FIG. 5.
In the manufacture of fire-arms the chief parts consist of the metal tube from which the projectiles are to be expelled, the stock of the musket and the carriages of great guns or cannon being only varieties of the same thing, namely a convenient platform from which to fire the tube, which is the real instrument. In the manufacture of muskets, pistols, and cheap fowling-pieces, the barrel is made from a sheet of soft iron rolled up lengthwise round a rod or “mandril,” the edges overlapping each other, which are then welded together; but in the best guns the barrels are twisted, that is, a slip or fillet of iron half-an-inch broad and of sufficient length is twisted in a spiral round the mandril, and then the whole is welded together. The barrel is “bored” by means of a square-headed drill of steel turned in a kind of lathe ([fig. 1]), and the interior afterwards polished with oil and emery-powder until it is perfectly bright and even; the breech is then made separately, and screwed in. The best iron for gun-barrels is called “stubb iron,” consisting of old horse-shoe nails welded together, and is very soft and even in its grain. The barrel is made red-hot and suffered to cool very slowly; this is called “annealing,” and it prevents any part being brittle, and therefore liable to burst with the charge in firing. Rifled barrels are those which have one or more grooves cut in the inside of the barrel from the muzzle to the breech in a spiral direction, each making one turn before it completes the length of the barrel ([fig. 2]).
FIG. 3.
FIG. 4.
The old “flint” lock has now quite gone out of use, having been superseded by the “percussion.” This is a contrivance to cause that part of the lock called the cock or hammer to strike the percussion cap with great force, and so discharge it ([figs. 3] and [4]). The cap is put on to a small projection called the “nipple,” which has a hole at the top communicating with the barrel, and down which the spark from the percussion cap passes.
In rifled guns, of late, the use of conical balls has been introduced, for the effect of the charge in propelling a ball rapidly out of a barrel with spiral grooves is to turn it as it passes out of the barrel, and consequently to “spin” it with great velocity in one direction, like a top; the effect of this is to balance every part of the ball in the air and so cause it to take a true direction, for if the merest notch or hollow existed in a spherical ball, that part being lightest and having the least momentum would not maintain its rate so long, and by lagging behind cause the ball to describe a part of a circle in its course. It is thus that the balls from common muskets, although rightly directed, often fall extremely wide of the mark. Military muskets and rifles are fitted with bayonets, that they may act both as lances and fire-arms ([fig. 5]).
