Class Book for the School of Musketry, Hythe / Prepared for the Use of Officers
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PREPARED FOR THE USE OF OFFICERS.
BY COLONEL E. C. WILFORD, Assistant-Commandant and Chief Instructor .
HYTHE: W. S. PAINE, STATIONER, POST OFFICE, HIGH STREET. 1861.
The School of Musketry was founded in 1853, by the then Commander-in-Chief, the late Viscount Hardinge, as a normal school of instruction in Musketry.
It has for its especial object the formation of officers and non-commissioned officers to act as instructors in the several battalions throughout the Army.
In the book of “Regulations for conducting the Musketry Instruction of the Army,” promulgated by order of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief, it is ordered at page 33, and paragraph 35, that, “The Commanding Officer is to assemble the officers of the battalion at least once in each half-year, and to cause the non-commissioned officers and men to be assembled occasionally by squads or companies, at other times than when the annual course is proceeding, when the officer-instructor, having previously explained the theoretical principles detailed in the foregoing lessons, will be at liberty to advance deeper into the subject, developing to a degree proportionate to the rank and intelligence of his auditors, the whole history of small arms, from the first invention of gunpowder, and the successive steps by which the rifle-musket has attained its present efficiency; in order that the officers and soldiers, by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the subject theoretically, may take a greater interest in the practical part of this most important branch of their duty.”
The following Lectures have been prepared for the use of officers qualifying at the School of Musketry for the positions of Instructors in their respective Regiments. They are not to be considered as complete treatises or histories, but merely as “aids” to instruction, which can be expanded by the Instructor in viva voce Lectures, and if bound with an alternate ruled blank leaf, they may be corrected and enlarged when desirable, to suit the various improvements in arms, &c., introduced from time to time.
Ernest Christian Wilford
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INTRODUCTION.
CONTENTS
ERRATA.
HISTORY OF GUNPOWDER.
GREEK FIRE.
ON THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER.
SALTPETRE, OR NITRE.
CHARCOAL.
SULPHUR.
PULVERIZING THE INGREDIENTS.
MIXING THE INGREDIENTS.
THE INCORPORATING MILL.
INCORPORATING THE INGREDIENTS.
BREAKING DOWN THE MILL CAKE.
PRESSING THE MEAL BY THE HYDRAULIC PRESS.
GRANULATING THE PRESS CAKE.
DUSTING LARGE-GRAIN POWDER.
DUSTING FINE-GRAIN POWDER.
GLAZING FINE-GRAIN POWDER.
STOVING OR DRYING POWDER.
FINISHING DUSTING.
EXAMINATION AND PROOF OF GUNPOWDER.
PROOF OF MERCHANT’S POWDER.
REMARKS ON THE PROOF OF POWDER BY THE EPROUVETTES.
OF THE SIZE OF GRAIN FOR GUNPOWDER.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER ON THE CONTINENT AND AMERICA.
NEW RIFLE POWDER.
ON MAGAZINES.
LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS.
ON THE EXPLOSIVE FORCE OF GUNPOWDER.
FOULING.
EFFECTS OF GUNPOWDER ON METALS.
MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIMENTS.
ON THE TIME REQUIRED FOR IGNITION OF GUNPOWDER.
EFFECTS OF ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSIONS OF GUNPOWDER.
ON ANCIENT ENGINES OF WAR.
THE SLING.
THE BOW.
MERITS OF THE LONG BOW.
MEANS BY WHICH SKILL IN ARCHERY WAS ACQUIRED.
PROOFS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF ARCHERY.
MILITARY AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF SKILL IN THE USE OF THE BOW.
THE ARBALEST, OR CROSS-BOW.
DESCRIPTION OF CROSS-BOW.
COMPARATIVE MERITS OF THE LONG AND CROSS BOW.
COMPARATIVE MERITS BETWEEN BOWS AND EARLY FIRE-ARMS.
HISTORY OF ARTILLERY.
ETYMOLOGIES.
HISTORY OF PORTABLE FIRE-ARMS.
THE BAYONET.
ACCOUTREMENTS AND AMMUNITION.
HISTORY OF THE RIFLE.
RIFLED BREECH-LOADERS.
ON RIFLING.
ON RIFLE PROJECTILES.
CONCLUSION.
THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES.
DEFINITIONS.
MOTION OF A PROJECTILE.
GRAVITY.
ON THE TIME TAKEN TO DRAW A BALL TO THE GROUND BY THE FORCE OF GRAVITY.
ATMOSPHERE.
RESULT OF THE AIR’S RESISTANCE.
EXPERIMENTS IN FRANCE.
ON THE EFFECT OF THE RESISTANCE OF THE AIR UPON THE MOTION OF A PROJECTILE.
ON THE RESISTANCE OF A FLUID TO A BODY IN MOTION.
ON THE VELOCITY WITH WHICH AIR WILL RUSH INTO A VACUUM.
UPON THE RESISTANCE OF THE AIR TO BODIES OF DIFFERENT FORMS.
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH SLOW MOTIONS.
RESISTANCE OF THE AIR, AS AFFECTED BY THE WEIGHT OF PROJECTILES.
DEVIATIONS OF PROJECTILES FROM SMOOTH-BORED GUNS.
CASES BEARING UPON THE FOREGOING THEORY.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF ROBINS’ THEORY OF ROTATION.
ON ECCENTRIC PROJECTILES.
Extended Table of Contents
Transcriber’s Notes
