Chapter IX: The Rifle

Robins’s prediction verified--Barrels first rifled at Vienna in 1498--
Earliest elongated bullets--Captain Delvigne’s bullet--The author’s
expansive bullet--His memorial to the Board of Ordnance--Report of its
trial by the 60th Rifles in 1836--Decision of the Board of Ordnance--
Progress of the author’s invention--Captain Delvigne’s patent of 1842
--Captain Minié’s bullet of 1847--Unsuccessful attempts of author to
have his claim to the invention of the expansive bullet recognised by
Government--Secret report of Select Committee on his invention--His
priority admitted by the Emperor Napoleon--The British Government
award the author 1,000_l._ for his invention--Principle of the
expansive rifle bullet--Projectiles may be lengthened with increase of
range--Action of the expansive bullet--Defects of the Minié bullet--
Colonel Hay’s improvement--Author’s experiments, and their result--
Spiral curve of the rifle barrel--Failure of the “Pritchett bullet”--
Captain Tamissier’s theory--Minié and Greenerian bullet contrasted
(with cuts)--Author’s improvement of 1852 (with cut)--General Jacob’s
bullet (with cuts)--Remarks of Lieutenant Symons--The Whitworth rifle
--Its defects--Report of trial of the Whitworth and Enfield rifles--
Author’s comments thereon (with cuts)--Importance of safety from
accident--The expansive bullet can be made superior to the Whitworth--
Fallacy of experiments--Comparative cost of ammunition for the
Whitworth and Enfield rifles--Defective cartridges--Hints to obviate
defects--Vital principle of elongated projectiles--A hollow bullet
proposed, its defects--The Swiss bullet--Doubtful utility of the
deepening groove--Government rifle, with sword bayonet--Double rifles
--Hints on rifle shooting--Author’s expanding screw bands--Mr.
Prince’s breech-loading carbine--Revolving rifles--French school of
rifle practice--English school of rifle shooting at Hythe--Double
rifled carbines recommended--Revolvers costly and fragile--Lieutenant
Kerr’s opinion of the Enfield or Greener’s carbine--Government pistol
and carbine--Efficient arms of the Irregular Cavalry of India--First
use of greased cartridges in India--The three-grooved and poly-grooved
rifle (with cut)--Spherical bullets indispensable to smooth bored
muskets--Length and bore of military rifle--Elliptical bored rifle--
Mr. Lancaster’s bullet superseded by the Greenerian bullet--Report of
committee on Lancaster’s rifle--The oval bore not a new invention--
Inferiority of the two-grooved or Brunswick rifle--The Prussian needle
gun--Enfield rifles made for France, Russia, and other states of
Europe--Trials of Whitworth and Enfield rifles--Unsatisfactory results
of the Whitworth rifle 338

CHAPTER X.--REVOLVING PISTOLS.

Immense demand for them--Their value--Best manufacturers--Colonel
Colt’s repeating pistol described--Its double action discussed--
Machine-made pistols not equal to hand-made--Dean and Adams’s revolver
described--Its improvements on Colt’s--Tranter’s double trigger
revolver--His lubricating bullet and other improvements--Webley’s
revolver--Comparison of self-acting and cocking-lock pistols--
Tendency of revolvers to foul--Lieut. Symons’s opinion--Other defects
to be overcome--Author’s preference for double-barrelled fire-arms in
warfare 413

CHAPTER XI.--ENFIELD RIFLES.

The name explained, and weapon described--Its origin--Author’s share
in its construction--American machinery for gun-making--Extent and
products of the Enfield manufactory 429

CHAPTER XII.--THE HARPOON-GUN FOR WHALE-SHOOTING. 432

CHAPTER XIII.--SHOT, CAPS, AND WADDING. 435

RIFLES, CANNON,
AND
SPORTING ARMS.