The bull’s-eye counts four, the space on each side three, the space below two, and the head and the bottom of the frock coat one each. These divisions are invisible from the firing point.
When these are painted with soot and water, or distemper black and water, the bullet knocks off the black and leaves a distinct lead-coloured mark.
When shot at in the open this is all that is necessary, but if, instead of a bank behind the figure there is a wall, this wall is painted white and a second lot of paint (this time whitewash) is kept for whitening the wall, if a shot hits that, to obliterate it so as to show where misses go.
An inexperienced marker is apt to put his brush into the wrong pot, so that the result is a grey colour.
The electric marking target looks exactly like this last and is painted after shots in the same way, but the various divisions are separate plates which stand on rods with springs behind.
When a shot strikes any plate it drives it back, and the spring returns it to place.
The act of driving back makes electric connection, transmitted by wires, to a small copy of the target, like the indicator inside a hotel lift, and rings a bell. It shows the value of the shot and approximately the place it has struck. The actual spot struck is not indicated.