GUNNY. Sackcloth or coarse canvas, made of fibres used in India, chiefly of jute.
GUNNY-BAGS. The sacks used on the India station for holding rice, biscuit, &c.; often as sand-bags in fortification.
GUN-PENDULUM. See [Ballistic Pendulum].
GUN-PORTS. See [Ports].
GUNPOWDER. The well-known explosive composition which, for its regularity of effect and convenience in manufacture and use, is still preferred for general purposes to all the new and more violent but more capricious agents. In England it is composed of 75 parts saltpetre to 10 sulphur and 15 charcoal; these proportions are varied slightly in different countries. The ingredients are mixed together with great mechanical nicety, and the compound is then pressed and granulated. On the application of fire it is converted into gas with vast explosive power, but subject to tolerably well-known laws.
GUN-ROOM. A compartment on the after-end of the lower gun-deck of large ships of war, partly occupied by the junior officers; but in smaller vessels it is below the gun-deck, and the mess-room of the lieutenants.
GUNROOM-PORTS. In frigates, stern-ports cut through the gun-room.
GUN-SEARCHER. An iron instrument with several sharp-pointed prongs and a wooden handle: it is used to find whether the bore is honey-combed.
GUN-SHOT. Formerly, the distance up to which a gun would throw a shot direct to its mark, without added elevation; as the "[line of metal]" (which see) was generally used in laying, this range was about 800 yards. But now that ranges are so greatly increased, with but slight additions to the elevation, the term will include the distances of ordinary "[horizontal fire]" (which see); as between ships, with rifled guns, it will not quite reach two miles: though when the mark is large, as a town or dockyard, it is still within long range at five miles' distance.