Ridingcoat, s. A coat made to keep out the weather.
Rifle, s. A gun whose barrel is only constructed to shoot bullets.
I have made many experiments, and thought a good deal, by way of ascertaining the best calibre for answering the particular or general purposes to which the rifle may be applied. We all know that the resistance of the air is the chief obstacle which projected bodies have to encounter. It is so very great, that the range of projected spheres is more regulated by the degree of this resistance than by the velocity they receive from the powder,—the increased velocity of the ball being met by a geometrically increased ratio of atmospheric resistance. The larger bullets, therefore, having less surface in proportion to their mass, are, proportionately, much less resisted; so that the flights of the larger exceed those of the lesser, in more than the proportion of their respective diameters. For instance, a thirty-two pound shot, whose diameter is about six inches, will, with even a less proportionate charge of powder, and at an equal elevation, range half as far again as a nine pound, whose diameter is four inches. The proportion which the surface of a sphere bears to its mass, increasing in a geometrical ratio to the decrease of its diameter—the smaller the sphere, the greater is the proportionate resistance it meets with in its flight. At length, we find that small particles of the heaviest metals, becoming, as it were, nearly all surface, will actually float in the atmosphere, or remain suspended for a considerable time in the lightest fluids. Hence it is, that from the same piece, and with a similar charge of powder, we shall find that the range of an ounce of bird shot will regularly extend with the increased size of the shot employed, until, in progression, we get to the ounce bullet itself, which fits the piece; and which, by the by, at an elevation, would not be impelled further if projected from a twenty-four pound cannon.
The theory of the air’s regular resistance to the onward progress of the bullet, must also be applied to the irregular action of the wind across the line of its flight; which action also increases in the ratio of the decrease of the weight of the bullet. At the distance of 315 yards I have found a strong cross wind to cause a rifle bullet of nineteen to the pound to diverge from three to four feet. On the other hand, I have used a rifle carrying a bullet of ten to the pound, which, with the same wind, did not, at the same distance, diverge more than about one foot. In constructing a butt for rifle practice, regard should, therefore, be had to the more usual direction of the wind; and, as far as the locality will allow, the butt should be placed so as to have the wind more frequently in the line of the range, either way, than across it.
For general, and especially for military purposes, such large rifles as the last mentioned would, coupled with the ammunition, be found too heavy. The rifles commonly used in the United States carry, I am told, a bullet of thirty-two to the pound. The adoption of so small a calibre, I take to have been occasioned by the use of the rifle being, in that country, originally and generally confined to the interior of thick forests, wherein it seldom happens that an object is to be fired at beyond the distance of one hundred yards; and where, moreover, the wind is much less felt than in an open country.
Under the above circumstances, the half-ounce rifles are quite adequate to their purpose; but in a more open, and especially in a mountainous country, the calibre of rifles should be considerably larger. In a hilly country, you are often in the actual presence of the enemy, and capable of greatly annoying him, at distances at which, on a plain, the view is interrupted and confined by the least considerable of surrounding objects. In a hilly country, occasions are perpetually offering, wherein long rifle ranges would cause considerable mischief to your opponents. Such long ranges can never be obtained, nor depended on, with the half-ounce rifles of the Americans and Tyrolese.
If the foregoing observations are founded on fact, it is easy to decide what sort of rifle should be applied to a particular purpose. With respect to general purposes, I am inclined to fix on the calibre of one ounce, or sixteen bullets to the pound. The English government rifles are of nineteen or twenty to the pound; to which calibre there is little objection, especially as it is the same as that of the cavalry carbines and pistols. However, I could advance several reasons,—I do not call them very important ones,—for preferring the French regulation; according to which all the fire-arms of all the different corps, both of cavalry and infantry, are of one and the same calibre, of sixteen bullets to the pound.
With respect to the rifle, at least, I would most strenuously recommend the substitution of percussion for flint locks; over which the advantages of the former are as great as the latter are superior to the huge wheel and pyrites locks of two centuries ago. In comparison to the percussion gun, the very best flint one absolutely hangs fire, and one out of twenty is usually a miss-fire. A cap is put on much quicker than a flint lock is primed; there is no time lost in changing flints; and if Mr. Joyce’s percussion powder be used, there is no foulness or corrosion whatever; lastly, the rifles at present in use might be converted into copper caps at a trifling expense, and new copper cap locks will cost less than flint ones. The only objection to the change (and I own it is a very great one indeed), is the blind prejudice of custom.
To render the use of the copper cap piece still more eligible, especially for military purposes, there should be no lateral vent-hole in the breech, but in lieu of it, a broad convex-headed screw; which, upon being withdrawn, opens a passage into the chamber under the nipple, of an eighth of an inch in diameter.
By this simply contrivance,—which I have applied to all my own guns, rifles, and pistols,—should any obstruction occur, either from wet or dirt, which cannot be removed by merely probing the nipple, it will infallibly he cleared out by removing the screw, scooping out the passage into the chamber, putting a little powder therein, and firing it off, after having probed the nipple and replaced the screw. The aperture formed by the removal of the screw, greatly adds to the facility of washing the barrel.