The fame of our English gunpowder makers is patent to all the world, and, where skill is equal, to name one rather than another would be invidious; though we must not lose sight of the facts herein established. “Granulation,” properly understood, is an equivalent point to either chemical or mechanical knowledge and manipulation in gunpowder manufacture. Great anxiety to meet the wishes of the sporting world on this point, and to advance with the age, has been aroused; and specimens have been kindly furnished to me, not by one, but by all the following celebrated makers: Messrs. Pigou and Wilks, Curtis and Harvey, Lawrence and Son, John Hall and Son; and I have received also a very excellent specimen from the Scotch mills.
Gunpowder of five sizes of granulation, on the basis before alluded to: namely, No. 2, containing two quantities of No. 1, and No. 3, three, and so on in progression; but it is imperative that all the various sizes be produced from the same mill cake, or be otherwise of the same condensation or specific gravity, and in all experiments of comparison, equal weights are a “sine quâ non,” otherwise the comparison will be futile; as measure is, for these very obvious reasons, inapplicable in comparative tests. When these points are carefully attained, increased power of killing, “decreased recoil,” and much greater safety, will be the important benefits which the gunpowder manufacturers will confer on every one using a gun.
CHAPTER III.
ARTILLERY.
Arcualia, from “arcus, a bow,” appears to have been the original name, and included all sorts of “missiles,” as well as the engines by which they were propelled. The sling, still in common use by the Arabs on the banks of the upper Euphrates, being most probably the first kind of artillery, and the bow and arrow a succeeding stage of improvement.
Artillery, now in the general acceptance of the term, includes all and every description of gun, of greater power and dimensions than muskets and other shoulder guns.
Modern civilization, with its giant strides of improvement, has rejected the cumbrous and unsightly complication of springs, levers and wheels; and given to us, in their stead, the light and handsome six-pounder cannon; which is so easy of transit that it can accomplish the most complex and difficult movements, while the horses are at their fullest gallop. A single minute now suffices to stop when at the greatest speed, unlimber, load, fire a couple of rounds, and remount; the gun is speedily at a distance—while the eye can scarcely follow, or the mind imagine, the destruction that must follow when the “deep-tongued gun” is fired in attack.
I shall now proceed to notice the comparative effects of guns of various calibre and power, and attempt to convey to the reader a distinct idea of their respective defects and advantages. The artillery of England comprises an immense variety of weapons of war, suited for various purposes and situations, as experience has dictated, or necessity required. The present state of our artillery requires an advance to the front, to be in a line with the march of science, as regards the knowledge of gunpowder and projectiles; I may, therefore, be permitted to animadvert on what appears to me to need improvement.
The profession may think it presumptuous in me to offer a suggestion or give an opinion; for it too frequently happens that individuals, who have employed their whole time and study on one especial subject, think they alone can understand it, and consider any opposition to their opinions, or any doubt of the soundness of their conclusions, little short of a positive offence.