this small disadvantage 
is fully counterbalanced by the ease with which the gun is 
loaded, its service being nearly as quick as that of a com¬ 
mon field-piece, and the retardation and quantity of the 
whirling motion which is communicated to the bullet being 
constantly the same, it will not in the least affect the experi¬ 
ments made with them, in order to determine the resistance 
of the air. 
The French, during the last war, made experiments on 
rifle ordnance of a different kind to that above explained; in 
which, in fact, the gun is of the usual form, the principal 
difference being in the nature and form of the ball, which 
M. Guyton (who has given an account of these experiments 
in vol. vii. of the National Institute of France) calls bu/lets 
a bague de plomb. In form they are cylindrico-spherical, 
the cylindric part being'next the charge. A rim of lead is 
fixed round the centre of the ball, rather exceeding the bore 
of the gun, which is cut off by the edge of the muzzle, in 
introducing the ball into the piece, whereby all the advan¬ 
tages of the rifle are obtained, although the rotatory motion 
above described, and which is supposed to have so great an 
influence on the direction, has not place in the present in¬ 
stance. According to M. Guyton’s report, the accuracy in 
the rectilinear motion of these balls exceeded any thing before 
known in artillery practice; besides, that although the 
weight of the bullet was nearly double that of a common 
shot of a piece of the same calibre, the range in very few 
instances fell short of the common range, and in some even 
considerably exceeded it. The difficulty and time requisite 
in loading a gun with a ball of this kind, however, are so 
great, as, in our opinion, to render it useless, although it 
seems to have been recommended for adoption, in a few 
2 C particular 
