18 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
The guns were placed at a distance of 30 ft. from the pendulum, and 
fired with a shot of 6TO9 lbs, and charges of 1*5 lbs. and 2*0 lbs. 
The velocities were as follows :— 
1-5 lbs. 
2-0 lbs. 
ft. 
ft. 
Sir Thomas Bloomfield’s. 
. 1451*7 . 
. 1676 
Sir William Congreve’s . 
. 1439*8 .... 
. 1616 
Long gun. 
. 1497*3 . 
. 1761 
These results were decisive, and proved that Sir William Congreve was 
mistaken in his theory. Two rounds were, however, fired from 24-prs. 
of the same construction, with a charge of 4 lbs., and shot of 24*875 lbs.; 
the velocities were,— 
ft. 
Sir William Congreve’s . 1242*5 
Long service gun.... t . 1292*6 
Distance of gun from pendulum, 46 feet. 
Probably this is the first experiment which was ever made with large 
guns and a ballistic pendulum. 
Several other experiments were carried on by Dr Gregory by means 
of this pendulum, and it was finally removed from the Royal Arsenal in 
the year 1836, and placed in the Royal Military Repository, where it now 
exists. 
I regret that want of space does not permit my giving a detailed account 
of these experiments; they embraced velocities with 6, 12, 18, and 24 lbs. 
shot. 
An abridged account may be found in “Annales de Chimie et de 
Physique/’ tome 5, 1817; tome 9, 1818; and in M. Dupuis’ work on the 
“ Military force of Britain.” 
In 1820, ballistic pendulums of cast-iron were constructed in Prance, 
but they were not found to answer in consequence of the tendency of the 
projectile to split and rebound. A core of lead was then tried, with not 
much better success. This had been previously tried by Hutton, who found 
it not to answer; vide Tract 34, sect. 46. 
In 1836, MM. Morin and Piobert constructed a pendulum for the 
experiments at Metz, which contained many improvements. 
This instrument was used with projectiles of large calibre. It is fully 
described in General Didion’s “ Traite de Balistique.” 
{To he continued')i 
