THE EOYAL AKTILLEKY INSTITUTION. 
241 
All chamber loaders* are fired by means of an ordinary percussion cap 
and can be loaded with ammunition suitable for muzzle loading cap guns. 
If, however, they are loaded with loose powder, the time occupied in loading 
is considerable, and various cartridges have been devised to expedite the 
loading, but this is the greatest difficulty that such arms have to contend 
with. The requirements of the cartridge are that it shall be so thin that 
the fire from a cap will pierce it and reach the powder. It must be 
entirely consumed by the discharge so that no burning residue is left in the 
chamber, and it must be strong enough to stand the wear and tear of carriage 
and handling. 
On the whole, gut skin cartridges appear to be most suitable for this kind 
of rifle, but it is questionable whether they can ever be made in large 
quantities of sufficient strength to stand the rough usage of military 
service. 
Chamber loaders as a rule take longer to load and fire than other breech¬ 
loading rifles, and are unlikely on this account to be adopted as military 
weapons by any country. 
In the breech loader proper the barrel and chamber are in one piece, 
The most convenient division into two classes appears to be : (1) Those 
in which the charge is fired by percussion cap, and (2) those adapted for a 
cartridge carrying its own means of ignition. 
Those of the first class differ among themselves in the manner in which 
the breech is closed, and in the mechanical arrangement for closing it. 
Some trust entirely to the accurate fit of the breech stopper, as in the 
case of Sharpens rifle; others, for example, Westley Richards',use a greased 
wad which driven forcibly back by the explosion expands and effectually 
closes the joint, Chassepot, and many others, close the breech with a plunger 
on which there is a washer of india-rubber or soft metal which is forced to 
expand laterally by the pressure of the gas on the face of the plunger, and 
thus completely fills the barrel and prevents leakage. 
The innumerable mechanical arrangements, levers moving sideways, 
upwards, downwards, forward, and back, plugs and plungers of all kinds, 
scarcely admit of classification, although the efficiency of a rifle is in a great 
measure due to their excellence and simplicity. 
The whole of this class as well as the chamber loaders may be dismissed 
as inapplicable as military arms for the future, the prevailing opinion now 
being that for this purpose the greatest rapidity of fire possible is to be 
sought, for, a qualification which belongs only to rifles in which the cartridge 
carries its own igniter. 
The simplest classification of rifles adapted for cartridges carrying their 
own principle of ignition, is to consider them with reference to the par¬ 
ticular nature of cartridge employed. 
The most numerous class will include nearly all American breech loaders, 
and a few belonging to this country adapted for the copper cartridge which 
carries the fulminate in a rim at the base. This cartridge has been adopted 
* There is at present an exception to this statement. The Storm rifle has been modified so as to' 
be applicable for a central fire copper cartridge of peculiar construction. 
