54 
SHOUT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
That it is unadvisable to leave cartridge in the bore for a single round (especially 
the serge cartridge now in use all over the world) even though there be no sparks, 
is of course evident, as otherwise much fouling and many miss-fires would ensue. 
But the sponge is allowed to be unequal to this duty, as well as to the equally 
important one of searching well the grooving of rifled guns. 
The wadhook. 
I would suggest that the wadhook also is equally unfit. Indeed, throughout 
the service a strong opinion obtains that the wadhook is quite inadequate to 
remove the remains of cartridge in guns, and will not from its form and use seize 
hold of anything that is lying flat, as a piece of serge or silk, or that has not some 
substance, and offers a good deal of resistance, like a junk-wad or a cartridge; but 
for any thin substance lying along the bore it can hardly be considered an efficient 
instrument in the hands of our present gunners. If this seem a bold assertion, I 
would present the following as a proof: I have taken squads, amounting in all to 
150 men, to different guns, and having in their presence put into the bore a piece 
of serge about the size of the palm of the hand, made each man search the gun for 
it with the wadhook in the usual manner ; of the 150, only four men have brought 
it out on the point of the worm ; scraping along the bore I did not permit, for 
that was not searching, and could have been done equally well with the other end 
of the stave. 
There is also presumptive evidence to prove that this failure of the wadhook is 
acknowledged or feared, from the fact that the half-round scraper had to be used 
in experiments with Amiantine cloth and serge prepared with borax (Min. 3604, 
18/11/67), to bring out large quantities and pieces of cartridge. 
I beg to suggest also that it was this inefficiency of the wadhook to show that 
there was anything in a gun, that has more than once originated the idea that half- 
burnt cartridge adhered so firmly to the bore that it could not be detached. 
To obviate these well-known defects in the service sponge and w r adhook, I have 
endeavoured to produce an instrument of such a make, that it shall, if once sent 
home to the bottom of the bore, take away any foreign substance out of the gun 
under any conditions whatever, and thus by one action do the duty of sponge 
and searcher. 
Turlis head brush . 
The principle I have sought to attain, is to enter the bore low-gauge, and with¬ 
draw high-gauge, so as to get behind the piece of serge, or of seizing it, if at the 
bottom of the chamber or breech, and to bring it out, lighted or not, clear of the 
muzzle of the gun. 
By this method I calculate upon keeping the gun clean and free from all sub¬ 
stance that may catch fire at the next round, or foul the gun and cause miss-fire. 
This idea I have brought to work in a brush, made of coir (or bass) let into a 
drum of wood similar to that of the present sponge-head. The bristles are at once 
set backwards and round the drum, so that they have a lay, all in one direction, 
downwards to the left. The effect of these two arrangements is, that in putting 
the brush into the bore, it moves home very easily, being compressible, but when 
home, half a turn to the left sets up the bristles, which being very stiff, seize hold 
of any substance adhering however closely, and the act of withdrawing still more 
sets them erect, till they scrape the whole periphery of the bore, a gentle turn of 
the stave maintaining the bristles set up, the whole time, and keeping in their grip 
