A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    1145/1268 (page 1109)
    MITRAILLEUSE AND GATLING. When well-made, a rifle-barrel will stand a tremendous strain. Ono of Daw’s four-guinea rifles is said by the same Author to have stood the enormous strain of two regulation charges, and a space of four clear inches between the apex of the first and the basis of the second bullet. The barrel stood the trial without any injury beyond a slight bulge, not perceptible externally, and scarcely the -f oXQOtli of an inch at the part where the second bullet was placed! So well made are Colonel Colt’s weapons that only one in nearly 3,000 burst when being proved ! Many of the accidents from fire-arms (bursting of sporting weapons, &c.), arise from their not having been proved. It should be distinctly known that a gun-maker has no right (by law) to sell a fire-arm to any one unless it have been tested in London, Birmingham, or elsewhere, as required by statute. Those tested by Government and rejected are marked with something like a double R, or two R’s back to back. Machine guns, whether worked by steam or hand, are as yet almost curiosities so far as Englishmen are concerned, though the Mitrailleuse did some service in the Franco-German War of 1870. In general the size of the bullet is nearly like that of ordinary infantry rifles. These monsters may be silenced by artillery, but are very serviceable in such situations as the head of a bridge, or in a narrow defile, or in a breach. There are two kinds, at least; viz., the intermittent, in which _ filing and loading are successive, or alternate operations, as in the Montigny Ghristophe Mitrailleuse; and the continuous, in which firing and loading go on simultaneously, the barrels being fed in turn as they pass a certain point with cartridges, as in the Gatling arm. This has been preferred for the British service. In the trial at Shoeburyness, the Gatling, of *42-inch calibre, on one occasion discharged 657 rounds in two minutes, whilst the Montigny, of •577-inch calibre, delivered 370 : rounds in the same time as its maximum. The bullets may be made to carry close, or with a little dispersion. It is said that one poor German soldier, living in 1871, had been struck 1 by thirty-two mitrailleuse bullets ! This, whilst showing a novelty in ' warfare, was clearly a waste of metal as far as the purposes of war are c concerned. [“ Popular Encyclopaedia,” article “ Mitrailleuse ”]. II. As regards the construction of cannon, or field, fort, and fleet . guns, used on shore or at sea, we need not say much. The details are usually less complicated than those of rifles, though like these they are divided into breech and muzzle loaders, yet the lock is dispensed with in i all except a few curious weapons not actually used in warfare. The can- non, or gun, is usually mounted on a carriage; its bullets, or rather balls, i are usually of iron, and are either solid or hollow (shells). The interior of the gun-tube is called its bore, as in the rifle. It may be smooth or ^grooved, and if the latter, is usually rifled—that is, the groves run in a spiral direction, or the bore itself is twisted, as in the Lancaster gun. IThe solid metal behind is the breech, terminating in the button. The itrunnions are the projections on each side, about the middle of the cannon, forming the pivot on which it turns, on being elevated or depressed. The vent, or touch-hole, is the part through which the fire is introduced into the bore to discharge the gun. A small tube (friction tube) is made of copper and filled with powder, and this is introduced into the vent to fire it in land service. At sea, a sort of tow-match is often used. But percussion fuses are now often substituted in breech- loaders. Cannon are generally made of iron, and cast. But of late 4 B