No. LXV.
A way that one man, in the cabin, may govern a whole side of ship muskets, to the number (if need require) of two or three thousand shots.
NOTE.
The plan of this and the following Articles, though not of much practical utility, may yet be acted upon with a certainty of success. The powder may be ignited by the means of a powerful electrifying machine made to communicate with each separate piece, and the charging must be performed by conducting wires or rods made to act upon the magazine lever described in Article LVIII.
Since writing the above, an article has appeared on the subject in one of the French Journals, of which the following is a translation: At two o'clock in the afternoon M. Bouche made an experiment in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, to try the effect of electricity applied to gun batteries. Instead of guns he had fixed about one hundred rockets on long sticks, disposed in the garden. The rockets were all connected by an iron wire, and the same spark produced a spontaneous explosion. The concourse of people was very great, the weather being remarkably fine. This new invention is not intended to increase the destructive powers of those formidable weapons; but it is expected to afford the means of using them without exposing gunners to the fire of the enemy.