The great favour shown by lovers of shooting to my former efforts to disseminate a better understanding of the principles of Gunnery, has been an additional stimulus to the production of the present work; and I have taken especial care that my observations should tend to the improvement of sporting arms, and the increased safety of the sportsman.
Nor has the ingenious mechanic been overlooked, for perfection of gun-manufacture must ever go hand in hand with scientific principle; and the desire to promote their combination has prompted my endeavours to elucidate the subject.
Leaving to the reader to determine how far I have succeeded in my efforts, I merely wish to add that I make no pretension to literary style, but have aimed to produce a practical work for practical men. I have drawn upon my previous works for such portions of information as were needful to give completeness to this view of the science of Gunnery, its present state, and probable future.
Plate 1.--Laminated Steel Barrels--_To face Title_. „ 2.--Damascus and Fancy Steel Barrels _To face Page 228_ „ 3.--Stub Twist and Stub Damascus Barrels „ _234_ „ 4.--Charcoal Iron and “Threepenny” Iron Barrels „ _241_ „ 5.--“Twopenny” Iron and “Sham Damn” Iron Barrels „ _240_
PAGE Cannon of 1390 6 Iron ship gun of 1540 10 Paixhan gun and traversing bed 64 Carronade 67 New plan of casting a hollow axle 95 Mallet’s monster mortar 100 Russian 56-pounder 114 Eight-inch British gun 114 Sixty-eight pound carronade 116 Monck’s 56-pounder 117 Ten-inch or 86-pounder 117 Thirteen-inch sea service mortar 119 Thirteen-inch land service mortar 119 Welding steel 155 Wire twist and Damascus iron 160 Steel and iron twist 173 Spirals of Damascus, &c. 187 Spirals of charcoal and skelp 188 Spirals of Wednesbury and “sham damn” iron 189 Barrel welding 191 Method of plating barrels 195 Boring barrels 198 Sections of conical breeches, double barrel 209 London and Birmingham proof marks 251 Mode of proving guns 254 Sections of nipples 283 Expansive plug bullet 343 Enfield barrel and bullet 377 Whitworth barrel and bullet 377 Swiss bullet 391 Greener’s model carbine 401 Poly-groove rifle 403 Tranter’s double trigger revolver 421 Tranter’s double action revolver 424 Webley’s revolver 425 Harpoon gun 432 Shot tower 435