CHAPTER IX.--THE RIFLE.

Robins’s prediction verified--Barrels first rifled at Vienna in 1498-- Earliest elongated bullets--Captain Delvigne’s bullet--The author’s expansive bullet--His memorial to the Board of Ordnance--Report of its trial by the 60th Rifles in 1836--Decision of the Board of Ordnance-- Progress of the author’s invention--Captain Delvigne’s patent of 1842 --Captain Minié’s bullet of 1847--Unsuccessful attempts of author to have his claim to the invention of the expansive bullet recognised by Government--Secret report of Select Committee on his invention--His priority admitted by the Emperor Napoleon--The British Government award the author 1,000_l._ for his invention--Principle of the expansive rifle bullet--Projectiles may be lengthened with increase of range--Action of the expansive bullet--Defects of the Minié bullet-- Colonel Hay’s improvement--Author’s experiments, and their result-- Spiral curve of the rifle barrel--Failure of the “Pritchett bullet”-- Captain Tamissier’s theory--Minié and Greenerian bullet contrasted (with cuts)--Author’s improvement of 1852 (with cut)--General Jacob’s bullet (with cuts)--Remarks of Lieutenant Symons--The Whitworth rifle --Its defects--Report of trial of the Whitworth and Enfield rifles-- Author’s comments thereon (with cuts)--Importance of safety from accident--The expansive bullet can be made superior to the Whitworth-- Fallacy of experiments--Comparative cost of ammunition for the Whitworth and Enfield rifles--Defective cartridges--Hints to obviate defects--Vital principle of elongated projectiles--A hollow bullet proposed, its defects--The Swiss bullet--Doubtful utility of the deepening groove--Government rifle, with sword bayonet--Double rifles --Hints on rifle shooting--Author’s expanding screw bands--Mr. Prince’s breech-loading carbine--Revolving rifles--French school of rifle practice--English school of rifle shooting at Hythe--Double rifled carbines recommended--Revolvers costly and fragile--Lieutenant Kerr’s opinion of the Enfield or Greener’s carbine--Government pistol and carbine--Efficient arms of the Irregular Cavalry of India--First use of greased cartridges in India--The three-grooved and poly-grooved rifle (with cut)--Spherical bullets indispensable to smooth bored muskets--Length and bore of military rifle--Elliptical bored rifle-- Mr. Lancaster’s bullet superseded by the Greenerian bullet--Report of committee on Lancaster’s rifle--The oval bore not a new invention-- Inferiority of the two-grooved or Brunswick rifle--The Prussian needle gun--Enfield rifles made for France, Russia, and other states of Europe--Trials of Whitworth and Enfield rifles--Unsatisfactory results of the Whitworth rifle 338