The History Of The Rifle

Add a subpage to this text

Read the help page for usage.

 

Engels conceived the idea of a work on the history of the rifle in the summer of 1860. Originally, he intended to publish it in the New-York Daily Tribune (see his letter to Marx of August 1, 1860, present edition, Vol. 41). When he began contributing to The Volunteer Journal he carried out his intention by printing his “History of the Rifle” in a series of eight articles. Each article was marked: “By the Author of ‘A German Account of the Newton Review’.” In the spring of 1861 the series was reproduced in the collection Essays Addressed to Volunteers. Engels made slight changes in the text.

On December 20, 1860 Nodal, one of the editors of The Volunteer Journal, wrote to Engels telling him of the impression his articles had produced on Major Preston, a large manufacturer of rifles. Nodal wrote: “I have seen Major Preston today. He is an immense admirer of your ‘History of the Rifle’ “. Part of the seventh article was published in The Army and Navy Gazette, No. LVI, January 26, 1861, under the title “The Whitworth Rifle, from the Volunteer Journal”. (Nodal sent this issue to Engels together with his letter of January 28, 1861.) p. 433

I

The rifle is a German invention, dating as far back as the close of the fifteenth century. The first rifles were made with apparently no other object than to facilitate the loading of the arm with an almost tight-fitting bullet. To this end, the grooves were made straight, without any spiral turning, and merely served to diminish the friction of the bullet in the bore. The bullet itself was surrounded by a piece of greased woollen or linen cloth (the plaster), and was thus hammered down without too much difficulty. These rifles, primitive as they were, must have given far better results than the smooth-bore small arms of the period, with their bullets of considerably smaller diameter than the bore. Later on, the character of the arm was totally altered by the spiral turn given to the grooves, which transformed the bore of the barrel into a sort of female screw; the bullet, by the tight-fitting plaster, being made to follow the grooves, took the spiral turn as well, and thus retained a spiral rotation round its line of flight. It was soon found that this mode of fixing the rotation of the bullet vastly increased number the range and accuracy of the arm, and thus the spiral grooves very soon superseded the straight ones.

This, then, was the kindof rifle which remained in general use for more than two hundred years. If we except hair-triggers and more carefully worked sights, it scarcely underwent any improvement up to 1828. It was greatly superior to the smooth-bore musket in accuracy, but not so very much in range; beyond 400 or 500 yards, it could not be relied upon. At the same time, it was comparatively difficult to load; the hammering down of the bullet was a very tedious operation; the powder and plastered bullet had each to be put separately into the barrel, and not more than one round per minute could be fired. These drawbacks made it unfit for the generality of an army, especially at a time like the eighteenth century, when all battles were decided by the rapid firing of deployed lines. with such tactics, the old smooth-bore musket, with all its glaring imperfections, was still a far preferable arm. Thus we find that the rifle remained the favourite implement of the deer-stalker and chamois-hunter, and that it was used as an exceptional arm of war, for a few battalions of sharpshooters, in such armies only as could recruit these battalions from a sufficient number of trained sportsmen among the population.

The wars of the American and French Revolutions created a great change in tactics. HenceforThextendedorder was introduced in every engagement; the combination of skirmishers with lines or columns became the essential characteristic of modern fighting. The masses, during the greater part of the day, are kept back; they are held in reserve or employed in manoeuvring so as to concentrate on the weak point of the enemy; they are only launched in decisive moments; but, in the meantime, skirmishers and their immediate supports are constantly engaged. The mass of the ammunition is spent by them, and the objects they fire at are seldom larger than the front of a company; in most cases, they have to fire at single men well hidden by covering objects. And yet, the effect of their fire is most important; for every attack is both prepared, and, in the first instance, met by it; they are expected to weaken the resistance of detachments occupying farm houses or villages, as well as to take the edge off the attack of a charging line. Now, with old “Brown Bess, none of these things could be done effectively. Nobody can ever have been under the fire of skirmishers, armed with smooth-bore muskets, without taking home an utter contempt for its efficiency at medium ranges. Still, the rifle in its old shape was not fitted for the mass of skirmishers. The old rifle, in order to facilitate the forcing down of the bullet, must be short, so short that it was but a poor handle to a bayonet; consequently, riflemen were used in such positions only when they were safe against an attack with the bayonet, or by cavalry.

Under these circumstances, the problem at once presented itself: to invent a gun which should combine the range and accuracy of the rifle, with the rapidity and ease of loading, and with the length of barrel of the smooth-bore musket; an arm, which is at the same time a rifle and a handy arm of war, fit to be placed into the hands of every infantry soldier.

Thus we see that with the very introduction of skirmishing into modern tactics, arose the demand for such an improved arm of war. In the nineteenth century, whenever a demand for a thing arises, and that demand be justified by the circumstances of the case, it is sure to be supplied. It was supplied in this case. Almost all improvements in small arms made since 1828 tended to supply it.

Before, however, we attempt to give an account of those improvements which have created such great and numerous changes in rifled fire-arms, by dropping the old system of forcing the bullet home, we may be allowed to cast a glance at the attempts made to improve the rifle while maintaining the old methodof loading.

The rifle with oval bore which is known in England as the Lancaster rifle, has been in use on the Continent for more than forty years. We find it mentioned in a German military book printed in 1818. In Brunswick, Colonel Berner improved it and had the whole infantry of that duchy armed with it in 1832. The ovality was but slight, and the oval bullet was forced home in the old fashion. This oval bullet, however, was to be used in skirmishing only. For volley firing, the men were provided with spherical bullets of smaller calibre, which rolled down the barrel quite as easy as any musket ball. Still, the inconveniences of this system are obvious. It is merely remarkable as the first instance of giving rifled muskets to the whole of the infantry in any one army.

In Switzerland, a civil engineer andofficer of rifles, M. Wild, improved the rifle considerably. His bullet was smaller in proportion to the bore than usual, and was made to take the rifling by means of the plaster only; a disk on the ramrod prevented it from entering the bore too deep, and thus driving the bullet so close on the charge that the powder got crushed; the spirality of the grooves was reduced and the charge increased. Wild’s rifle gave very good results up to above 500 yards, with a very flat trajectory; besides, it allowedof more than 100 shots being fired without fouling. It was adopted in Switzerland, Württemberg, and Baden, but is now, of course, antiquated and relinquished.

The most modern and the best rifle constructed upon the forcing principle is the new Swiss sharpshooters’ regulation rifle. This arm has adopted the American principle of a very small calibre; its bore is not more than 10.50 millimètres, or 0.42 of an inch. The barrel is but 28 inches long, and has eight flat grooves (one turn in 34 inches). The ramrod is provided with the disk as introduced by Wild. The bullet is cylindro-ogival, and very long; it is forced home by means of a greased plaster. The charge is comparatively strong, andof a very coarse-grained powder.

This arm has shown the most astonishing effects; and in the trial of various rifles recently made by the Dutch Government, its range , accuracy, and lowness of trajectory, were found to be unequalled. In fact, at a range of 600 yards, the highest point of its trajectory is only 8 feet 6 inches, so that the whole of the flight, at that range , is dangerous space for cavalry, and that even for infantry the last 100 yards of the trajectory are dangerous space; in other words, an error in judging distance of 100 yards, at 600 yards range , would not prevent the bullet from hitting an object six feet high. This is a result far surpassing that of any other rifled musket; the very best of them require an elevation, which raises the highest points of the trajectory, for 600 yards, to 13 to 20 feet, and reduces the dangerous space to from 60 to 25 yards. This extraordinary flatness of trajectory is produced by the small calibre of the arm, which admits of a very elongated bolt-shaped shot, an dof a comparatively powerful charge; with a small bore, the rifle may be made very strong, without being clumsy, the shot may be long, without being heavy, and the charge may be powerful, relatively, without producing too severe a recoil. It is certain that the forced loading has nothing to do with the admirable shooting of the arm; indeed, it forms its only drawback, and prevents it from being used as the general arm of infantry.

The Swiss have, therefore, restrained it to their companies of sharpshooters, in whose hands, no doubt, it will answer uncommonly well. We shall next show how the rifle came to be made into a weapon fit to be placed into the hands of every infantry soldier.

II

Delvigne, a French officer, was the originator of the first attempt to make the rifle a weapon fit for general infantry use. He saw clearly that to do this, the bullet must slip down the barrel as easy, or nearly so, as the bullet of a smooth-bore musket, and be made , afterwards, to change its shape so as to enter into the grooves.

To obtain this end, he constructed, as early as 1828, a rifle with a chamber at the breech; that is to say, the extreme end of the bore at the breech, where the powder lies, was made of considerably smaller diameter than the remaining part of the barrel. This chamber was adopted from howitzers and mortars which had always been so constructed; but while, in ordnance, it merely served to keep well together the small charges used for mortars and howitzers, it answered quite a different purpose in Delvigne’s rifle. The powder having been dropped down into the chamber, the bullet, smaller than the bore, was made to roll down after it; but, arrivedon the edge of the chamber, it could not pass any further, and remained supportedon it; and a few smart blows with the ramrod were sufficient to force the soft leadof the bullet sideways into the grooves, and to enlarge its diameter so much that it fitted tight in the barrel.

The greatest inconvenience in this system was, that the bullet lost its spherical shape, and became somewhat flattened, in consequence of which it was apt to lose the lateral rotation impressed upon it by the grooves, which impaired its precision considerably. To remedy this, Delvigne invented elongated shot (cylindro-conical), and although the experiments with this kindof shot were not, at first, very successful in France, it answered very well in Belgium, Austria, and Sardinia, in which countries Delvigne’s rifle, with various improvements, was given to the Chasseur battalions insteadof the old rifle. Although his rifle is at present almost everywhere superseded, Delvigne’s improvements embrace the two great principles on which all succeeding inventors have been obliged to rely. Firstly, that in muzzle-loading rifles, the shot must go down with a certain windage, so as to admit of easy loading, and must change its shape, so as to enter the grooves, only after it has been rammed home; and secondly, that elongated shot are the only projectiles adapted for modern rifles. Delvigne thus at once put the question on its proper footing, and fully deserves the name of the father of the modern rifle.

The advantages of elongated shot over spherical bullets are numerous, so long as their lateral rotation (around its longitudinal axis) can be secured to the former, which is accomplished in a satisfactory manner by almost every modern rifle. The elongated shot offers a far smaller section, in proportion to its weight, to the resistance of the atmosphere than the spherical bullet. Its point can be so shaped as to reduce that resistance to a minimum. Like a bolt or an arrow, it is to a certain degree supported by the air below it. The consequence is, that it loses far less of its initial velocity by the resistance of the air, and that, consequently, it will % reach a given distance with a far lower trajectory (that is to say, with a line of flight far more dangerous to the enemy) than any round shot of the same diameter.

Another advantage is, that the elongated shot offers a far greater surface of contact to the sides of the barrel than the round shot. This makes the former take the rifling far better, and therefore admits of a reduced pitch of the rifling as well as of a reduced depth of groove. Both these circumstances facilitate the cleaning of the arm, and at the same time permit the use of full charges without increasing the recoil of the gun.

And finally, as the weight of the elongated shot is so much greater than that of the round bullet, it follows that the calibre, or diameter of bore, of the gun can be considerably reduced, while it still remains capable of firing a projectile equal in weight to the old round bullet. Now, if the weight of the old smooth-bore musket and that of its bullet be considered as the standard weights, a rifle for elongated shot of this weight can be made stronger than the old musket in the same proportion as the bore has been reduced, and it will still not exceed the weight of the old musket. The gun being stronger, it will stand the charge so much the better; it will have less recoil, and, consequently, the reduced bore will admit of relatively stronger charges, whereby a greater initial velocity, and, consequently, a lower line of flight will be secured.

The next improvement was made by another French officer, Colonel Thou venin. He clearly perceived the inconvenience of leaving the shot, while being rammed into the grooves, supportedon a circular projection touching its edges. He therefore did away with the edges of the chamber, boring out the whole of the bore to one uniform diameter as heretofore. In the middle of the screw closing the bore, he fixed a short strong steel pin, or peg, which projected into the bore, and around which the powder was to fall; on the blunt top of this peg the shot was to be supported while the ramrod hammered it into the grooves. The advantages of this system were considerable. The expansion of the shot, by the blows of the ramrod, was far more regular than in Delvigne’s rifles. The arm could afford a greater windage, which facilitated loading. The results obtained with it were so satisfactory that, as early as 1846, the French Chasseurs à pied were armed with Thouvenin’s rifles; the Zouaves andother light African infantry followed; and as it was found that the old smooth-bore muskets could, with little expense, be transformed into Thouvenin’s rifles, the carbines of the French foot-artillery were all altered accordingly. The Prussian rifles were armed with Thouvenin’s rifle in 1847; those of Bavaria in 1848; and most of the smaller States of Northern Germany followed the example, in some cases arming even portions of the line with this excellent weapon. In all these rifles there is visible a certain approach to unity of system, in spite of all their variations as to calibre, &c; the number of grooves is reduced (mostly to 4), and the pitch generally is from three-quarters of a turn to one turn in the whole length of the barrel. ‘

Still, Thouvenin’s rifle had its drawbacks. The force required to drive, by repeated blows, the leadof the shot, laterally, into the grooves was incompatible with that length of barrel which the common musket of infantry of the line must always have as an effective handle to a bayonet. It was, besides, very difficult for skirmishers, crawling or kneeling, to apply that force. The resistance offered to the explosive force by the shot, jammed as it is in the grooves just in front of the powder, increases the recoil, and thereby restricts the gun to a comparatively small charge. Finally, the peg always remains an undesirable complication of the arm; it renders the cleaning of the space around it very difficult, and is liable to get out of order.

Thus the principle of compressing the shot by blows from the ramrod gave very satisfactory results, for the time being, in the system of Delvigne, and better results, again, in that of Thouvenin. Still it could not assert its superiority, for an arm for general infantry use, over the old smooth-bore gun. Other principles had to be resorted to before a rifle fit for every soldier’s hands could be produced.

Ill

Delvigne, whose rifle we described in the preceding article, found it advisable to hollow out his elongated bullets from the base, in order to reduce their weight to something like that of the old spherical bullet. Though he very soon found that this hollow projectile was incompatible with the system of expanding the shot by mechanical blows, his experiments sufficed to prove to him that the gas developed by the explosion, on entering the cavity formed in the bullet, had a tendency to expand the walls of this hollow portion so as to make the bullet fit the barrel exactly and take the rifling.

It was this discovery which was taken up in 1849 by the then Captain Minié. He did entirely away with the peg or pillar at the bottom of the bore, and restored to the rifle the simplicity which it had possessed before Delvigne and Thouvenin; relying entirely upon the expansive action of the explosion upon the hollow portion of his bullet. «This bullet was cylindro-ogival, with two ring-shaped indentations round the cylindrical portion, and hollowedout conically from the base; a cup-shaped hollow iron plug (culot) closed the hollow portion, and was driven into it by the force of the explosion, thereby effectively expanding the lead. The bullet had sufficient windage to go easily down, even when surrounded by the greased paper cartridge.

Here, then, we have at last a rifle and a bullet constructed upon principles which render it possible to give this arm to every foot soldier. The new arm loads as easily as the smooth-bore musket, and has an effect far superior to that of the old rifle, which it equals in precision, but far exceeds in range. The rifle with expansion bullet is undoubtedly—of all muzzle-loaders—the best arm for general use as well as for sharpshooters, and it is owing to this circumstance that it owes its very great success, its adoption in so many services, and the many attempts that have been made to improve the shape of the shot or the grooving of the rifle. The Minié bullet, in consequence of its being hollowedout, can be made but little heavier than the old round bullet of the same calibre; the bullet lying loose on the powder, and being only gradually expanded as it passes through the barrel, the recoil is far less than with either the oldor the Delvigne and Thouvenin rifles, in every one of which the shot is jammed fast in the barrel, and has to be dislodged by the full force of the explosion; consequently the Minié rifle can apply a relatively stronger charge. The grooves have to be made very shallow, which facilitates the cleaning of the barrel; the length of axis in which one full turn of the grooves is made has to be pretty great, in consequence of which the number of rotations, and also the friction with the air (which takes place at every rotation), is diminished, whereby the initial velocity is better preserved. The hollow base-endof the shot also brings its centre of gravity more forward; and all these circumstances combine to produce a comparatively low trajectory. The general adoption of the Minié rifle was, in fact, owing to another circumstance: That, by a very simple process, all old smooth-bore muskets could be transformed into rifles fit for Minié bullets. When the Crimean war made it desirable, in Prussia, that the whole infantry should at once be armed with rifled muskets, and the requisite number of needle-guns had not yet been manufactured, 300,000 old muskets were rifled and rendered fit for Minié ammunition in less than a year.

The French Government were the first to arm a few battalions with the Minié rifle; but the grooves were progressive, that is to say, they were deeper at the breech than at the muzzle, so that whatever lead had entered the grooves at the breech, was again compressed by the shallowing grooves during its progress through the barrel, while at the same time from within the expanding force of the powder continued to act. Thus such an amount of friction was created that very often the solid point of the shot was torn off and sent out of the barrel while the hollow base-end remained fast in the grooves. This, andother defects, induced the Government to renounce any further attempt to introduce the Minié rifle.

In England, as early as 1851, 28,000 of these rifles were constructed, similar to those tried in France; the bullets were slightly conical, with ogival point, with a round hollow plug, and without indentations, as it was intended to press them. The results were very unsatisfactory, chiefly in consequence of the shape of the bullet; until, in 1852, new experiments were made, from which, finally, the Enfield rifle and bullets proceeded, which will be again alluded to hereafter. The Enfield rifle is but one of the modifications of the Minié. It has, since 1854, definitively superseded all smooth-bore muskets in the British army.

In Belgium, the Minié rifle, with slight alterations, has been adopted since 1854 for riflemen, and latterly for the line also. In Spain, in 1853, the rifles received the Minié, which has since also been given to the line.

In Prussia, in 1855-56, the Minié rifle was provisionally given to the line, as already stated. It has since been completely superseded by the needle-gun.

In the smaller German States, the Minié rifle was also adopted, with very few exceptions.

In Switzerland, the Prélat rifle, destined to arm the whole of the infantry with the exception of the sharpshooters, is but a modification of the Minié.

And in Russia, finally, the Government is just now occupied in replacing the old smooth-bore muskets by Minié rifles of a very good model.

In almost every one of these countries has the number, depth, and pitch of the grooves, and the shape of the bullet, undergone various modifications of detail, to describe the most important of which will be the purport of our next chapter.

IV

We again recapitulate the principle of Minié’s system: A rifled musket, with shallow grooves, is loaded with an elongated bullet, which is so much smaller in diameter than the bore, that it glides down easily. This bullet is hollowedout from its base, that is to say, from the end resting on the powder. On firing, the gas suddenly developed by the explosion enters into this hollow part, and by its pressure against its comparatively thin sides, expands the lead so as to make it fit the bore and enter into the grooves; the bullet, therefore, must follow the turn of these grooves, and retain the lateral rotation characteristic of all rifle bullets. This is the principle, the essential part in all the different rifles firing expansion bullets; and it is common to them all. But in matters of detail, a great many modifications have been made by various inventors.

Minié himself adopted the plug. This plug was a little, round, cup-shaped piece of sheet-iron, driven into the mouth of the hollow part of the bullet. It was intended to be driven deeper into the hollow by the explosion, and thus to assist and render more certain the expansion of the shot. It was, however, soon found that this cup-shaped plug had great inconveniences. It separated very often from the bullet on leaving the muzzle, and in its irregular line of flight it slightly wounded sometimes troops belonging to the firing party and placed a little in advance laterally. It also sometimes turnedover while being driven into the lead, and thus caused an irregular expansion, and thereby a deviation of the shot from the line of aim. As it had been proved that the expansion of the shot might be obtained without any plugs at all, experiments were made to fix the best shape of an expansion bullet without plug. The Prussian Captain Neindorff appears to have been the first to propose such a bullet (in 1852). The hollow of this projectile is cylindrical, but widenedout towards the base, in the shape of a tun-dish. This shot gave very good results as to range and precision, but it was soon found that the plug served another purpose besides expansion—it preserved the thin sides of the hollow shot from getting crushed during transport and rough handling; while Neindorff’s bullets became deformed during transport, and then gave very bad results. In most German services, therefore, the hollow iron plug was maintained, but it was made of a long, pointed, sugar-loaf shape, and then answered very well, never turnedover, and scarcely ever got separated from the leaden shot. The Enfield bullet, as is well known, has a solid wooden plug.

In some States, however, the experiments with bullets without plugs were continued, and such bullets adopted for the service. This was the case in Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Bavaria. The chief object in all these experiments was to fix a shape for the hollow part of the bullet which would prevent crushing while it allowed expansion. Thus the hollow was formed in the shape of a bell (Timmerhans, in Belgium), of a three-sided prism (Nessler, in France), with a cross-shaped section (Plönnies, in Darmstadt), &c. But it appears almost impossible to unite the two elements, solidity and expansibility, in any modification of an expansion shot without a plug, unless the calibre be considerably reduced.

The new Bavarian projectile (Major Podewils’), which has a plain cylindrical hollow, and very strong sides to it, appears, so far, to answer best, but the Bavarian rifle also has a small bore.

In countries where old smooth-bore muskets were rifled for Minié bullets, the large calibre of the old musket became, of course, compulsory. But where entirely new rifles were provided for the army, the calibre was considerably reduced, from considerations to which we have alluded in a former article. The English Enfield rifle has a calibre of 14.68 millimètres, the South-German rifle (adopted in Württemberg, Bavaria, Baden, and Hesse-Darmstadt) of 13.9 mm. The French alone, in their rifles for the guard, retained the calibre of their smooth-bore muskets (17.80 mm.).

The Enfield rifle is a very fair specimen of the expansion system. Its calibre is small enough to admit of a shot twice the length of its diameter, and still not much heavier than the old round musket bullet. Its workmanship is very good, and superior to that of almost all rifles servedout to Continental troops. The bullet has very good proportions; against the wooden plug it is objected that it may either swell, and thereby increase the diameter of the shot, or shrink, and then fall out; but we think these objections futile. If the swelling of the plug presented any inconvenience, it would have been foundout long since; and in case of its shrinking, the make of the cartridge prevents its falling out. The results obtained with the Enfield rifle are about on a par with those of the best Continental expansion rifles.

The objections to the Enfield, as a rifle withexpansion bullets, are these: That the calibre might still be smaller, giving a longer bullet for the same weight and a stronger barrel with the same weight; that five grooves are proved to be better than three; that the barrel of the long Enfield, at least, is too delicate, towards the muzzle, to be used as a handle for a bayonet; that the bullet, from having no ring-shaped indentations, must suffer an enormous amount of friction in the barrel, and thereby runs the risk of having the solid point torn off, while the ring-shaped hollow part sticks fast to the grooves.

To change the calibre is a very serious matter; and without that it will be very difficult to give the muzzle endof the barrel more solidity. This appears to us the most serious objection. All other objections appear unimportant; the number of grooves, and the shape of the bullet may be altered any time without inconvenience; and even as it is, the Enfield has proved itself a very useful arm of war.

We have, so far, compared the Enfield with such rifles only which use expansion bullets; the comparison with rifles based upon different principles we must reserve for a future occasion, when we shall have examined the various other constructions now in use.

V

In 1852, an English gun-maker, Mr. Wilkinson, and an Austrian officer of artillery, Capt. Lorenz, simultaneously, but each independently of the other, invented another methodof making a loose-fitting elongated bullet increase its diameter by the force of the explosion, so as to make it fit the bore closely, and follow the turn of the grooves. This method consisted in making the explosion compress the bullet lengthways insteadof expanding it. Take a soft or elastic ball, place it on a table, and make it fly off with a smart blow of the hand. The first effect of the blow, even before it starts the ball, will be a change in its shape. Light as it is, the weight of the ball offers resistance enough to become flattenedon the side where it receives the blow; it is compressed in one direction, and, consequently, its size must increase in another direction, similar to what it does when you completely flatten it. As the blow acts upon the elastic ball, so is the explosion of the powder expected to act upon the compression bullet of Lorenz and Wilkinson. The weight, the vis inertiae of the bullet is made the means, which, by its resistance to the force of the explosion, compresses the bullet lengthways, and thereby makes it larger sideways; when the shot comes out, it is shorter and thicker than when it was put in.

An elongated bullet of solid lead, in order to offer sufficient resistance, and thus to be sufficiently compressed to take the grooves, would have to be very heavy—in other words, very long in proportion to its thickness. Even with a small calibre such a bullet would be too heavy for war, as the men would be overweighted with ammunition if they carried the usual number of rounds. To remedy this, two very deep ring-shaped indentations are cut into the cylindrical part of the bullet. Take an Enfield bullet, remove the plug, fill the cavity with molten lead, and when cold, cut these two indentations, close to each other and close to the flat end, into the cylindrical part of the projectile, leaving the three remaining portions of the bullet strung, as it were, upon a common axis of solid lead. The bullet will then consist of two very flat truncated cones, pointing forward, andof the heavy solid point, all of which are solidly connected witheach other. This bullet will answer as a compression bullet. The resistance against the explosion will be offered by the heavy fore part or point of the bullet; the headof the rear cone will be driven, by the force of the powder, into the base of the cone in front of it, whose head, again, will be driven into the rear endof the point; and thus the shot, being shortened and compressed in the direction of its length, will be made so much thicker that it closes on all sides to the bore and takes the rifling.

From this it is evident that the solid point is the principal portion of the compression bullet. The longer and heavier it is, the more resistance will it offer, and, consequently, the more certain will be the compressive effect of the explosion. So long as the calibre of the rifle is small, say rather less than the Enfield, it will be possible to make compression bullets not heavier in metal than expansion bullets; but with the calibre grows the surface of the base of the bullet, or in other words the surface exposed to the immediate action of the powder; and this is the cause why, with large calibres, compression bullets will always have to be too heavy to be of any use; otherwise the force of the explosion, by overcoming the resistance of the bullet, would throw it out of the barrel before it had time to become properly compressed. Large calibred, smooth-bore muskets may, therefore, be altered into rifles for expansion shot, but they will never do for compression bullets.

With small calibres and flat grooves, the compression system gives excellent results. The forward position of the centre of gravity is very favourable to a low trajectory. The compression bullet has all the advantages of the expansion system, as far as regards ease and rapidity of loading, and smallness of recoil. The bullet is solid, and can stand transport and roug h usage well enough ; its shape allows of its being pressed, instead of cast. The only drawback is that it requires a very small windage, of not more than about 0-01 of an inch, and a great regularity both in the size of the bores and that of the bullets, as evidently the compressive effect does not increase the circumference of the shot by near as much as the expansive effect; and thus, with a greater windage, or old barrels, it would be doubtful whether the bullet becomes compressed enough to take the rifling. But this small windage is no great objection, as many rifles withexpansion shot have no greater windage (the Enfield, too, for instance, has only 0-01 of an inch), and there is now nodifficulty in constructing both barrels and bullets of very exact and regular dimensions.

The Austrian army has adopted the compression bullet for the whole of the infantry. The calibre is small, 13-9 millimètres, or 0-546 of an inch (0-031 less than the Enfield); the barrel has four very flat grooves (an even number of grooves, though decidedly objectionable in expansion rifles, is found to answer better in compression rifles than an odd number), with one turn in about six feet six inches (almost the same as the Enfield). The bullet weighs about 480 grains (50 grains less than the Enfield), and the charge is l-6th of its weight (with the Enfield, about l-8th of the weight of the bullet). This arm stood its trial in the Italian campaign of 1859, and the great number of French soldiers, and especially officers, who succumbed to it, testify to its excellence. It has a considerably lower trajectory than the Enfield, which is owing to the proportionally stronger charge, to the smaller calibre producing a more elongated shot, and, may be, to the action of the two ring-shaped indentations.

Saxony, Hanover, andone or two small Germa n States have also adopted, for their light infantry, rifles from which compression bullets constructedon Lorenz’s principle are fired.

In Switzerland, besides the sharpshooters’ rifle mentioned before, there has been adopted a rifle of the same calibre (10-51 millimètres or 0-413 of an inch, 0-164 smaller than the Enfield) for compression shot. This rifle is used by the light companies of the infantry battalions. The bullet is on Lorenz’s model, and the results given by this rifle, in lowness of trajectory, range and precision, class it secondonly to the Swiss sharpshooters’ rifle above alluded to, whose bullet, forced home in the old fashion, has the flattest trajectory of any known rifle. At 500 yards, the Swiss compression bullet fired from this rifle gives a dangerous space of 130 yards!

So far, there can be no doubt that the compression-system has given better results than the expansion system, as it has hitherto certainly produced the lower trajectory. It is, however, equally doubtless that this is not owing to the system in itself, but to other causes, among which the smallness of the calibre is the principal one. with an equally small calibre, the expansion bullet must produce as low a line of flight as its hitherto more successful competitor. This will soon be made evident. The rifles of the four States of South-Western Germany (Bavaria, &c.) have the same calibre as those of Austria, so that they may in case of need use Austrian ammunition, and vice versa. But, in adopting the same diameter of bore, they have all of them adopted expansion bullets; and the practice tables of both classes of shot will thus afford a fair test of the merits of either. If, as we expect, the expansion bullet will then give as good results as its competitor, it will deserve the preference; for—1st, it is more certain of taking the rifling, under any circumstances; 2nd, it may be made lighter, with the same bore, than compression shot; and, 3rd, it is less affected by the enlargement of the bore, which takes place in all gun-barrels after having been in use for a certain time.

VI

All the rifles which we have hitherto described, were muzzleloaders. There have been, however, in former times, a great many kinds of fire-arms which were loaded at the breech. Breechloading in cannon preceded muzzle-loading; and most old armouries will contain rifles and pistols two or three hundred years old, with a moveable breech, into which the charge could be introduced without being passed through the barrel by a ramrod. The great difficulty always was to join the moveable breech in such a way to the barrel that it could be easily separated and put on again, and that the mode of fixing it was solid enough to stand the explosion. with the deficient mechanical contrivances of those times, it was no wonder that these two requisites could not be combined. Either the parts fixing the breech on to the barrel were deficient in solidity and durability, or the process of unfixing and re-fixing it was fearfully slow. No wonder, then, that these arms were thrown aside, that muzzle-loading did its work quicker, and that the ramrod ruled supreme.

When, in modern times, military men and gun-makers were bent upon the construction of a fire-arm which should combine the quick and easy loading of the old musket with the range and precision of the rifle, it was natural that breech-loading should again receive attention. with a proper system of fixing the breech, all difficulties were overcome. The shot, a little larger in diameter than the bore, could then be placed, together with the charge, in the breech, andon being pushed forward by the explosion, would press itself through the bore, fill the grooves with its excess of lead, take the rifling, and exclude all possibility of windage. The only difficulty was the mode of fixing the breech. But what was impossible in the 16th and 17th centuries need not be despaired of now.

The great advantages of a breech-loader, supposing that difficulty overcome, are obvious. The time required for loading is considerably reduced. No drawing, turning round, and returning ramrod. One motion opens the breech, another brings the cartridge into its place, a third closes the breech again. A rapid fire of skirmishers, or a quick succession of volleys, so important in many decisive circumstances, are thus secured in a degree which no muzzle-loader can ever equal.

With all muzzle-loaders the art of loading is rendered difficult as soon as the soldier, in skirmishing, is kneeling or laid down behind some covering object. If he keeps behind his shelter he cannot hold his gun in a vertical position, and a great part of his charge will stick on to the sides of the bore while running down; if he holds his gun straight up he has to expose himself. with a breech-loader he can load in any position, even without turning his eye from the enemy, as he can load without looking at his gun. In line, he can load while advancing; pour in volley after volley during the advance, and still arrive upon the enemy with a gun always loaded. The bullet can be of the simplest construction, perfectly solid, and will never run any of the chances by which both compression and expansion shots miss taking the grooves, or experience other unpleasant accidents. The cleaning of the gun is uncommonly facilitated. The chamber, or place where the powder and bullet lie, which is the part always most exposed to fouling, is here laid completely open, and the barrel or tube, open at both ends, can be easily inspected and cleaned to perfection. The parts about the breech being necessarily very heavy, as otherwise they could not withstand the explosion, bring the centre of gravity of the rifle nearer the shoulder, and thereby facilitate a steady aim. We have seen that the only difficulty consisted in the proper closing of the breech. There can be no doubt that this difficulty has now been fully overcome. The number of breech-loaders brought out during the last twenty years is wonderful, and some of them, at least, fulfil all reasonable expectations, number as to the efficiency and solidity of the breech-loading apparatus, and as to the ease and rapidity with which the breech can be fixed and unfixed. As arms of war, however, there are at present only three different systems in use.

The first is the gun now used by the infantry in Sweden and Norway. The breech-loading apparatus appears to be sufficiently handy and solid. The charge is fired by a percussion cap, both cock and piston being at the under side of the chamber piece. Of the practice made by this gun we have not been able to obtain any particulars.

The second is the revolver. The revolver, same as the rifle, is a very old German invention. Centuries ago, pistols with several barrels were made, provided with a revolving apparatus, which, after every shot, made a fresh barrel turn into the position required for the action of the lock upon it. Colonel Colt, in America, again took up the idea. He separated the chambers from the barrels, so that one barrel did for all the revolving chambers, thus making the arm breech-loading. As most of our readers will have handledone of these Colt’s pistols, it will be unnecessary to describe them; besides, the complicated nature of the mechanism would render any detailed account impossible without diagrams. This arm is fired by percussion caps; and the round bullet, rather larger than the bore of the barrel, takes the grooves while being pressed through it. Colt’s invention having become popular, a great number of revolving small-arms have been invented, but only Deane and Adams have really simplified and improved it as an arm of war. Still, the whole thing is extremely complicated, and applicable, for war purposes, to pistols only. But, with a few improvements, this revolver will become a necessity for all cavalry, and for sailors when boarding, while for artillery it will be far more useful than any carbine. As it is, its effects at close quarters are terrible; and not only have the American cavalry been provided with them, but they have also been introduced into the British, American, French, Russian, and other navies.

The Swedish gun, as well as the revolver, is fired from without by common percussion caps. The third class of breech-loaders, the much talked-of Prussian needle-gun, does entirely away with these too; the charge is fired from within.

The needle-gun was invented by a civilian, Mr. Dreyse, of Sömmerda, in Prussia. After having first invented the methodof firing a gun by means of a needle suddenly penetrating an explosive substance fixed in the cartridge, he completed his invention, as early as 1835, by constructing a breech-loader, supplied with this needle-firing apparatus. The Prussian Government at once bought up the secret, and succeeded in keeping it to themselves up to 1848, when it became public; in the meantime they resolved upon giving this arm, in case of war, to all their infantry, and commenced manufacturing needle-guns. At present, the whole infantry of the line, and the greater portion of the Landwehr are armed with it, while all the light cavalry are at this moment receiving breech-loading needle-carbines.

Of the breech-loading mechanism we will only say that it seems to be the simplest, handiest, and most durable of all those that have, so far, been proposed. It has now been tried for years, and the only fault that can be found with it is this, that it does not last quite so long, and will not bear quite so many rounds as the fixed breech of a muzzle-loader. But this is a fault which appears unavoidable in all breech-loaders, and the necessity of renewing, a little sooner than with the old arms, a few pieces of the breech, cannot in any way detract from the great merits of the arm.

The cartridge contains bullet, powder, and the explosive composition, and is placed, unopened, into the chamber, which is slightly wider than the rifled barrel. A simple motion of the hand closes the breech, and at the same time cocks the gun. There is, however, no cock outside. Behind the charge, in a hollow iron cylinder, lies a strong, pointed steel needle, acted upon by a spiral spring. The cocking of the gun consists in merely drawing back, compressing, and holding fast this spring; when the trigger is drawn, it sets the spring loose, which at once sends the needle quickly forward into the cartridge, which it pierces, instantaneously explodes the explosive composition, and thus fires the charge. Thus, loading and firing with this gun consists of five motions only: opening the breech, placing the cartridge in it, closing the breech, presenting, and firing. No wonder that, with such a gun, five well-aimed rounds can be fired in a minute.

The projectiles first used for the needle-gun had a very unfavourable shape, and, consequently, gave a very high trajectory. This defect has been very successfully remedied a short time ago. The shot is now much longer, and has the shape of an acorn taken from its cup. It is of considerably smaller diameter than that of the bore; its rear-end is embedded in a kindof cup, or bottom, of a soft material, so as to give it the requisite thickness. This cup sticks on to the bullet while in the barrel, takes the rifling, and thus gives the shot the lateral rotation, while at the same time it considerably diminishes friction in the barrel, and yet does away with all windage. The practice of the gun has been so much improved thereby, that the same sight, which formerly served for 600 paces (500 yards), now serves for 900 (750 yards); certainly an immense lowering of the trajectory.

Nothing is further from the truth than that the needle-gun is of a very complicated construction. The pieces composing the breech-loading apparatus and the needle-lock are not only far less numerous, but also far stronger than those composing a common percussion-lock, which yet nobody thinks too intricate for war and rough usage. Moreover, while the taking to pieces of a common percussion-lock is an affair requiring considerable time and sundry instruments, a needle-lock can be taken to pieces and refitted in an incredibly short time, and with no other instruments than the soldier’s ten fingers. The only piece liable to break is the needle itself. But every soldier carries a reserve-needle, which he can fit to the lock at once, without having to take it to pieces, and even during an action. We are also informed that Mr. Dreyse has rendered the breaking of the needle a very unlikely thing, by an improvement in the lock, which makes the needle go back to its sheltered position as soon as it has done its work of exploding the charge.

The trajectory of the present Prussian needle-gun will be about the same as that of the Enfield rifle; its calibre is a little larger than that of the Enfield. with a reduction of calibre to that of the Austrian, or better still, the Swiss sharpshooters’ rifle, there is no doubt that it would equal any of these arms in range, precision, and flatness of trajectory, while its otherenormous advantages would remain to it. The breech-loading apparatus could even be made much stronger than at present, and the centre of gravity of the gun would be brought still nearer to the shoulder of the aiming soldier.

The introduction into an army of an arm capable of such rapid firing will necessarily produce many speculations as to what changes this will produce in tactics; especially among people so fondof speculating as the North Germans. There has been no endof controversies on the pretended revolution in tactics which the needle-gun was to produce. The majority of the military public, in Prussia, at last came to the result that no charge could be made against a battalion firing needle-gun volleys in rapid succession, and that consequently it was all up with the bayonet. If this foolish notion had prevailed, the needle-gun would have brought upon the Prussians many a severe defeat. Fortunately, the Italian war proved to all who could see, that the fire from modern rifles is not necessarily so very dangerous to a battalion charging with spirit, and Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia has taken occasion therefrom to remind his comrades that passive defence, if ever so well armed, is always sure of defeat. The tide of military opinion has turned. People again begin to see that men, and not muskets, must win battles; and if any real change in tactics will be made by the new gun, it will be a return to a greater use of deployed lines (where the ground admits of it), and even to that charge in line which, after having won most of the battles of Frederick the Great, had become almost unknown to the Prussian infantry.

VII

Having now passed in review the different systems upon which the various rifles, now in use in European armies, are constructed, we cannot take leave of our subject without saying a few words with respect to a rifle which, although not introduced into any service, enjoys a well-deserved popularity for its astonishing precision at long ranges. We mean, of course, the Whitworth rifle. Mr. Whitworth, if we are not mistaken, claims as original two principles in the construction of his fire-arms—the hexagonal bore and the mechanical fit of the projectile in the bore. The bore, insteadof having a circular, has a hexagonal section throughout, and a very strong pitch or turn, as is shown on the surface of one of the hexagonal bullets. The bullet itself is of a hard metal, fits the bore as nice as possible, and is not expected to alter its shape in consequence of the explosion, as its six corners make it follow the twist of the grooves with unerring certainty. To prevent windage, and to lubricate the bore, a cake or bottom of greasy matter is inserted between the powder and the charge; this grease melts from the heat of the explosion, while travelling, behind the bullet, towards the muzzle.

Now, in spite of the undeniably excellent results which Mr. Whitworth has obtained with his rifle, we believe that this principle is inferior to either that of expansion, or of compression, or of breech-loading with a bullet larger in diameter than the bore. That is to say, we believe that either a rifle for expansionshot, or one for compression-shot, or one constructedon the system of the Prussian needle-gun, would beat a Whitworth rifle if the workmanship was equally good, the calibre equally small, and all other circumstances alike. Mr. Whitworth’s mechanical fit may be ever so nice, he cannot make it as close as the change in the shape of the bullet during and after the explosion makes it. There is in his rifles with hard bullets always that which a rifle is meant radically to avoid, namely, windage and consequent escape of gas; even the melting grease cannot entirely do away with that, especially in a rifle which, from long use, has become a trifle larger in the bore. There is a very distinct limit to all mechanical fit in such a case, and that is, the fit must be loose enough to let the bullet go down easily and quickly, even after a couple of dozen rounds. The consequence is that these hexagonal bullets do fit but loosely, and although we do not know exactly what the amount of windage is, still the fact that they will go down quite easily without any grease and with a piece of paper wrapped round them, makes it probable that it is not much less (if less at all) than that of the Enfield bullet, which is the one-hundredth part of an inch. Mr. Whitworth, in contriving this rifle, seems to have had chiefly two leading ideas: firstly, to do away with all possibility of getting the grooves loaded; and, secondly, to do away with all the accidents which may prevent a cylindrical bullet from taking the rifling— because they prevent eitherexpansion or compression taking place—by adapting the shape of the bore and that of the shot to each other beforehand. The obstruction of the grooves by particles of lead torn off from the bullet may occur in all rifles with soft leaden bullets; the accidents preventing a bullet from taking the grooves in the correct way may occur in either compression or expansion rifles, but not in breech-loaders on the Prussian principle. But neither of these inconveniences is so great that they cannot be overcome, and that, in order to avoid them, the first principle in rifle making should be sacrificed, viz., that the bullet takes the rifling without leaving any windage.

In saying so, we are backed by an excellent authority, namely by Mr. Whitworth himself. We are informed that Mr. Whitworth has dropped his principle of mechanical fit as far as his rifle is concerned, and certain it is that at present most people fire from his rifle not a hard, solid, hexagonal bullet, but a soft, leaden, cylindrical bullet. This bullet is hollowedout at its base similar to the Enfield bullet, but it has no plug; it is very long (the one 480 grains, three times as long as its diameter, the other, 530 grains, three and a half times its diameter), and takes the rifling by the effect of the explosion. Here, then, we have Mr. Whitworth’s principle of mechanical fit entirely abandoned for that of expansion, and the Whitworth rifle turned into a subordinate species of the genus Minié quite as much as the Enfield ever was. Remains the hexagonal bore; and how will that answer for an expansion rifle?

The hexagonal bore has, of course, six grooves, and we have seen that an even number of grooves has been found to answer, for expansion bullets, not so well as an uneven one, as it is not desirable that two grooves should be diametrically opposite to each other. Then the grooves in most expansion-rifles are very shallow—in the Enfield, for instance, scarcely visible. In the hexagon the difference between the diameter of the inner circle (representing the bore at large) and that of the outer circle (drawn through the six corners) is about 2-13ths, or rather less than one-sixth part of the former; or, in other words, the lead has to expand nearly one-sixth of its diameter before it can properly close to the corners of the hexagonal bore. From this it would appear that the hexagonal bore, although exceedingly ingenious for the system of mechanical fit, is about the most unlikely to answer for the system of expansion.

Still it answers, as the results of almost every rifle contest prove. How is this possible, if Mr. Whitworth has abandoned the essential point of his principle, and now applies a principle for which his rifle is not adapted?

First of all, there is the excellence of the workmanship. It is well known that for accuracy in the most minute and even micrometrical details, Mr. Whitworth stands unrivalled. As his engineering tools, so are his rifles; perfect models in the construction of their detail. Look at the sight on the muzzle of his rifles, and at that of any other class! There is no comparison: and in rifles firing at 1,000 yards range, this is an immense advantage.

Secondly, and chiefly: the calibre of the Whitworth rifle is 0.451 of an inch minimum bore (what we have called the inner circle). The Enfield is 0.577; the Swiss sharpshooters’ rifle, which we have more than once mentioned as giving the lowest trajectory known, is 0.413. Now, look at the difference in the shape of the bullet.

The Whitworth expansion bullet of 530 grains is about threeeighths of an inch longer than the Enfield bullet of the same weight; while the former is about three and a half times its own diameter in length, the latter is scarcely twice its own diameter. It is evident that a bullet of the same weight and with the same charge will cut better through the air, that is, give a lower trajectory if it is thin and long, than if it is short and thick. Then, the charge of the Enfield is 68 grains of powder; for the Whitworth, charges of 60, 70, and 80 grains are used, but we have been told by good shots who are in the habit of using this rifle that 80 grains are required to make the bullet expand well and give good results at long ranges. Thus we have a charge for the Whitworth fully one-sixth stronger than for the Enfield, and that charge would act better (even withequal weight), as it explodes in a more confined space and acts upon a far smaller surface of the bullet.

Here, then, we have another specimen of the immense advantage of a small bore, which gives a long, thin, bolt-shaped shot. Whoever of my readers has attentively followedour inquiries into the advantages of the various rifles, will have long since come to the conclusion that the shape of the bullet is of far more importance than the system on which either shot or rifle is designed; and that in order to have a portable soldier’s bullet of the best shape, we must have a small bore. This is the lesson the Whitworth rifle again teaches us.

We may also learn from it that, with a small bore, the long, heavy point of the bullet offers resistance enough to allow the hollow tail end to expand with certainty, and without the assistance of a plug. The Whitworth bullet has but a small cavity at its base, and no plug; it has to expand at least three times as much as any otherexpansion bullet; and still, with 80 grains of powder (which the rifle stands without too much kicking), it does take the rifling quite sufficiently.

That Mr. Whitworth’s rifle will ever become a weapon of war, we very much doubt; indeed, we think the hexagonal bore will soon go out altogether. If volunteers who had become practically convincedof the superior shooting of the Whitworth rifle as compared with the present Enfield, have proposed that they should be armed with the former, they have certainly far overshot the mark. We think it utterly unfair to compare the two species of arms. The Whitworth is an arm of luxury, which costs at least twice as much as the Enfield to produce. In its present state it is too delicate a weapon to be placed into every soldier’s hands; but take, for instance, the delicate sight from the muzzle, replacing it by one fit for rough usage, and its accuracy at long ranges will be considerably diminished. To arm both army and volunteers with the Whitworth, one of two things must be done; either the calibre of the regulation small-arms must remain the same as now, and then a Whitworth, with the bore of the present Enfield, would give far worse results than the present Whitworth, or the bore must be reduced, say to that of the present Whitworth, and then it is probable that an Enfield with that reduced bore, on the making of which as much had been spent as on a Whitworth, would give as goodor better results.

VIII

We conclude with a short recapitulation of the different systems of rifles now in use, andof the principles which we may consider as established with regard to this arm.

The different systems of rifles are as follows: —

1. The system of forcible loading, the tight fitting bullet and plaster being hammered down by strong blows of the ramrod.

This is the oldest plan of making a bullet take the rifling. It has now been almost universally abandoned for arms of war; the principal and very remarkable exception being the new Swiss sharpshooters’ rifle, which has a very small calibre and a long, bolt-shaped shot, and which gives, of all rifles now in use, the lowest trajectory. It is not intended for an arm for the mass of the infantry, but for select bodies only, and requires careful loading in order to give the highly favourable results which distinguish it above all other rifles now known.

2. The system of flattening the loose fitting bullet against some obstacle at the bottom of the breech (either the rim of a narrowing chamber—Delvigne—or a peg placed in the middle of the chamber—Thouvenin) and thus driving it into the grooves. This plan, for a time very generally favoured, is now becoming more or less superseded by the following systems. Let us observe, at the same time, that it requires a rather large calibre, as otherwise the chamber becomes too narrow.

3. The system of expansion, the loose fitting, elongated shot being hollowedout from the base, and the gas created by the explosion entering into the cavity and blowing it up, so to say, to a sufficient degree to make the bullet fit the bore and take the rifling. This system now is in general favour, and is still capable of great improvement, as has latterly been shown by the excellent result which Mr. Whitworth obtained with his rifle since he adopted the principle of expansion.

4. The system of compression, in which the same result is obtained by providing the bullets with deep, circular indentations, which allow the explosive force, while opposed by the weight of the heavy fore part of the projectile, to compress it lengthways, and thereby give it the required increase of diameter. This plan, although evidently less safe than the expansion principle, has given excellent results with small calibres, as has been proved in Austria and Switzerland. Still, the compression-bullet, fired from the Swiss sharpshooters’ rifle above alluded to, does not give quite as good results as the tight-fitting plaster bullet from the same arm.

5. The breech-loading system, which has advantages of its own over all other systems of rifles in the mode of loading and firing, offers, at the same time, the greatest certainty of the bullet taking the rifling, as the chamber and bullet may be made slightly larger than the rest of the bore, and thus the bullet cannot get to the muzzle without being pressed into the grooves. This system, indeed, appears to be destined gradually to supersede all other systems.

We do not count Mr. Whitworth’s system of mechanical fit, as it has been abandoned as far, at least, as small arms are concerned; and with these alone we have now to do. If the various systems are classed according to their intrinsic merits, we should say that the breech-loading needle-gun stands highest; next, the expansion system; then the compression system. The two first systems may be considered to be superseded; for even if forcible loading, in Switzerland, so far gives better results, with the same calibre, than compression, we should not at all be inclined to give to the system the credit of these results without a very searching examination; and, besides, the Swiss sharpshooters’ plaster bullet is acknowledged to be unfit for the mass of the infantry.

At the same time, we have seen that since the introduction of elongated bullets, the system on which either rifle or shot is constructed is of but secondary importance in obtaining great range, low trajectory, and accuracy of flight. As long as bullets were round, the system of rifling was of greater importance, for then all bullets were met by the resistance of the air under nearly equal circumstances, and the influences of a stronger pitch of rilling, of deeper or more numerous grooves, &c, were comparatively far more important than now. But withelongated shot, a new element appears on the ground. The bullet may be made longer or shorter, within pretty wide limits, and now the question is which shape of bullet is most advantageous? On theoretical grounds it is clear that the same mass of lead, started with the same initial velocity, will better retain that velocity if its shape is long and thin, than if it is short and thick; supposing always that the lateral rotation which a rifle would give it, is there to prevent its going headover heels. The resistance of the air is the retarding force; it gradually diminishes the original velocity imparted to the bullet by the powder, and thus gives the ever-increasing force of gravity, so to speak, a greater hold upon the projectile. The initial velocity depends upon the charge, and in some degree upon the construction of the arm; this we may, therefore, consider to be fixed; the force of gravity is also fixed, and a given quantity; remains, as variable, the shape of the bullet to enable it to dart through the air with the least amount of resistance; and to evade atmospheric resistance, as we have said, a long and thin shot is far better fitted than a short and thick one of the same weight.

Now, the maximum weight of the bullet for military purposes is also a given quantity. A man must be able to carry, at least, sixty rounds over and above his arms and accoutrements. To produce the best-shaped bullet, therefore, out of this given weight of lead (say 530 grains), the length must be increased and the thickness diminished;—in other words, the bore of the rifle must be made less. Up to a certain point this will hold good without exception. Look at the 530 grains in the Enfield and at the same weight in the Whitworth bullet; a single glance explains why the latter has a so much lower trajectory (that is, retains its initial velocity so much better), and will, therefore, hit a target at a 1,000 yards withease, while the Enfield cannot be trusted at that distance. And yet, the two are both expansion bullets, and the general construction of the Whitworth is certainly not the best adapted for expansion. Or look at the Swiss sharpshooters’ rifle, with a bore still smaller than the Whitworth, and giving still better results and a still lower trajectory, be its bullet rammed home with a plaster, or let down loosely and compressed by the explosion. Or take the Prussian needle-gun; by reducing the diameter and increasing the length of the bullet, and guiding it in the wide bore by a bottom or wad, the same sight which formerly marked the 600 yards’ range, now carries the bullet to 900 yards. We shall, therefore, be pretty safe in considering it as an established fact that, in a general way, the efficiency of rifles, no matter on what system they are constructed, will be in the inverse ratio of the diameters of their bores. The smaller the bore, the better the rifle, and vice versa.

With these observations we take leave of a subject which may have appeared rather dry to many of our readers. Still its importance is very great. No intelligent soldier ought to be ignorant of the principles on which his arms are constructed, and are expected to act. What we have attempted to expose here, the non-commissionedofficers of most continental armies are expected to know; and surely, the majority of the volunteers, “the intelligence of the country,” ought to be as well up in the knowledge of their fire-arms as they!