IHOMAS HERON Me KEE BANCROFT LIBRARY o THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA J. Porter Shaw Collection Gift of Marguerite Bachrach THE GUN BOOK FOR BOYS AND MEN BY THOMAS HERON McKEE WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1918 COPYRIGHT, 1918 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY THE QUINN A BODEN CO. PRESS RA M WA V , N. J. c \ b PREFACE WHEN man or boy becomes interested enough in firearms to want to know what sort of an in- strument the gun really is, and how it performs its work, he is not made much the wiser by read- ing that: "A gun is a thermodynamic machine by which the potential energy of the explosive is converted into the kinetic energy of the pro- jectile." Nor will the curious-minded beginner get much useful information on the subject by questioning poorly informed adults who may tell him, as they did the author in his youth, that the bullet does not "get up speed" until it is some distance from the muzzle; or that the mis- sile does not begin to drop in obedience to gravity until late in its flight. Such misinformation takes on so many forms that the more of it the inquirer listens to the greater grows his bewilderment. Between these two extremes of overexactness buried in mysterious scientific terms, and of false theories carelessly uttered, the seeker for light on the elementary problems of gunnery suffers almost as much today as he ever did. iii iv PREFACE The purpose of this book is to set forth accu- rately, but in simple words, the essential principles of the gun as a projecting apparatus, illustrating more difficult points by reference to familiar ob- jects. As this end seemed best attained by trac- ing the upbuilding of the gun step by step, from its primitive form to its more complicated and powerful modern successor, the plan has been adopted. It is not claimed that the work adds anything new to the science of gunnery, though in those matters where opinion is allowable the author has drawn a little upon his own experi- ence, which has covered a long period of time. In order that the novice may, early in his study of gunnery, learn the fact that the hand gun is something more than a mere efficient machine of wood and metal, emphasis has been laid, so far as the limits of the book would allow, upon the vital influence which firearms have had upon the lives of men. The gun is really a great human institution, an intimate knowledge of which is necessary to the understanding of history. If this book helps to inspire more reverence for our venerable weapon friend, its main purpose will be achieved. As the reader may care to know why he should place reliance on the author's statements about PREFACE v guns, the following brief statement is offered "in extenuation. ? ' The author is a graduate of Columbia Uni- versity, a lawyer by profession, and has in his work been required to delve rather deeply into the sciences of physics, chemistry, and mathe- matics upon which gunnery is based. The au- thor's preparation for the writing of this book, upon its practical side, began when as a youth on the Western frontier he helped in a small way to open for settlement the regions of the upper Missouri against the Indians and lawless whites. The adventures of the author at this period have been in part chronicled in a book published some years ago entitled Cattle Eancli to College. Those who have read that biography of a Western boy need not be told that a very complete practical knowledge of guns and shooting was necessary to one who succeeded in maintaining his exist- ence through those troublous days. But though the pioneer knew the powers and limitations and peculiarities of his weapons, the scientific principles involved in the firing of a successful shot were far beyond his ken. From this lack of understanding the author himself long suffered, and that in spite of zealous efforts to gain a deeper insight into the mysteries of VI PREFACE the gun as a projecting machine. The time came, however, when the author found himself in huge libraries, arid admitted freely to the files of current literature on guns. He thought then that the end had come to his long period of ear- nest inquiry as to why things in gunnery were done thus and so. But the hope was not to be so easily gratified. The desired information was all within those stacks of books and magazines, to be reached and acquired, however, only by laborious search and a piecemeal sifting process that few laymen could afford to carry on. This situation, in the author's opinion, called loudly for remedy. We owe too much to the gun to permit its honorable past and more recent won- derful attainments to rest in practical obscurity. Hence the writer began keeping a series of note- books in which he entered from time to time in- formation and suggestions about guns from every source that came under his eye, with the hope that in some future day leisure would permit preparation by him of the sadly needed book. The opportunity to further his own education in gunnery and to compile the present volume came unexpectedly to the author when three years ago he was ordered, for health considerations, to take up an indeterminate residence amid the PREFACE vn dry wastes of the great Mojave Desert. Since that time an exile otherwise almost unbearable has been made not only profitable but most inter- esting by the companionship of guns, books relat- ing to them, and simple often home-made ap- paratus by means of which many experiments new and old have been carried out. The first- hand information so gained, added to the facts previously accumulated, is now gathered to- gether in THE GUN BOOK, all so simply set down, it is hoped, that he who runs may also read. In order to confirm its accuracy the manu- script has been submitted to and examined by a trained expert in gunnery, who made a few minor suggestions, but to the work as a whole kindly gave his enthusiastic approval. THOMAS HEKON McKEE. Los Angeles, California. CONTENTS CHAPTER I EARLY USE OF POWDER AS A DRIVING FORCE PAGE 3 II BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 16 III PROGRESS IN IGNITION 39 IV ABOUT GUNPOWDER 54 V GOOD WORKS WROUGHT BY THE GUN .... 70 VI RECOIL A CONTEST WITH NATURAL LAWS ... 87 VII THE OLD SMOOTH-BORE AND ITS SPHERICAL BULLET . 100 VIII THE SPHERICAL BALL AND THE RIFLED BARREL . . Ill IX THE LONG BULLET AND THE MUZZLE-LOADING RIFLE 126 X THE LONG SEARCH FOR A BREECHLOADER . . . 139 XI ARRIVAL OF THE PERFECT BREECHLOADER . . . 155 XII ARRIVAL OF THE REPEATER 175 XIII TRAJECTORIES AND SMALL BORES 192 XIV THE PRANKS OF THE LONG-POINTED BULLET . . 209 XV SMOKELESS POWDER . . ... . . . 228 XVI THE MODERN RIFLE . , . 246 XVII FROM MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE . . 265 XVIII How THE NEW WEAPONS HAVE AFFECTED THE ART OF WAR 291 XIX SHOTGUNS . . 301 XX THE PISTOL . . 316 XXI THE GUN OF THE FUTURE 329 XXII THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 342 INDEX . 359 THE GUN BOOK CHAPTER I EARLY USE OF POWDER AS A DRIVING FORCE WHEN a boy engaged in the old-fashioned but joyful pastime of shooting firecrackers comes across one that refuses to explode, does he resent- fully cast it aside and reach for another? No indeed! That stubborn paper tube will still fur- nish sport. For the sake of variety it is even the better for having failed to go off. It is laid on the ground, gently bent until it cracks open, some of the dusky powder grains falling in the gap; then lighted match or glowing punk is ap- plied, and Sizz! A spiteful hiss, a stream of flame, and the boy's nervous hand is snatched away, perhaps with a burnt finger or two. It was a fine exploit ! But when that sizzer went off a more important thing happened than the searing of fingers or the mere making of fire and smoke and noise. Ob- serve another and almost magical result. Where are now the smoldering remains of the cracker? 3 4 THE GUN BOOK Not where they were so carefully placed a mo- ment ago, but several inches or perhaps feet away, thrown there violently by the escaping powder gases. Here is a simple demonstration of a great idea ; a fact of tremendous importance ! This playing boy with a modest sizzer has done the thing that lies at the root of the whole science of gunnery, for he has used powder as a driving force a propellant. The sizzer, or squib as it should be called, a powder-filled tube, open at one end and closed at the other, is really the direct parent of the great modern gun. From this simple source sprang the weapon which can throw a destroying projectile into the bowels of a battleship tens and even scores of miles away, or at equal dis- tances play havoc with the stoutest forts men can contrive. Many centuries had to pass before the humble squib finally taught men to make and use the mighty artillery of today ; but long as the record is, and in spite of the blank spaces appear- ing here and there, we are able quite clearly to trace the family relationship between the squib and cannon. Look for a moment at the pinwheel, one of the oldest of powder-driven devices. It is simply a series of squibs made fast to the rim of a wheel. EARLY USE OF POWDER 5 One tube at a time is lighted, and as the powder gases rush out of the open end they press against the closed end of the tube, and thus the wheel is pushed round and round. The force that does the work is that which we call recoil or kick when speaking of guns, and of which much more is to be said later on. But even though the pinwheel may be said to travel backward, it uses powder as its propellant, and so is an important link in tracing the history of the gun. Indeed the con- duct of the squib and its related devices might lead us to declare that gunpowder literally backed its way into the world and into the affairs of mankind. Older than the pinwheel, perhaps, is another variation of the squib the rocket. The ancient Edison who invented it may have been an almond- eyed Chinaman or a turbaned Hindu, for among one or the other of these peoples the rocket seems to have originated. Remarkable as this con- trivance is, we know little or nothing of the time and place it first appeared. It came to us from the Orient before our Middle Ages began. At that we have to let the matter rest, at least for the present. The genius who produced it has like- wise been long forgotten. But we can easily picture in our minds the 6 THE GUN BOOK delight and amazement of the dark-skinned in- ventor as he fastened a stick to his squib to serve as a guiding tail; and then touching off the powder, saw his apparatus go soaring into the sky, leaving a wake of flame and smoke. Not even the modern discoverer of the incandescent light or moving picture could have been more elated over the success of his plans than was this experimenter of old who first used powder to drive a missile through the air in any direction he chose. The rocket was not a gun, but it re- sembled the gun in that it used the explosive power of powder to propel a missile in some definite direction. And if the whole truth were known we should probably find that it did much to inspire that vision which finally led to the dis- covery of the gun itself. The most frequent, though probably the least important, use to which the rocket has been put all through the ages it has existed is that of pro- viding night spectacles to delight the eye. Most of the early references to it describe the awe and wonder it created in the minds of onlookers who saw it at public exhibitions. But in the Orient in times long ago the rocket was turned to account as a weapon of war. Sent rushing into the ranks of a hostile army, scattering fire and smoke, it EARLY USE OF POWDER 7 served well to frighten horses and even men, to whom it seemed a product of black magic. When aimed at camp or besieged town it carried con- flagration and destruction. Europe too has often since used the rocket for similar purposes. As late as our war of 1812 the British fired rockets amongst the men of Jackson's army at the Battle of New Orleans. As a method of signaling at night the rocket still plays an important part, especially at sea, and on the modern battle front. The soldier even uses it to light up the blasted "No Man's Land" beyond his trenches, thereby preventing surprise attacks by the enemy. No fireworks display even in our day is complete without its thrilling ascent. The very age of this marvelous contrivance attests the fact that its ancient inventor by producing it did a noteworthy thing. The squib fastened to a stick, however, never succeeded well as a weapon. Its approach was too noisy and too well marked to strike down an alert enemy, for avoidance of it, except at close range, was always comparatively easy. Then again it burned too much powder for the work obtained. To get power from gas there must be pressure and with one end of the tube open high pressures were impossible. So the 8 THE GUN BOOK rocket has never been able to compete with the more efficient gun barrel as a fighting machine. Compared with the ancient rocket the gun is still a sprightly youth. While the former, using recoil as its motive power, is as old at least as the Christian Era, the fixed tube which blows a missile from its mouth has seen only six cen- turies of existence. The step from the one prin- ciple to the other seems so easy and simple that we wonder why men were so long in catching the idea. While it is probable that the stationary tube was used as a toy before Europe called it a gun and began to use it as a weapon, all the evidence we have indicates that the gun had its birth in Europe and not until after the year 1300 A.D. For a long time it was supposed that the gun was much older than it really is. But the art of reading history has advanced as much as any other of man's accomplishments; and later, more cautious search has caused us to change our views considerably regarding the age of the gun* For instance, the words artillery and gun (artillerie and gonne) are far older than the weapons we know by those names. Originally they referred to the battering rams which even in Old Testa- ment times were used to break down walls; and EARLY USE OF POWDER 9 also to those huge throwing machines, some with levers like a human arm, and some with bows, by which heavy stones were cast in battle and siege. When firearms came, the old names were borrowed for them and careless writers and readers afterward confused the two classes of weapons. A second cause of confusion in tracing the early history of the gun lay in the failure to distinguish between mere combustibles and gun- powder. The throwing of burning liquids, solids, and noxious gases into the ranks of an enemy, as is now being done in Europe, is one of the most ancient of warlike resorts. The chief differ- ences in this mode of attack and defense are in the materials used and the methods of their em- ployment, which have constantly changed from age to age. When Alexander the Great marched into India in 327 B.C. his army was assailed with burning compounds of pitch, sulphur, oil, and suchlike inflammables, either dropped upon the soldiers' heads from city walls, or tossed into their ranks by hand and with machines. When the Greeks came home they also began to use the same stub- bornly burning materials in their European wars. Hence the name " Greek fire" by which all war- like combustibles thereafter became known. 10 THE GUN BOOK Greek fire was often put into earthen pots or wooden kegs, ignited, and then thrown. There are in existence a number of accounts of battles in which these blazing missiles are described, but we do not now make the mistake of supposing that, because machines called " gonnes " propelled fiery bodies through the air, it was guns that were being used. In fact the earliest guns we know about were entirely too small in caliber to be used for such bulky projectiles. Warriors and merchants and adventurers who penetrated the Orient both before and after Eu- rope began to use guns tell us about finding the natives using explosive powder and fireworks made from it, but say nothing about guns being seen there. In the later days of Rome's glory, fireworks of explosive powder were commonly set off in that city for the entertainment of emperors and populace; but no mention of firearms is found in the records of that period. Neither is it likely that through all the history of those war- like times guns would have escaped mention if they had then existed. But the most convincing evidence we have that guns were not known in Europe, at least until after the year 1267, is that in that year the Eng- lishman, Eoger Bacon, wrote a long treatise on EARLY USE OF POWDER 11 explosive powder, describing its manufacture and the uses to which he had seen it put. This book we have today. In 1233 Bacon, a young priest, went to Paris to study, and there learned the art of making the explosive. Being especially interested in the natural sciences he spent many years in France, not only learning what the people there had to teach about his favorite subject, but conducting laborious experiments and investiga- tions in these matters on his own account. In 1265 Bacon was again in England, now a mature- minded man, no longer a mere seeker for the wisdom of others, but himself a great teacher. In that year the good Pope Clement directed him to write in full all the facts his studies had re- vealed concerning the laws of nature, with which request the learned priest eagerly complied. He spent nearly two years at the task, turning out in 1267 a bulky manuscript with a long Latin title, including in it his knowledge of explosive powder and describing minutely the things he had seen it do. While it is often said that guns were used by the Moors before the thirteenth century, the writ- ings of Bacon seem clearly to disprove this. We do not know positively that he visited the cities of that remarkable Mohammedan people who then 12 THE GUN BOOK inhabited most of the lands we now know as Spain, but we do know that he gave special study to the .Moorish scientific learning. Of this his works furnish abundant proof. It is most un- likely that Bacon would have overlooked mention of so new and wonderful a weapon as the gun, had he learned of its existence even at a distance. Crackers, squibs, and bombs seem to be the only explosive contrivances of which Bacon knew, or thought worth describing. But aside from those things he had actually seen, he went on in prophecy and told the wonders he expected ex- plosive powder to perform in the future. How sound a prophet he was may be seen when he said that with powder as a motive power, ' * There may be flying machines, so made that a man may sit in the middle of the machine and direct it by some device." Again he expects powder to move 1 ' ships that may travel without rowers with greater velocity than if they were full of rowers ' ' ; and also " wagons that may be moved with great speed." All these things have come to pass and by the aid of explosives too, as Bacon foretold, though petroleum and not gunpowder turned out to be the best means for the purpose.* When a * It is interesting to note here that In the first internal combustion engines, the piston was driven by an explosion of EARLY USE OF POWDER 13 learned man, probably the wisest and most open- minded of his day, goes into detail of expected future events like these, and also tells us that he has set down all he knows about powder and its works, we can quite safely decide that he never saw or heard of a gun, since he omits reference to it entirely. This negative testimony from the writings of Bacon is further strengthened by like evidence from the books of Albertus Magnus, the teacher of Bacon, who also, about the same time, wrote of explosive powder, crackers, squibs, and rockets. He likewise gives details of these instruments, but his writings contain no word or even hint of guns. Albertus, too, wrote of practically every- thing he knew of the wonders of nature, and also of some things he did not know; as, for instance, his solemn statement that he had often seen horse hairs turn into snakes when immersed in water. With these two earnest men silent on the subject of firearms it is safe to say that there were no guns in Europe at the middle of the thirteenth century. So far as we know the gun had no inventor. The honor has been ascribed to several, but their gunpowder within the cylinder. But because more than half of the products of the burned powder remained in the combustion chamber as solids, the device could not be made practical. 14 THE GUN BOOK title to it has not borne even casual scrutiny. It seems to have been a slow growth, perhaps from a preceding toy of similar form. The squib of paper or wood, if made fast, would shoot a stone a little distance. Then by making the tube larger and stronger some man or men saw the chance to convert an interesting plaything into a dangerous weapon. When the thing was done they called it a cannon. This, if it happened at all, took place prior to 1326; for in that year the Italian Eepublic of Florence, as its records show, ordered several metal cannon, including balls for them, to be made at the public expense, for the defense of the state. Whether these guns were ever turned out or not is not told, but this is the earliest reliable refer- ence to firearms that has yet come to light and shows that guns had then passed the experimental stage of their growth. It is not to be supposed that a nation would adopt an arm that had not been proved to some extent at least, so we must conclude that the gun graduated from the roll of toys into the weapon class at least a little while before the year 1326. In England there is undoubted evidence of the possession and use of guns in 1327, one year after the Italian guns were ordered ; and in 1338, when EARLY USE OF POWDER 15 Edward III invaded France, lie took a few cannon and their ammunition with him. We are left with the strong conviction, therefore, that the gun as a weapon sprang into use during the period be- tween 1267, when Roger Bacon wrote, and 1326, when the Florentines saw its merits and added ii to their national armament. But it was in a great battle which took place about the middle of the fourteenth century that the cannon, the first firearm, made its formal bow to the world. CHAPTER II BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN THE famous Battle of Crecy, fought in France in 1346, between the French and an invading army of English, is a landmark in the annals of the gun. Though the part played by the new instru- ment in that bloody combat was a very modest one, it there proved the right of firearms to a place among man's warlike weapons a place to which it has ever since held fast. Crecy was the real beginning of the Hundred Years' War, which kept all France desolate for a century, and even brought England herself to the verge of ruin. The English were led by their king, Edward III, a bold, headstrong man, ably assisted by his young son, the Black Prince. In 1338 he had landed on the shores of France with an army, claiming title to the throne of that country, and according to French stories he had with him some cannon, which he used in the skir- mishes which followed. English records also show that guns and ammunition were shipped to 16 BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 17 France in that year. But nothing much came of that expedition, for affairs at home soon caused its abandonment. Eight years afterward, however, he came once more with more guns and with a larger and better equipped army to try again to make good his claims. Shortly followed the Battle of Crecy, in which his infantry achieved a sweeping victory over the mail-clad cavaliers of France. The cannon which Edward brought with him and trained upon his foe at Crecy were probably small in size and few in number. Of them we have no particulars, nor does history tell how often they were fired, or with what effect. The French, in excuse for their grievous defeat, said that it was the cannon that beat them and that no army could win against such devilish weapons ; but this was not the truth, as the events of the battle clearly show. The fighting was principally done between the English bowmen and French cavalry, and considering the many charges and counter-charges made across the battlefield dur- ing the fight, the clumsy, short-ranged little cannon could not have been handled quickly enough to do much damage. It is altogether probable that, beyond frightening horses and some of the ignorant Frenchmen, Edward's tiny 18 THE GUN BOOK guns accomplished little. The French defeat was due to other causes, which will be mentioned presently. This small beginning made by the English cannon at Crecy was but a prelude to the part firearms were to play in the Hundred Years ' War. The French, thus assailed by the new and fright- some weapon, quickly overcame their scruples against its use. They not only armed themselves with artillery, but in skill in making and using it even outstripped their Anglo-Saxon enemies. As the war went on year in and year out the gun grew in importance. Its size and power increased rapidly. The powder used in it became stronger and more reliable and the gunners themselves gained in confidence and dexterity. From being a mere maker of noise and smoke, the "fire tube" entered into the class of deadly weapons. It was not in fighting in the open field, how- ever, that cannon first gained the soldier's trust a'nd affection. It was too slow in firing, while pieces small enough to be moved about were, with the weak powder of that day, too puny to be of much service. They were carried into the field, of course, but were only expected to fire a shot or two at the beginning of a contest and hastily retire, making room for the infantry and cavalry BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 19 whose part it still was to do the heavy fighting. In sieges alone the early guns gave real efficiency. In those days nearly all the towns in France, as in the rest of continental Europe, were guarded by strong castles or were surrounded by high and heavy walls, to protect them against the constant attacks they suffered from hostile neighbors. Hence warfare then consisted largely of attacking and defending fortified places. At this work cannon became almost supreme. In consequence they grew to enormous size, sometimes attaining a bore of two or three and occasionally of four feet. The attacking party needed heavy balls to batter down walls, and as stone was the principal ammunition used, instead of the metal of our day, projectiles had to be bulky in order to give the necessary weight. The battering ram, which had hitherto been used for breaching walls, had to be operated immediately at the wall itself, exposing the operators to fire and missile from above. But the cannon could be set up at a safe distance and huge balls thrown deliberately at a section of masonry until it fell, permitting the infantry to rush in. With the coming of cannon, therefore, the ancient ram was displaced forever, and with it went stone walls as defenses. While the defenders of a besieged city used 20 THE GUN BOOK smaller-sized guns swiveled on the tops of their walls, to shoot at attackers, they also used tubes of huge bore. Single stones from the wall pieces could do little to check a determined rush of in- fantry, but a tube two or three feet in diameter, filled with a bushel or more of gravel stones, could scatter death broadcast in their oncoming ranks. The defensive side therefore also found the big gun best for its heavy work. Most of these mammoth guns were made of wooden staves bound with bands of iron, for we must remember that in those days metals of all kinds were very scarce and very costly. Being of wood, such old-time weapons have all decayed, so that we have no examples of their workman- ship to examine now. But they could not have been very strong and probably did not throw their projectiles large or small over a hundred yards or so; whatever distance they made beyond that was perhaps only from ricochet. A few big guns, however, like the "Dardanelles" and "Mons Meg," were made of metal and of these some remain to this day to astonish us by their great dimensions. The Hundred Years' War dragged on through its weary course of battle and siege, guns both large and small growing constantly in importance BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 21 FIG. 1. THE "MoNS MEG" (Edinburgh Castle) Made about the middle of the 15th century, this huge iron gun remains to us a most interesting relic. Its bore is 20 inches, though the powder chamber is of less diameter to decrease the bursting effect of its charge. It fired balls of stone weighing about 300 pounds. FIG. 2. THE " DARDANELLES " BRONZE GUN In 1867 the Sultan of Turkey presented this gun to Queen Vic- toria. It was made at Constantinople in 1468, is of bronze, 17 feet lon^, and weighs 18 tons. Its bore is 25 inches, with the powder chamber reduced to 10 inches. It is made in two sections which screw together, thereby making it more portable. Its projectile of stone weighed over 500 pounds. 22 THE GUN BOOK and becoming more and more commonplace in the minds of men until 1427, when Joan of Arc rode onto the scene on her black palfrey. Taking com- mand of the French armies, this strange and heroic girl warrior inspired her beaten and dis- couraged countrymen to such energy and deeds of valor that the English invaders were soon forced to sue for peace. Those familiar with Joan's almost miraculous career need not be told of the great part which firearms played in her battles. The gun, though still crude, and in our eyes inefficient, had by that time gained for itself a worthy reputation in the affairs of the soldier. About the time of Joan of Arc a different kind of cannon begins to appear commonly the hand gun, a firearm so small and light that a single man can carry it about and discharge it while holding it in his hands. It was not a new thing even then, for here and there all through the later years of the Hundred Years' War these tiny weapons are mentioned. It is natural for us to wonder why this type of gun did not sooner come to the front, for it clearly had many points to recommend it. For the cause of its tardy recog- nition we shall have to go back again to the Battle of Crecy nearly a century before. In that fight the French used cavalry almost BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 23 exclusively, men clad in armor, riding horses also partly encased in steel. Up to that time the war- fare of the Middle Ages had been principally carried on by that class of fighting men. Of those, however, the English had few, for by that time FIG. 3. EARLY HAND GUN A diminutive cannon fastened to a stick, ignited by a hot wire. From this simple, though clumsy weapon, all our hand guns are descended. knighthood had largely faded out of England, and then too the transporting of many horses across the Channel, in that day of few and small ships, was too difficult to be attempted. Edward therefore was forced to rely on foot-soldiers to make up the bulk of his army. But these were well-trained, cool-headed veterans who had learned the art of fighting in long wars with their Scottish neighbors. They were outnumbered, too, 24 THE GUN BOOK more than four to one, and in addition to that had only bows and arrows to oppose the lances and horses of the fiery French cavalry. But the result of the battle proved not only that their confidence in their own prowess was well founded, but that their simple weapons were astonishingly superior to any the French had, or ever saw before. The bows and arrows then common in conti- nental Europe were of almost no value against mailed knights, the light short missiles glancing off harmlessly from both man and horse. The French cavaliers expected therefore to charge the despised little English army and ride them down, as they had always before done in opposing bow-armed infantry. But a rude awakening was in store for these haughty cavaliers. The bow with which the Englishman was armed was much longer than the continental weapon of that class, its regulation length being the height of the man who carried it, while the arrows it shot were three feet in length. These were the famous long bow and cloth-yard shaft which were to make history, and, incidentally by their wonderful powers, help to keep the hand gun in the back- ground for centuries after. Twelve times the French knights valorously BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 25 charged the English line at Crecy, each time to be driven back with great slaughter. The long FIG. 4. ENGLISH LONG BOWMAN The supple long bow with its string drawn far back gave great impetus to the arrow. In the same manner, our slow- burning powder propels our bullet slowly at first but with increasing speed. Note the mallets for use, and even being used, in despatching the enemy wounded. Before the gun came the holding of a large body of prisoners was so difficult that they were frequently killed in droves by the captors as a measure of self-defense. flexible bow of the Briton, its string drawn to the archer's ear, discharged its heavy shaft with 26 THE GUN BOOK such speed and accuracy that the armor of the charging knight was pierced through and through. After each onslaught the field was covered with armored men pinned inside their metal plates, while skewered horses charged madly about, in- creasing the dismay and confusion. When night came the French drew off in acknowledgment of a terrible defeat and of the superiority of the long bow and cloth-yard shaft over lance and horse and plates of steel. The bowstring of the English weapon, drawn back through a long distance, stored up tre- mendous power, as compared with the ordinary short bow. When the arrow was loosed the taut string carried it forward with increasing speed and it departed with higher velocity than could be given it by any short bow that the strength of the human arm could bend. This same principle will appear when we reach the subject of our so- called "smokeless powder, " for it achieved for the gun what the long bow did for weapons of its class. Both are examples of the value of the long thrust over the short sudden stroke in pro- pelling a missile. It was not alone the range and power of the cloth-yard shafts that won for them their reputa- tion, but even more the rapidity with which they BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 27 could be discharged. It is said that a skilled English bowman could shoot twenty arrows a minute from his long bow and aim every one. He stuck the shafts in the ground in front of him, and by long training could reach them, place, and shoot them without taking his eyes from the target. The power of those arrows would carry them three hundred yards and knock down a man or horse at two hundred. Such performances would rank well even in our day of repeating rifles. It is not strange, then, that the little hand gun, capable of being fired only once in two min- utes and with a range of a hundred yards or less, had a hard time finding men to use it. At the Battle of Crecy, furthermore, still an- other weapon practically new to Europe made its appearance the crossbow. This had a short, strong bow of steel fastened to a stock, its bow- string drawn back by a small windlass at the butt and released by a trigger. It shot a short, heavy arrow called a "bolt" with range and power about equal to the cloth-yard shaft. The Crusaders had used the crossbow in their wars against the Mohammedans in the Holy Land, but until 1346 it had not been seen on European battle-fields. To help them against the English raiders, the French had hired a number of Ital- 28 THE GUN BOOK ians, mail-clad, mounted, and armed with cross- bows. It was these mercenaries with their far- flying and hard-hitting bolts that dealt to the FIG. 5. CROSSBOW, OB ABBALEST The strong steel bow was bent by means of the windlass, the ' weapon being simply a small type of the old Roman ballista. It was first seen in Europe at the Battle of Cr6cy in the hands of Italian cavalry. Cortez used it with effect during his conquest of Mexico. It was a bolt from one of these weapons that wounded Joan of Arc at the siege of Paris. Britons the severest injuries they received at Crecy. But the crossbow was too slow in operation to compete well with the English weapon, for though it had the power and accuracy, only about one shot per minute could be launched from it. The preparatory winding-up process made it far slower in operation than the long bow. In its favor, however, was the fact that its stock and trigger allowed accurate aiming even in the hands BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 29 of a novice, while the skilled English bowman was compelled to practise from boyhood to gain com- mand of his weapon. With such an advantage in its favor the crossbow from the date of Crecy on became, and for two centuries remained, one of the standard arms in every European army, as well as a favorite weapon of private citizen and sportsman. In Great Britain alone the long bow held its own against the foreign rival. The hand gun, in the meantime, though greatly overshadowed by the two bow weapons, was mak- ing slow but sturdy growth in the limited duties allotted to it. Its bearers in armies were sentinels and outpost men, the discharge of whose pieces gave quick warning of danger. In actual combat these were stationed on the army's wings and flanks to shoot from behind cover, for when at- tacked in force hand gunners could do little to protect themselves. But one fact standing out prominently in the history of warfare from the later Middle Ages on is the gradual in- crease in the proportion of hand guns to other small arms, until they finally ousted all the rest. In the case of the crossbow, heavy and slow- shooting as it was, it is not hard to see why the hand gun gained ascendency, but military and 30 THE GUN BOOK other students of arms have long been puzzled as to why the long bow in time surrendered so ab- jectly to the apparently inferior weapon. Even at the time of our Revolutionary War, when arms and ammunition were so scarce in the Colonies, Franklin wrote to Charles Lee, who was then fortifying the port of New York City : But I still wish that pikes could be introduced, and I would add bows and arrows. These were good weapons, not lightly laid aside : (1) Because a man may shoot as truly with a bow as with a common musket. (2) He can discharge four arrows in the time of charging and discharging one bullet. (3) His object is not taken from his view by the smoke of his own side. (4) A flight of arrows, seen coming upon them, ter- rifies and disturbs the enemies' attention to their business. (5) An arrow striking in any part of a man puts him hors-du-combat till it is extracted. (6) Bows and arrows are more easily provided every- where than muskets and ammunition. When a level-headed man like Franklin could write thus as late as 1776, we may be sure that the hand gun had some virtue not readily recog- nized that gained for it preeminence over the bow. The generally accepted view is that the gun with its fire and smoke and noise created fright in the BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 31 hearts of an enemy being fired upon, which quali- ties were wanting in the bow; that these things got on men's nerves and made them want to run away rather from panic than from fear of the actual destructive powers of the leaden missiles. And while there certainly is much truth in this theory, other and different factors too often for- gotten must at the same time be considered. Among our American Indians, one of the most enjoyed games of the boys was to stand off fifty yards or so and shoot blunt-headed arrows at each other, the fun for both players and on- lookers being in the antics of the human target in avoiding the well-aimed shafts. Seldom, if ever, did an arrow strike its mark. At times the older youths, wanting more hazard in their sport, would exchange shots with arrows steel- pointed and razor-sharp. So skilful were these fellows in judging an arrow's course that by a single step to one side or by merely standing still the deadly missile was cheated and whizzed innocently past. The same dangerous pastime was also indulged in with tomahawks and knives instead of bows and arrows, but always with the same harmless results. The writer has often wit- nessed these games and has at times taken part in them, but never saw an injury occur. Is it 32 THE GUN BOOK not probable, therefore, that a few minutes' ob- servation of these Indian boys at play would convince military critics that the bullet, even though short-ranged and inaccurate compared with the arrow, had advantages other than ac- companying smoke and noise? It is invisible. There is no dodging of it. The arrow can be seen and avoided, but the man in front of a gun, and within range, is helpless after the missile starts on its way. Of course when arrows were shot in great num- bers, dodging them was out of the question, but this situation, even to the soldier in war, was infrequent compared with the many other occa- sions when the threatened man, seeing a shaft or two approaching him, could avoid injury by changing his position. How can we doubt, there- fore, that the ability to fly to its mark unseen was the bullet's chief advantage in its contest against the arrow! The bullet was superior to the arrow, too, in another vital respect; it was less affected in its flight by cross winds. The arrow, while present- ing only a small area to the atmosphere in its forward progress, presented a large surface to winds coming at it from the side or at an angle. The bowman, therefore, had to estimate the BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 33 probable extent of deflection by the wind and allow for it in aiming. This introduced an ele- ment of guesswork practically insurmountable. The bullet of course felt the effect of cross winds in its flight, but in far less degree than the long wooden shaft. The earliest hand gun was a simple tube of iron or bronze fastened to a stick, by which it was held. The firer seems to have held the weapon with one hand, the stick passing under his arm, the free hand being used only to apply igniting fire. The recoil of this crude hand cannon must have been severe even with weak charges, for the bore was large in proportion to its weight; and the projectiles, to fill the tube, had to be of substantial size. To meet the shock of recoil the shape of the wooden piece was soon changed, its butt end being made short and broad, which permitted its being placed against breast or thigh in firing, thus using the body to resist the backward thrust. The first great change appeared in the form of the hand gun shortly before Columbus sailed for America, when the stock was bent and its length increased to allow firing from the shoulder. This was the "hack-butt" or "hack-bush," mean- ing "hook gun," which the French afterward THE GUN BOOK FIG. 6. EARLY TYPES OF STOCKS Used on arquebus and musket. They include both wheel-lock and snaphance igniters. BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 35 named the arquebuse, the word "arque" being the French equivalent for "hook," or "hack," as the Germans pronounced it. So valuable was the curving stock which distinguished the arquebuse that we use it today and count it one of the greatest inventions relating to hand gunnery, be- cause it not only permits the firer to get his eye down parallel with the barrel for sighting, but another benefit conferred by it, one probably un- foreseen by its originators, is that it has the peculiar effect of softening the shock of recoil against the body. How this comes about we shall see in a later chapter. The arquebuse quickly displaced the simple hand cannon that preceded it, and down to the middle of the sixteenth century remained the standard small firearm. It was generally about three feet long over all, had a bore of about three- quarters of an inch, and weighed about ten pounds. Its range could not have been over a hundred yards, while a shot in two minutes was a fair average of its rapidity in firing. Hunters used it a little, and in every army a few arquebusiers were present; but the sword, pike, and arrow were the chief military weapons through all the days of the arquebuse. Not until about 1540 did the hand gun become 36 THE GUN BOOK a very formidable weapon. It was then that the Spaniards produced the arm they called the "moschetto," after a small hawk, which name has come down to us in the word musket. The FIG. 7. SPANISH MUSKETEER, 16TH CENTURY The Spanish musket was of large bore and very heavy. It was the parent of our modern rifle. Note the soldier's bandolier with cartridges attached; also his sword, to be used for fighting at close quarters. The match is held in the left hand. Spanish musket departed widely from the arque- buse, though principally in size. Instead of being a mere yard in length, weighing ten or twelve pounds, the new arm was from six to seven feet long and weighed forty or fifty pounds. Two men were required to use it to best advantage; while a necessary part of its equipment was a BEGINNINGS OF THE GUN 37 forked stick, upon which to rest its ponderous barrel in firing. Loading it, of course, was slow, and accuracy was not one of its assets; but in power and range it was a weapon not to be lightly regarded. In outward form our gun of today is prac- tically a copy of the Spanish musket, reduction in size being the principal alteration in its general appearance. Better workmanship and stronger metal in the next three hundred years made the musket a lighter, more accurate gun, but the bore never became less than about three-quarters of an inch ; while the effective range remained about the same as that of the old Spanish weapon, two hundred yards or less. As it is our design in this book to treat of general principles rather than to make a cata- logue of ancient relics, we must here ignore many of the curious and interesting firearms and at- tachments produced during the early centuries. These experimental guns and devices varied in all possible respects, as inventors tried out this or that idea, which was frequently ingenious and possessed of worthy features, though adding nothing in the end to the development of the standard gun. Besides bending its stock and lessening its 38 THE GUN BOOK weight and size, the only notable changes made in the hand gun from its earliest days down to about 1800 were in the methods of ignition. Of these there were several of great importance, which will be viewed in detail in the next chapter. CHAPTER III PROGRESS IN IGNITION no part of the gun has more thought and labor been expended than upon the means of touching off the charge after the weapon is loaded. Indeed, for the first three or four cen- turies this seems to have been the chief subject over which gun inventors pondered, and it was here that they gained the most ground in over- coming the difficulties with which nature has beset firearms from the beginning. It is likely that the very birth of the gun was delayed by the failure to solve the puzzle of getting fire into the powder charge behind the projectile. Support is given this view by the recent finding of ancient cannon which had apparently no means of ignition other than by a train of powder leading in at the muzzle, and past a loosely fitting projectile. While the making of a small hole at the breech, through which only a comparatively slight proportion of the whole body of gas could escape, seems a ridiculously 39 40 THE GUN BOOK simple contrivance, the same can be said of any invention after it is made. As an example of this truth, consider how many thousands of years the world waited vainly for a machine that would sew cloth, until Elias Howe accomplished the fact, chiefly by transferring the eye of the needle from its blunt end to a place near its point. At any rate, the existence of those old ventless cannon proves the interesting fact that their makers did not know of or did not have faith in ignition through a small hole in the breech of the piece. Furthermore, the relationship between cannon and squib is made clear because both were ignited in the same way, that is, from the open end of the powder tube. As for the hand gun, however, the first ones were fired by means of the vent at the breech, through which a heated wire was inserted. So far as simplicity and certainty are concerned this was the best mode of ignition ever devised, not even excepting our own method by use of the percussion primer. The igniting heat was car- ried directly to the place where it was wanted, without any intermediate step or complication, thus avoiding the aggravating misfires which were the bane of gunners from the time the hot wire was abandoned down almost to our day. PROGRESS IN IGNITION 41 This trouble we are practically free from, though only through the use of firing apparatus which is costly and produced only by skilled hands and delicate machinery. But the hot wire was subject to the obvious objection that, unless a fire were handy in which to heat it, the whole gun became useless and its bearer remained practically unarmed. For hand gunners who were expected to move about the maintaining of this fire was troublesome at best and frequently impossible. Cannoneers, however, did not find the obstacle so serious, for their pieces were more or less stationary even in bat- tle, which permitted the keeping of a convenient blaze with wires or rods of iron constantly red hot. Hence this mode of ignition was used successfully with artillery long after the hand gunner had found another and, for his purposes, a more satisfactory device. About the year 1500 the wire igniter was dis- carded for small arms, being succeeded by the "match," which was really a fuse made of a piece of twisted hemp or tow four or five feet long, soaked in saltpeter solution, and dried. The match ends, when lighted, smoldered for an hour or more, keeping a live coal ready for use, and a number of them in succession would burn for 42 THE GUN BOOK an entire day if required, though in rainy weather the keeping of the match alight was prac- tically impossible, at which times hand gunners took an enforced vacation. There have been bat- tles where the tide of success was turned by an FIG. 8. THE MATCH-LOCK An old form of gun lock in which a " match " in the form of a twisted cord of tow or hemp, soaked in saltpeter solution and dried, was used for firing the priming. oncoming shower which wet the matches of the soldiery and put them temporarily out of action. Aside from its uselessness when wet, the match brought with it other tribulations not known in the days of the hot wire, to vex and disappoint the gunner. The vent-hole in the breech of the gun had, of course, to be kept small, or else ruin- ous gas leakage would occur, and in the use of the wire the small vent was no objection. To make the orifice large enough to admit the end of a thick fuse into the powder charge would have PROGRESS IN IGNITION 43 given the gas opportunity to waste its strength at the breech. As the vent had therefore to be kept small at all cost, the plan adopted was to form on the top of the gun barrel a bowl-like depression called a "pan," from the bottom of which the vent led down into the powder charge below. Into this ^pan the gunner, in preparing for his shot, poured a little fine powder, called priming powder, some of which dropped into the vent connecting with the charge. When the match end touched the priming in the pan there was a flash, the flame following down the powder-filled vent, discharging the piece. This process is described rather fully because that tiny train of priming powder in the vent-hole, simple and unerring as it would seem to be on mere inspection, brought the gun into more dis- repute through five centuries of its existence than any other feature connected with it. Throughout all the firing devices we are now about to ex- amine, this minute but important train of ex- plosive is present, though so constantly failing to work that up to a century ago it was a lucky hand gunner whose weapon did not misfire more than once in ten shots. If the priming had al- ways formed an unbroken column from the pan to the powder charge, of course a misfire would have THE GUN BOOK g> PROGRESS IN IGNITION 45 been practically impossible, but its continuity was being constantly broken either by failure of the priming to fill the hole completely, or by the accumulation of powder ash in the orifice which choked it up. The result was that unless extreme care were taken in the preparation of every shot the gunner never could be sure whether or not his weapon would go off. The unreliable qualities of this little powder column have played an important part in his- tory. In 1745 the great Olive, sick and de- spondent in India, twice snapped a flint-lock pistol at his head and, failing to make it go off, decided to give life another trial, with the result that his further career probably saved India to the British Empire. Again, in our Revo- lutionary War, Washington once escaped with his life because a British soldier's musket missed fire and without our great Revolutionary leader we might have remained a British province. Even in the days of percussion caps the evil of misfires continued, as will be recalled by those familiar with Parkman's California and Oregon Trail, wherein he describes his chagrin at hav- ing his weapon fail him from this cause, while hunting buffalo on the plains. It is only by such recollections as these that we are made to ap- 46 THE GUN BOOK predate duly the great boon we enjoy in our present, practically infallible ignition. Until late in the fifteenth century the gunner held his weapon in one hand and touched it off with a match held in the other. Shortly before Columbus sailed for the Indies, however, a great improvement was made over this crude system of manipulation. The match was fastened to a large hook pivoted to the side of the gun, the lower end serving as a trigger by which the nose of the hook carrying the lighted match could be thrown down into the priming-pan. The obvious value of this contrivance was to allow the gunner to support the weapon with both hands, effecting the ignition by a finger, instead of a whole arm and hand. At first the hook was placed in front of the pan, though its position was afterward at the rear of it. Then the pan itself was shifted from the top of the barrel to its side, where the priming powder it contained gained better pro- tection from wind, always before that a serious detriment in blustery weather. From its resem- blance to a snake's head and neck, the hook de- rived the name, "serpentine," which title soon became not only a common name for the weapon thus equipped, but also for the dust-like powder of those days used both in small arms and cannon. PROGRESS IN IGNITION 47 We must be careful, therefore, in reading all writ- ings about the gun, for the name serpentine ap- plied to three separate and distinct things. The better name for the gun with hook and trigger, and the one best known, is "match-lock," describ- ing its means of ignition, which remained the standard firing system until well into the seven- teenth century. During all the intervening time, however, men remained satisfied with the match-lock only be- cause they had nothing better in its place. The keeping of the match alight through rain or storm was a great care even when possible at all, and in those days fire was so difficult to obtain that even the first lighting of the match was not easy. As stone and steel struck together were then the original source of all combustion, an unknown German, about the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury, decided that if he could arrange these ma- terials so as to strike fire directly into the pan of his gun, instead of first lighting a fuse for the purpose, he could thereby eliminate the trouble- some match altogether. He tried it and suc- ceeded, producing the wheel-lock. * This device was regarded as extremely com- plicated in its day, and even seems somewhat so to us when explained in writing, though the prin- 48 THE GUN BOOK ciple upon which it worked can be readily under- stood by any one who has seen sparks fly from a dry grindstone when a steel tool is held against Courtesy of the Century Company FIG. 10. THE WHEEL-LOCK a, Lock plate, supporting all the lock mechanism; &, wheel, with grooves of V-section to form circumferential edges; c, chain connecting the axle of 6 with the extremity of the mainspring d; e, trigger ; /, flash-pan ; g, the serpentine holding the flint ; h, spring which presses the flint upon the wheel in firing, or holds it away when winding up the lock; k, sear and sear-spring, the sear engaging the wheel by a short stud entering recesses in the side of the wheel; i, wrench, fitted to the axle of 6, for winding up the chain, and having a hollow handle for measuring out the priming powder. its face. In the wheel-lock, however, the stone itself did not revolve, but a rough-edged wheel of steel spun against it, driven by a spring. A key wound it up, and when the trigger was pulled the stone (pyrites), attached to a lever, came PROGRESS IN IGNITION 49 down into the pan, pressing against the wheel, which protruded upward into the pan from below. Thus sparks were produced in the pan itself, where lay the priming powder, and when it flashed the gun went off. But the wheel-lock was too costly and too frail to win a large place in warfare then the prin- cipal use made of guns. The average soldier in that day was unfamiliar with machinery of every kind, and the springs and levers of the new de- vice were more than he could manage and keep in working trim. Yet in spite of its defects, Gus- tavus Adolphus armed a large number of his men with these weapons, obtaining good service from them, and at the same time they became almost instantly popular with those in private life who wanted guns for self-protection. Furthermore, with the coming of the wheel-lock, hunting with guns may be said to have begun one of the chief uses ever since for firearms. There was one position in all European armies of that time where the wheel-lock, and the snap- hance which grew up practically alongside of it, had peculiar value. This was in connection with artillery and artillerists. The heavy guns were commonly handled by laborers who were not soldiers at all but were picked up wherever they 50 THE GUN BOOK were handiest, bound and forced, usually against their will, into the fight. A chief gunner and a few apprentices in control commanded these "roustabouts," as we should call them, but when a battle began they had to be unbound and some one had to help keep the poor fellows from run- ning away. Hence with every train of artillery was a squad of guards, whose duty it was to keep FIG. 11. THE SNAPHANCE the frightened crew at work and to shoot them down if they tried to escape. Thus also grew up the marine corps on shipboard. As it was necessary when in action to keep open powder barrels standing around the guns, and even customary through a long period actually to mix the powder ingredients on the battle-field, soldiers with lighted matches were dangerous companions. When the powder was being mixed, too, it gave off a dust that was highly inflammable. Thus the desirability of the stone and steel igniting devices for muskets of the guards is ap- PROGRESS IN IGNITION 51 parent. These squads immediately adopted the new arm, and from them as a nucleus the use of the friction igniter gradually spread until the smoldering match was elbowed out entirely. The " snaphance," which appeared shortly after the wheel-lock, and the flint-lock were really Courtesy of the Century Company. FIG. 12. THE FLINT-LOCK one and the same, the latter being only an im- proved form of the other. In them a piece of rough-faced steel sloped down into the pan, while the stone, pyrites in the first and flint in the latter, was snapped down against it with a scraping action, throwing sparks into the priming powder. In the final form taken on by the flint-lock the steel scraper became part of a cover which pro- tected the pan from wind and dampness, and which the flint pushed up as it came down. The flint-lock proper, which came into common use 52 THE GUN BOOK shortly prior to 1700, lived and gave good service for a hundred and fifty years, though when the chemist gave us the percussion cap in 1830 it began slowly to disappear. With it were fought our French and Indian Wars, as well as those of the Revolution and of 1812. Even as late as 1880 the writer has seen flint-locks carried and used on the northwestern frontier, mostly in the hands of Indians from the wilds of Canada. In secluded districts in our Southern states the ancient arm is still carried by old backwoodsmen, who con- tinue to find virtue in it, chiefly because a flint can be picked up almost anywhere, while for caps or cartridges a store must be sought. This great advantage kept flint-locks in the hands of the frontiersmen long after the caps were introduced, though as the country settled up this reason failed and the flint-lock is now only a relic. NOTE: The following extract from a list of arms sent from England to Plymouth, published in the Records of Massachusetts, volume 1, page 6, gives an excellent description of the arms (as well as of the spelling) of the early colonists: 1628 A.D. Armes ffor 100 men. 80 Bastard musketts wth snaphances, 4 foote in the barril, without rests. PROGRESS IN IGNITION 53 06 longe ffowling peeces with bastard muskett boare, 6 foote longe. 4 longe ffowling peeces with bastard muskett boare 5% foote longe. 10 fful musketts, 4 foote in the barril with match cocks and rests. 90 bandoleeres for the musketts, ech wth a bullet bag. 10 Home fflasks, for the longe ffowling peeces to hould a X apeece. (The "ffull muskett boare" was about one inch. The bastard bore was about one-fourth smaller.) CHAPTER IV ABOUT GUNPOWDER IN an ancient writing on the art of gunnery we read that: "A cannoneer must always love and serve God, for every time he fires a gun or makes powder, he may be killed." Whether we agree with this reasoning or not, the statement calls to our attention two facts of interest the occupa- tion of a gunner was a hazardous one, and in addition to his duty to train and fire his guns on the enemy, he was also a maker of powder. It will be noticed, too, that this old writer does not mention the danger of being killed by the enemy's shot; it is his own creations he most fears. And it did take a brave man to be a gunner in those perilous days, when faulty cannon burst without warning and defective powder would ex- plode fiercely at one shot, and perhaps fail even to drive the projectile from its tube at the next. James II of Scotland was blown up while watch- ing a cannon being tested. As we are following 54 ABOUT GUNPOWDER 55 the course of the hand gun and not that of the cannon, we are interested in this old-time hero only as he filled his function of official powder maker of his army. On him the arquebusier and musketeer for many years relied for their dole of explosives. For the first three hundred years of the gun's existence, cannoneers all belonged to a secret so- ciety much like a union, the principal objects of which were to keep wages up, to guard from the public the secrets of the art they followed, and to exchange information among themselves. They were not soldiers and did not wear uni- forms, their sole badge of office being the leathern apron they wore when mixing powder. Appren- tices were admitted to the union and allowed to advance through several "degrees" until they finally achieved the high honor of "master gun- ners." But as none of these men had the slightest knowledge of the basic principles of gunpowder, it is not surprising that the art of gunnery ad- vanced so slowly. Some of them claimed for their powder the virtue of much smoke, some declared their product would give great noise, while others vowed that they could mix a charge of such magic qualities that it would shoot projectiles unusually 56 THE GUN BOOK straight. Indeed the general ignorance which long prevailed regarding the explosive was sur- prising. As late as 1702 De la Hire, a French scientist then eminent, gave as his mature opinion that the projectile was expelled from the gun be- cause of the expansion of the air among the grains when the powder burned. The creation of gases during the explosion seemed to be even unguessed. It is only within the last hundred years that the gas-making qualities of powder have become to any extent common knowledge, while only within sixty years, commencing with the labors of General Rodman of the United States Army just prior to the Civil War, has the study of explosive propulsion taken on the dignity of a science. The procuring of saltpeter was ever a serious problem with the powder makers of former times. In the Oriental countries it was plentiful, but transportation of the material from that source was so difficult that supplies nearer home were much to be desired. Though nature is constantly producing saltpeter everywhere that plants abound to give decayed vegetable matter, Europe never seemed to produce it very plentifully; by dint of hard labor and much ingenuity, however, considerable quantities of the salt could always ABOUT GUNPOWDER 57 be had. It was found that the stone walls of old stables contained good percentages of saltpeter absorbed from manure, which could be extracted by soaking the broken mortar from the masonry in water and evaporating the liquor. The sides of ancient underground vaults encrusted with the white deposit were scraped and washed to get the small contributions they afforded. In every Eu- ropean country where firearms were used, official squads existed whose duty it was, both in peace and war, to search for these scanty sources of supply and to garner the precious chemical. Slow and laborious as the process was, tens of thou- sands of pounds were by such methods annually brought into the national arsenals. The presence of saltpeter in those old walls and in deposits formed by waters seeping through decaying vegetable matter, led men later on to try producing the drug by imitating nature's methods. Thus came into existence the industry long important in Europe, known as niter farm- ing. In this process beds of mingled manure and earth were prepared, each so arranged that it could be kept warm and dark; and to permit free admission of air to the mass the contents of the bed were frequently stirred. Experience taught that these steps brought best results. 58 THE GUN BOOK After a few weeks of this treatment, wood-ashes were added to the mixture, and then the whole soaked in water. The liquor obtained when evaporated left in the bottom of the containing vessel a coating of white crystals of saltpeter. The niter farmer of olden times did not know why he did things in this manner, but only that in so doing he in the end obtained a small quantity of the prized chemical. Science has since taught us that the process produced saltpeter chiefly through the action of certain bacteria, tiny plants which thrive in decaying vegetable matter which is kept damp, dark, and warm. What we call decay is simply the destruction of vegetable fibers by other plants feeding upon them. The bacteria in question, in thus sustaining their own lives, caused nitric acid (HN0 3 ) to form; and as wood- ashes contain potassium (K), the acid seizes it when the two come in contact, forming potassium nitrate (KN0 3 ), or saltpeter. The nitrate farmer had invented nothing new, but, by creating favora- ble conditions, allowed Nature to hurry her proc- esses faster than when human hands did not in- terfere. During the century and a half preceding 1850 niter beds produced a large part of the saltpeter used in European countries. But about the latter ABOUT GUNPOWDER 59 date a new, cheap, and abundant supply of the chemical became available for the powder maker. In northern Chile occur immense deposits of sodium nitrate (NaN0 3 ), which, it will be noted, is like saltpeter, except that it contains sodium instead of potassium. Sodium nitrate, with sul- phur and charcoal, makes almost as good an ex- plosive as the saltpeter mixture, but has the un- desirable quality of seizing moisture from the atmosphere, which renders its burning powers variable. The Chilean chemical standing alone therefore did not aid in the search for a cheap explosive. In Germany, however, there existed huge quantities of another earth-bearing potas- sium chloride (KC1) ; and it was discovered, when the Chilean earth and that from Germany were dissolved together in water, saltpeter and common salt formed as follows: NaN0 3 +KCl= KN0 3 +NaCl. Thus when brought together these two earths, placed by nature almost on opposite sides of the globe, voluntarily exchanged their atoms to form two different compounds, the one to help destroy human life and the other to pre- serve it. The Chilean and German chemicals were to be had in untold amounts and were easily mined and transported; so that at last the powder maker 60 THE GUN BOOK was supplied with saltpeter cheap and plentiful. The powder used in our Civil War, as well as that used in all of the great European wars in the latter half of the nineteenth century, came from this source. The niter farm was no more and the farmer who tended it had to turn to other means for livelihood. The scarcity of saltpeter led the early powder makers to form their explosive mixtures with too little of this ingredient and with an excess of charcoal or sulphur; the powdei; so made was weak, and because the elements were only partly burned, much smoke and ash resulted. As salt- peter became more plentiful in later days, through better methods of production and cheaper transportation, the percentage of it used was in- creased, with consequent improvement in the ex- plosive. But this custom of changing the propor- tions of the ingredients according to the supply of each at hand, gives an insight into the rule-of- thumb methods which long governed the manu- facture of powder. A good black powder mixture for firearms, and the one now generally used for arms requiring that kind of explosive, is made of six parts by weight of saltpeter and one part each of charcoal and sulphur. ABOUT GUNPOWDER 61 The chemical symbols for these substances are : saltpeter, KN0 3 , carbon, C, and sulphur, S. Upon burning, these ingredients change into two solids, potassium carbonate (K 2 C0 3 ), and potassium sul- phate (K 2 S0 4 ), and three gases, nitrogen (N), carbon dioxide (C0 2 ), and carbon monoxide (CO). Expressed as a chemical formula or reaction, what takes place when the explosive burns is approximately : 4KN0 3 +C 4 +S=K 2 C0 3 +K 2 S0 4 + N 4 +2C0 2 +CO. It will be noticed that all of the carbon has united with oxygen from the saltpeter, pro- ducing either gases or different solids. Fifty- seven per cent of the powder we began with remains as solids or ash, while forty-three per cent has turned into the three gases indicated. The space occupied by the new products, how- ever, has so wonderfully increased that one cubic inch of powder will now fill 280 cubic inches at ordinary atmospheric pressure. That means that in burning gunpowder we multiply its bulk 280 times. The pressures thus created are remarkable. Powder exploded in a small chamber strong and tight enough to prevent leakage will press against each square inch of the cavity's surface with a force of over thirty tons. What this mighty 62 THE GUN BOOK power is we may slightly comprehend when we remember that the strongest steam boilers do not carry pressures of more than three hundred pounds to the square inch. When fired in the gun, of course, no such force is exerted, for the cold metal walls of the tube cool and shrink the gases considerably and the projectile moving for- ward before the whole charge is burned gives space for expansion. But ten to fifteen tons is an ordinary pressure for black powder fired in rifle or cannon. The burning of powder in a gun is much the same operation as burning wood in a stove, except that with the latter air must be admitted or there will be little or no combustion. In both cases we cause carbon to unite with oxygen to produce heat and to form gas. The carbon in the wood takes its oxygen slowly from the air and we get a fire. The peculiarity of gunpowder, however, is that it carries with it its own carbon and oxygen, both in solid form, and atoms of the two when slightly heated jump suddenly together, producing not a slow fire but a quick one, which we call an ex- plosion. The gases produced by the wood fire pass leisurely up the chimney; those formed by powder in the gun barrel, firmly resisted by iron walls on all sides except one, rush violently out ABOUT GUNPOWDER 63 of the muzzle, carrying the obstructing bullet ahead of them. Thus we have a shot. While we have learned much about how the atoms of carbon and oxygen come together to produce a bulky gas, we know little about why they so act. We only know that the minute par- ticles have a strange desire to leap into each other's arms when brought close together and slightly heated. In the operation they produce heat and create a new gaseous compound. For the sake of giving a name to this force, we call it " chemical affinity." The sulphur in the powder mixture seems to aid the atoms of carbon and oxygen in coming together ; it ignites readily and produces the required preliminary heat. Increase of sulphur makes the explosion much more vio- lent, while a smaller percentage allows the pow- der to burn more slowly. By varying the sulphur content, then, we can, to a certain extent, make quick or slow powder as we wish. Whether the ancient "fire powder " which pre- ceded the gun, and of which crackers and rockets were made, was the same as our gunpowder is not altogether certain. If you will put a dab of saltpeter on the end of a splinter and hold it in the fire it will sputter in a lively manner as the oxygen from it unites with the carbon of the 64 THE GUN BOOK wood, for even without sulphur, carbon and salt- peter will make a mild explosive. We are quite sure that the Orientals used saltpeter and char- coal in their powder, for we have never found them using anything else, and they had these ma- terials in abundance. It has been argued, how- ever, that they did not use sulphur in their mix- ture because their two chief types of fireworks, the cracker and the squib, could both be made of saltpeter and charcoal alone, while if sulphur had been added the rocket and pinwheel would have burst without moving. But this contention loses sight of the fact that gunpowder, if slightly damp- ened, will burn slowly enough to make excellent rockets ; again, if the powder be ground very fine and tamped tightly into a rocket tube it will burn so slowly as to carry the apparatus up without bursting it. But the most we know concerning the matter is that about 1265, when Roger Bacon first described gunpowder for us, sulphur was an important part of the compound. Although Bacon distinctly stated that the three ingredients were to be finely ground, mixed, and wetted in order to get the best results, the powder makers, for more than two centuries after guns came into use, insisted in omitting the wetting process and using the stuff in dry "dust-like form, ABOUT GUNPOWDER 65 calling it, as we have seen, ' ' serpentine. ' ' When mixed beforehand and hauled about in jolting carts, or carried in powder flasks, the ingredients had the disagreeable habit of forming themselves into layers, the heavier saltpeter going to the bottom and the fluffy charcoal rising to the top. To prevent this, the materials had to be carried separately and not mixed until actually ready to go into action; thus, as we have seen, giving rise to danger of premature explosions, and making welcome the advent of the guards armed with wheel-lock muskets instead of match-locks. 4 ' Thrust the poudre home faire and softly," said an old writer in giving advice on the loading of guns. The warning was then important, for when serpentine was rammed hard into the barrel it would not explode. The mass was too solid for fire to penetrate it and the bullet might or might not be pushed out. This behavior of serpentine was very puzzling to the gunners of that day, for they knew only the result and not the cause of it. It is no wonder they called it "devilish stuff." The peculiarity, however, was due to a very sim- ple principle of all burning. When flame attacks a solid it must consume it from the outside inward toward the center, and this action, even with gunpowder grains, takes 66 THE GUN BOOK time. In general the bigger the lump the slower will be the combustion, just as we see a. large chunk of coal lie smoldering in the fire long after the smaller pieces, the same in total quantity, are reduced to ashes. The tightly rammed serpentine became a compact lump burning leisurely or not at all. When "thrust home faire and softly" it burned rather satisfactorily, but in clumsy hands faulty loading of the black dust gave constant trouble. One shot would be violent and the next a failure, according to the force applied in load- ing the gun. In the latter part of the sixteenth century the practice began of wetting the powder during manufacture, and this in time became the standard method. The dampened powder when dried into cakes and broken up remained in tiny lumps or flakes, from which the dust was sifted. It was then called " corned powder." Transported, it did not cause separation into layers as with ser- pentine; and the loading of guns, too, became a less delicate operation, for the granular powder could not easily be rammed too tight. Corned powder proved to be much more violent in its explosion than serpentine. This fact was due to the principles governing burning materials al- ready alluded to. The finely pulverized serpen- ABOUT GUNPOWDER 67 tine retarded the circulation of flame through it, and hence its rate of burning was slow; while the grained powder had vacant spaces between the granules, which allowed free access for the igniting fire, resulting in rapid combustion. In hand guns the tubes could rather easily be made strong enough to withstand the shock of the more sudden explosive, because a small tube, having fewer square inches on its interior, presents less surface to the pressure of gases. But the use of corned powder in cannon was not permissible for a long time after its manufacture began, be- cause the great guns burst or swelled under the increased strain. It was half a century before cannoneers discovered that corned powder could also be used in their weapons, provided the grains were made so large that they were rather slowly consumed. Thenceforth powder for large and small guns differed chiefly in the size of their grains, and serpentine passed out of use for all purposes. The making of powder into grains has become an important and rather complicated process in our day. The effort is made not only to make all kernels the same size, but of the same -shape as well ; for the spherical grain will not burn as fast as one made more nearly flat, since the latter 68 THE GUN BOOK exposes more surface and therefore burns more quickly. Unless the grains are uniform the burn- ing will vary between one charge and another, and inaccurate shooting will result. Our powder is also much less bulky than that of days gone by; 'for in the process of manufacture it is sub- jected to heavy pressure, which not only makes it very compact, but the hardened grains burn more slowly than soft grains would. After the compressed cakes are broken up into grains, this hardness also permits their surfaces to be pol- ished until they shine, and they thereby resist dampness far more successfully than did the old serpentine or corned powder. But gunpowder (with all its virtues, old and new) has never been a perfect propellant. Its explosion is either too fast or too slow, and there has been no successful middle ground yet discovered. When made to burn slowly the proportions of its ingredients are not right for perfect combustion; hence a large percentage of its mass remains in the weapon unburned, being not only wasted, but clogging up the bore, to the detriment of the next shot. If correct proportions of the materials be used the. explosion is like a sudden blow against the projectile, tending to crush it and burst the gun, instead of giving the long push down ABOUT GUNPOWDER 69 the barrel that gives speed with minimum of shock. Merely changing the size, shape, and hardness of the powder grains gives considerable leeway in regulating the force of the explosion, but not enough to gain the desired results. This great defect in gunpowder has led to the invention of nitro or smokeless powders which can be made to burn as slowly or as fast as may be wanted. The astonishing improvements in gunnery brought in by the new explosives are too many to be mentioned here and will therefore have to be reserved for a future chapter. Hence gunpowder is now on its way to oblivion along with serpentine and the arquebuse. Though we welcome the new explosives that take its place, there is something solemn about this passing of our long-time friend. It is one of the few links that remain to connect our modern with the an- cient world, and though it has wrought much woe to mankind at times, it has, on the whole, been a faithful worker for human liberty. Let us therefore give it at least a kindly thought as it into the distance behind us. CHAPTER V GOOD WORKS WROUGHT BY THE GUN AT the Battle of Crecy in 1346 the long bow, crossbow, and cannon all began their careers as arms of world-wide importance, but that contest witnessed another revelation of more far-reach- ing effect than the mere introduction of new and deadly weapons. It was proven on that hard- fought field that common men, when armed and trained, had the heart to stand up and fight against aristocrats, a fact that the latter class in continental Europe had long refused to be- lieve. Crecy marked the beginning of the rise of the infantry soldier and the downfall of the mailed horseman. The reversal did not all come at once, of course, but when started kept on until completed. The effect of this change of positions was very great. It meant that a king or petty prince could no longer declare war at his own caprice, and with a small band of mounted, steel-protected knights proceed to ravage the territory and 70 GOOD WORKS WROUGHT BY THE GUN 71 .murder the inhabitants of a neighboring state. The sound beating the English footmen admin- istered to the French nobles at Crecy gave new courage and confidence to every peasant and artisan, men who for centuries before had been compelled to cringe in the presence of those they had been taught were their betters. The truth is that infantry properly armed and trained to act in unison has always been stronger than cavalry; for the latter 's best weapon is the horse, and horses have always been vulnerable to the spear or strong-shooting missile weapon. But in the Middle Ages the leisure classes kept to themselves the sport of fighting, and there was no one to drill the footmen, who therefore did not know their strength. A man who worked with his hands was not permitted to become a knight ; , he was an inferior with whom no comradeship was possible. The art of fighting on horseback with lance and sword required long practice ; and even if the common man had possessed the elab- orate equipment necessary, this practice could not be gained in secret. For a farmer or carpenter to be caught with arms was in itself a crime, frequently punishable with death. In cold fact, the peasant actually belonged to the lord who owned the land upon which the peasant lived, and 72 THE GUN BOOK was bought and sold with the land, just as were the cattle in the pastures of the domain. The poor fellow did not even own his own body and could not leave his master 's farm boundaries with- FIG. 13. A KNIGHT IN ARMOR out special consent. It is no wonder then that the ordinary man live!Di Vef end before /Is point ispul/eddo by rotational fort FIG. 59. This illustration shows how the bullet starts off toward B with the air pressing squarely against its point; and how after some progress has been made along the curve A-C, the air resistance meets the bullet from below; rotational force then pulls the point down as indicated. But further along the trajectory curve the air pressure again comes from below, necessitating another rotational pull downward. This process really begins shortly after the projectile leaves the muzzle and is repeated again and again as long as the flight continues, or as long as rotational force is equal to its task. than the butt, and is further forced upward by the air pressure against the lower side of the projectile, the whole body would promptly turn a somersault unless some force prevented. To prevent this catastrophe is the duty of the spin imparted by the rifle grooves. Let us analyze briefly the contortions of the 218 THE GUN BOOK poor bewildered bullet in its efforts to obey the commands of these three contending masters gravity, air resistance, and rotational force. The missile starts valiantly toward B up in the sky, but ends its flight ignominiously on the ground at C. What has happened to the unoffending bit of metal in the meantime, and how has it com- ported itself as it strives to obey the contradictory commands? The wh'ole story of its tribulations cannot be told, for we still have much to learn upon the subject ; some of the facts, however, are in our possession. With air and gravity eliminated the bullet would fly truly to the target C in a straight line without requiring spin. But having these two factors to contend with, we must aim our pro- jectile at B in order to have it reach C. No amount of spin will compel the missile to keep its point aimed directly at B during its journey to C, because the resistance of the air keeps com- ing more strongly from below as the different positions are reached in the trajectory curve, and the further the long body is tipped upward by this pressure, the more surface is presented to the wind and progress thereby impeded. Air re- sistance is least when the projectile is meeting the air exactly point on, and this is the position PRANKS OF LONG-POINTED BULLET 219 which the rotational force assists the missile to keep, the strong desire of this force being to bring the projectile into the line of least resist- ance and to keep it there. So that the more spin we impart to our bullet the more surely will its point and body stay in, or nearly in, the trajectory curve. Our bullet is, we know, aimed upward at the beginning of a long flight; under normal condi- tions and within reasonable range the missile will hit its target almost exactly point first; if a screen be set up just past the middle of the flight, the bullet will pass through it in a horizontal direction. Thus we are assured of the truth of our theory that the projectile, if spinning fast, is never very far from being in line with the curve of trajectory. In tracing the holes made by the bullet in pass- ing through rows of screens, and in experiments with a spinning projectile so hinged as to permit free movement while a blast of air is directed against its point from below, different angles of impact of the air being used, we learn more about the queer gyrations of a secondary nature de- scribed during the journey along the main trajec- tory curve. These minor antics of the projectile are pro- 220 THE GUN BOOK duced by the contest which, during the flight, goes on among the forces of rotation, gravity, and air resistance. Let us dismiss the element of gravity now by merely calling attention to its influence in pulling the bullet bodily down from the line A-B to the curve A-C. This leaves the other two forces to fight it out between themselves. When the bullet's point 'is pressed upward by the air at the beginning of the flight the stabilizing force of rotation is not able to pull it down in- stantly, but takes a little time to do the work; the result is that the point rises slightly and is then somewhat slowly depressed; the point has not moved either straight upward or straight downward ; but in obedience to the gradual yield- ing of one force to the other the point has moved first to th6 right (if the bullet is spinning to the right) and then downward. In the meantime the bullet has passed forward a considerable dis- tance in its flight, so that its point has executed a long spiral-like movement, as viewed from the rear. During this movement, too, the left-hand side of the projectile is partly exposed to the rushing air, which causes the whole bullet to be pushed bodily to the right ; then it is forced bodily downward as the point dips and the air presses against the upper side. The body of the pro- PRANKS OF LONG-POINTED BULLET jectile, therefore, in striving to follow directly behind its point and so shield itself from undue air resistance, also follows a spiral-like course. These are probably not complete spirals passing all the way around the curve of trajectory, how- ever, for they seem to be interrupted midway by FIG. 60. When a spinning top is pushed gently on one side it will begin to wabble or " precess," the upper part describing a wide curve in the direction in which it is spinning. When the pointed bullet in following its curved course is met with changing air pressure coming from below at different angles, it also is forced to wabble or " precess " in the direction in which it spins. still another variable element, to be considered presently. To understand more clearly how the point of the projectile follows the curve to the right and then downward, the body of the object following in approximately the same course, let us get our top again and set it spinning. When it is in motion and standing steadily, let some one blow his breath hard against it on one side. Straight- way the toy will begin to wabble, its upper end 222 THE GUN BOOK describing long curves in the direction of its spin. The air pressure during the blowing is greater upon one side than upon the other, partly over- coming the force of rotation which has been keep- ing the top upright on its point, and which imme- diately begins to pull the spinning body back into the former position. The effort so exerted acting not instantly, but requiring time, causes the spiral curve followed by the upper end. The reason why the top stands upright when rotating rapidly, and assumes that position even though set spinning at an angle, is because of the friction upon its point as it rests upon the floor. When the top is tilted to one side this friction is increased on one side of the axis, offering more resistance there, and the toy in its gyrations grad- ually "feels" its way into the upright position, in which the point not only meets the least resist- ance, but finds that resistance evenly distributed. For the same reasons the projected bullet, spin- ning rapidly, "feels" for the position which pro- duces the least and best distributed air resistance against its body. As the air resistance is constantly changing its direction against the projectile pursuing its trajectory curve, which first passes upward, then horizontally, ending in a downward direction, the secondary curves de- PRANKS OF LONG-POINTED BULLET scribed by the missile are also necessarily changed from time to time during the flight. The pro- jectile's point rises and passes to the right and then points downward; but as the body pro- gresses, the air once more presses harder from below, forcing the point up; again it passes to the right and downward, as the two contending forces in turn gain control. This alternation of these forces controlling the point of the projectile, while comparatively slow, is yet in the ordinary case too frequent to permit the point to perform a complete spiral. The re- sult is that when the point has passed upward and to the right, then downward and perhaps partly to the left, the air pressure lifts it again rather suddenly, from which position the rota- tional force comes again to the rescue and by its resistance to this upward movement causes the point to veer off once more to the right. The partial spirals so described are short and narrow in the early part of the bullet's journey, for the direction of the air resistance changes oftener on account of the great speed of the missile, the rotational force being called upon more frequently to correct the position. As the rate of rotation falls off, its force is weakened and requires a longer time to perform its work; THE GUN BOOK at the same time the bullet is slowing up in its forward progress, lessening the air resistance somewhat, but the latter is still strong enough to exert increasing superiority over the force of rotation, for we must remember the rule laid down in Chapter XIII, that the air resistance does not decrease directly in proportion to the bullet's velocity. The result, therefore, is that as the flight proceeds, air resistance comes more into control, producing curves each wider and longer than the one preceding. The tortuous pathway thus followed by the pointed bullet is difficult to picture by lines drawn upon paper, but some idea of its appearance may be gained from an examination of Figs. 61 and 62, which give it approximately. The longer the bullet the more surface its body will offer to the resisting air as its point veers from one position to another, and the thinner the missile the greater will be the surface thus ex- posed in proportion to its volume. Under these circumstances the deflection caused by the air will be greater than in the case of a bullet short and broad. In shooting against a heavy wind all pro- jectiles will make wider curves than if the air were calm; with a following wind the air pressure is of course decreased, giving curves longer and PRANKS OF LONG-POINTED BULLET narrower. Then again, if the missile be imper- fect, either by being ill-balanced or having its surface so marred as to create air friction, these FIG. 61. Path described by bullet if flight is viewed from above. Exaggerated to show how point diverges to the right in repeated curves and how it comes back to trajectory through rotational force. disturbances to its flight are increased. A bullet bruised or lopsided will sometimes describe curves of two feet or more from the trajectory within a hundred yards ; while a perfect bullet of proper form, with enough spin, will not deviate more than an inch or two within the same distance \*" fc -* FIG. 62. Path described by bullet if flight is viewed from one side. Exaggerated for purpose of illustrating dipping and rising action of point of projectile. when aimed over a long course ; however, all pro- jectiles show marked inaccuracy during a long flight because of increasing width of their sec- ondary curves. There is still one other disturbing factor affect- ing the flight of the pointed projectile and that 226 THE GUN BOOK is the much discussed peculiarity called "drift," under the influence of which the bullet is carried sensibly to the right when it spins in that direc- tion, and to the left when the rotation is reversed. The simplest explanation of drift is that the bullet in traveling to a distant mark is, in the aggregate, pressed upon by the air much more from below than from above. The effect of this is similar to what we see when a spinning top drops side- ways to the floor, for the rotating motion causes the whole body to roll in the direction of the spin. The upward-pressing air is of course mild in its action as compared with the action of the floor upon the side of the top, but it is not unlikely that this conduct of air and bullet helps to produce drift. The chief cause of drift, however, probably lies in the fact that the point of the bullet, when spun to the right, remains for a longer aggregate time to the right-hand side of the trajectory as it rises, and passes to the right at the beginning of each separate curve, seldom arriving at any point very far to the left of the trajectory. (See Fig. 61.) Given left-hand spin, the bullet's point would similarly spend most of its time on the left of the trajectory. The air sweeping past the pro- jectile so moving forward at a slight angle would PRANKS OF LONG-POINTED BULLET naturally push the projectile to one side or to the other, according to the nature of the angle presented ; much as a ship is steered by the action of the water acting against the rudder when the FIG. 63. In seeking the cause of the disturbance called drift, which carries the rifle bullet to right or left, according to its rotation, some authorities assert that the air buoying the missile from below causes a rolling action, much like that which takes place when a rotating body is dropped on the floor. The picture illustrates this theory. latter is partly turned so as to receive the impact partly against its side. After reading this chapter it will be easy to understand how ruinous to good shooting was the attempt to change the form of the bullet by re- ducing its diameter and increasing its length while lacking the means with which to spin it fast. Ways in which to accomplish this much desired end of rapid rotation were finally found during the ten years between 1895 and 1905, as will be related in succeeding chapters, not the least of the means employed being the utilization of nitro- cellulose as an explosive. CHAPTER XV SMOKELESS POWDER WHEN we explode a charge of powder in a closed vessel tightly sealed and strong enough to resist the resulting gas pressure there will be no sound and no movement. The only way we can tell whether the explosive has burned or not is by the heat communicated to the walls of the container. The pressure will be there, but no work will be done, for work is the result of a force acting upon a body through a distance. Mere force without motion accomplishes nothing in gunnery. It follows, too, that if the force acts upon the body through a distance it also acts during a period of time; for in order to move an object from one place to another, time is always re- quired, no matter how short or how long the dis- tance may be, or how quickly the journey is made. Therefore the time during which the force is made to act is an important element in dealing with moving bodies. Where the force used remains SMOKELESS POWDER 229 the saiiie, the distance covered by the object is increased from moment to moment, until before long the speed gained is greatly multiplied. As an instance of the working of this principle, recall the actions of the bullet described in a previous chapter when dropped to the ground from a height. The pull of gravity on the missile is only moderate in strength and does not change, yet the bullet fell sixteen feet the first second, forty-eight feet the next, and eighty feet the third; it would have gone on increasing in the same proportion if the fall had continued. In the third second the speed had increased fivefold, although the power applied at any moment was never increased. Applying these facts to the movement of a pro- jectile from a gun, it is plain that if a long barrel be used and a steady though moderate pressure be created to act against the base of the missile during the whole journey from the breech to the muzzle, it will start slowly but gain speed rapidly during every inch of its passage through the tube. In spite of its slow start, it will issue forth at high speed, though the total pressure exerted at any one time is comparatively mild. Look, for instance, at the blowpipe, used as a weapon by some savages. Here a long tube with a smooth interior contains a dart which fits the bore loosely 230 THE GUN BOOK enough to slide readily through the bore and still tightly enough to prevent much leakage of air past its sides. When the operator blows into one end of the tube against the butt of his dart, the missile, by the mere force of the man's breath, is driven out of the tube with speed enough to kill a small animal, or even a man if the hit be in a vital spot. So, too, if we put into a gun some kind of powder that will not burn instantly, but take an appreciable time in the operation, speed can be imparted to the projectile by the more gentle but longer continued force thus created. All this seems simple enough, but nevertheless it gives rise to a large part of the science of gunnery. In recognition of the value of the slow-starting, rapidly accelerating projectile it is interesting to note at least two of the attempts ingenious men have made to accomplish the result with the means at their hands. In 1880 the Lyman-Haskins cannon was produced, from which much was ex- pected along these lines. It had a single tube, but with a row of several separate powder cham- bers branching from it below. The hope was that the projectile would be started on its way by the explosion of the charge immediately behind it, and be thrust forward with increasing speed as the other charges in the auxiliary chambers were SMOKELESS POWDER 231 THE GUN BOOK set off to give a series of new impulses to the already moving body. Another and more recent attempt to solve the same problem is seen in the Zalinski dynamite gun which threw from its main tube, as a projectile, a heavy charge of dynamite. As this dangerous explosive could not be fired from the mouth of an ordinary cannon, the Zalinski gun used as its propulsive power com- pressed air admitted behind the missile with gradually increasing pressure. Both of the weapons mentioned were American inventions, but never came to anything, though the Zalinski gun was used in Cuba by the American forces to throw several of its charges toward the Spaniards at Santiago Bay in our war with Spain. There is one peculiarity of gases under pres- sure in the gun barrel which must be noticed here, and that is the comparative slowness with which they begin to travel toward the muzzle, after the explosion. If you were to make a skyrocket of dry, loosely packed gunpowder the tube would burst and the rocket fail to rise, even though one end is open ready for easy escape of gas. This is because the powder would burn almost in- stantly, creating heavy pressure, and the gas pre- fers to burst its way out sideways, rather than travel the length of the tube to get out. So it is SMOKELESS POWDER 233 in the gun barrel ; at the explosion of gunpowder the gas presses fiercely upon the walls of the tube, and also against the base of the bullet, forcing the missile out by the first impact ; while the bulk of the gas proceeds toward the muzzle only after it has tried and failed to burst its way through at the side. By this time the projectile is out of the gun and receives no thrusting action from that portion of the gas which lagged behind. We therefore burn a lot of powder from which we get no benefit; but that is not all. The walls of the tube, to foil the attempts of the gas to burst them, must be made very thick and strong at the cham- ber where the explosion takes place, while the for- ward part of the barrel has little to do except guide the projectile. How much better it is, then, to create our propelling gases, not instantly, but more gradually, so that they will have time to get under way toward the muzzle, pushing the pro- jectile in front of them, and not linger in the breech wasting their strength against the sides of the tube ! In a previous chapter we mentioned the practice of forming gunpowder into grains of different sizes to influence the rate of their combustion, and of making the grains hard or soft to effect the same purpose. But these expedients did not THE GUN BOOK fulfil their object sufficiently to render the ex- plosive slow enough for the best propulsion. By making the grains larger the burning becomes slower, to be sure, though not in the degree one would expect. The greater the surface of the grain the greater will be the area to be acted upon by the fire; while as the pellet is consumed, it grows smaller in size and its burning surface therefore decreases. The result is that, though the grain is long in disappearing, the greatest amount of gas is produced in the first stages of the explosion which is just what we wish to avoid. The large-sized grain, therefore, partly defeats the very object for which it is created. In 1860 General T. J. Eodman, of the United States army, in trying to solve the problem of slower combustion, hit upon the idea of forming the powder into cylinders the size of the bore of the gun, each perforated by holes running length- wise through them. Afterward he built the cylinders out of small pieces fitting together and leaving holes through the mass as before. The principles involved were the same in each plan. His idea was that by igniting the cylinder from the inside, and allowing the fire to eat its way outward, the burning surface would be small at first but would increase as the holes grew larger, SMOKELESS POWDER 235 thus giving the greater area to the flame at the later stages of the explosion. The amount of gas produced, and therefore the pressure, would be low when the projectile began to move, increasing m m FlG. 65. This is General Rodman's first invention for producing slow combustion at the first part of the explosion, the bulk of the powder burning later. These cylinders are com- pressed gunpowder made to fit the cannon bore; they are perforated with many small holes, each disk being separated from the one ahead of it by wooden blocks. The igniting fire begins to burn inside the small holes, the burning surfaces being increased as combustion progresses. as it proceeded down the tube. That this in- genious plan was correct in fact as well as theory was proven by its prompt adoption throughout the world in artillery ammunition. Though Rodman's discovery was a most valua- ble one, it did not perform the miracles expected of it. The explosion was now modified to a con- THE GUN BOOK siderable extent, and cannon tubes were at once lengthened to take advantage of the longer thrust given to the projectile, but even the perforated cylinders could not adequately restrain the vio- FIG. 66. The difficulties encountered in manufacturing the powder shown in the preceding illustration, led General Rodman later to form his powder into perforated cakes as here seen. These cakes could be made of any size and pieced together to fill the gun bore. The angled spaces at the side proved to be no practical detriment in securing slower combustion. lence of the explosive. It still burned far too fast. A new attempt to solve the stubborn problem of leisurely combustion was made in 1880 by the United States naval officers. They produced the explosive called " cocoa" powder, a variety of gunpowder the principal features of which were SMOKELESS POWDER 237 a substantial decrease in the amount of sulphur it contained and the substitution of half -burned wood for charcoal. The woody ingredient gave it a brownish color, from which it derived its name. "Cocoa" powder proved to be the slowest burning of all gunpowders, giving low, long-con- tinued pressures in the gun barrel. It had, though, two grievous defects, for it gave off an abundance of smoke and left an unusual amount of residue coating the walls of the tube, to ob- struct the passage of the projectile at the next shot. Yet in spite of these drawbacks the new powder gained wide acceptance among artil- lerists, until its career was cut short ten years after its invention by the perfecting of guncotton as an explosive, which quickly rendered gun- powder obsolete. While " cocoa" powder and Rodman's cylin- ders never had much effect upon hand firearms, being intended only for use in cannon, yet they are important steps in the progress of explosives. Knowing about them and the obstacles which they were intended to overcome will help us to appre- ciate the merits of the marvelous new powder which has in our day come into the world. Guncotton was known more than fifty years before it succeeded as an explosive for guns. In 238 THE GUN BOOK 1832 Bracconnet, a French chemist, discovered that if he put vegetable starch into nitric acid and then washed it with water the material resulting would violently explode on concussion. Pelouse, his countryman, soon after found that cotton after being soaked in the same acid would give like results. One of the remarkable things about the new explosives was that they produced no smoke and left no ash ; the whole of the substances was converted into gas. But, as in the case of Berthollet's fulminate, they were so extremely sensitive and sudden in their action that no gun barrel could withstand them; perfectly heedless of where the muzzle of the tube was, the gases promptly forced a passage sideways through the metal. Then chemists everywhere began to try to harness these unruly explosives, to compel them to do useful work. Cotton proved the more promising material to experiment with, because it gave a product that had less variation in the force of its explosions, so it received chief atten- tion; though from wood fiber treated with nitric acid was produced in 1865 the excellent powder called "Schultze" powder now much used in shot- guns. Wood fiber is cheaper than cotton and the shotgun does not call for a high degree of uni- formity in its ammunition. SMOKELESS POWDER 239 We have not the space here to set out in detail the tribulations of the scientists in their half- century search for means of retarding the ex- plosion of guncotton. In short, their labors went on unceasingly during the whole period, to be at last crowned with success, though after many disappointments and even disastrous explosions, due to overconfidence in their imperfect products. The chief honors in the conquest are due to the Swiss, the Austrians, and the French ; though the American, Hudson Maxim, had a not unimportant part in the final success. Cotton is almost pure cellulose, the chemical formula for which is C 6 Hio0 5 ; the letters standing respectively for carbon,- hydrogen, and oxygen. When soaked in nitric acid the appearance of the cotton does not change, but in composition it has become a new and remarkable substance, called nitrocellulose. In spite of all the labors of science upon the subject, we do not yet know a great deal about the chemical composition of nitrocellulose. When the cotton is soaked in the acid for only a short time, the product can be exploded with difficulty, if at all; a little longer soaking makes explosion of it easier; while still further contact with the acid makes of the innocent-looking white fibers one of the most violent of all explosives. MO THE GUN BOOK Thus there seem to be a series of nitrocelluloses, but each so closely resembling the other that it is hard to say where one leaves off and the other begins. The cotton receiving only a brief acid bath is not used for explosives, but is a valuable sub- stance in the arts, for when dissolved in alcohol it may be transformed into celluloid, collodion, photographic films, and artificial ivory. Here we see another illustration of how the efforts to improve the gun have indirectly benefited man- kind. Nitrocellulose produced by long contact with the acid is too explosive in its nature to be yet adapted to the making of ammunition. But when the cotton is left in the acid bath long enough to carry the chemical action past the celluloid- making stage, yet removed in time to avoid be- coming one of the higher explosives, we find that we can compel the resulting substance to give us excellent service in guns. It is probable that the different grades of nitro- cellulose have definite chemical formulas, if we only knew them ; but we do not at present. The molecules of the more highly explosive members of the class seem to be merely multiples of the molecules of their more stable kin. This makes SMOKELESS POWDER exact analysis very difficult. As an illustration of about what happens in the exposure of cotton to nitric acid, the following may be taken : 2C 6 H 10 5 (cotton) + 6HN0 3 (nitric acid) = C 12 H 14 4 (N0 3 ) 6 (guncotton) + 6H 2 (water). As the last item, water, is detrimental to the product as an explosive, it is taken up during the process by some absorbent, usually sulphuric acid, which has a strong affinity for water and does not inter- fere with the chemical action. After the cotton has been allowed to lie in the acid bath for exactly the proper time to secure the right degree of nitrating it is taken out and allowed to stand a while with the acid still upon it. Then it is washed thoroughly to remove the acid, and is called guncotton, still as fluffy and white as when the process began. It is not yet powder, for, until it is robbed of its sudden vio- lence in explosion by the addition of slowing-up substances, it cannot be put into guns. At this stage the chemical reaction for the ex- plosion of the guncotton is something like this : 2C 12 H 14 4 (N0 3 ) 6 = 18CO + 6C0 2 + 12N + 14H 2 0. In the order named the new products are carbon monoxide, a gas, carbon dioxide, a gas, nitro- gen, a gas, and water, a gas when heated, as in the explosion. One ounce of guncotton has pro- THE GUN BOOK duced as much gas as three ounces of gunpowder would make, but this is not all; for, unlike gun- powder, the whole of the solid substance is con- verted into gas, leaving no residue. Compared with this efficiency the old black powder with its fifty-seven per cent of ashy residue seems hardly worthy to be called an explosive. It was these great merits of guncotton that induced scientists to toil so long in the effort to tame it sufficiently for use in guns. One of the most surprising discoveries made in this connec- tion was that if the guncotton were dissolved and mixed with nitroglycerine, another violent ex- plosive, the mixture became much more moderate and slower in exploding than either one of the substances used separately. No reason is known for this strange result, unless it is that the gun- cotton contained too little oxygen for a well- balanced compound, while the nitroglycerine con- tained too much. The guncotton, you will see by its reaction, gives eighteen molecules of carbon monoxide, which is incompletely burned carbon, carbon dioxide being the natural molecule. But as there is not enough oxygen to give two atoms of oxygen to each atom of carbon, some of them have to be content with a half-portion. This condition, existing in the guncotton at the start, SMOKELESS POWDER 243 probably makes it so sensitive and violent ; while the extra oxygen which the nitroglycerine brings into the mixture satisfies the desire of all the carbon atoms. How true this explanation may be, or just how the odd result is brought we do not now know. Perhaps time will tell. The first cotton powder successfully used in guns was that containing a portion of nitro- glycerine. To further soften the shock of the explosion other deterrents were also added, the principal substances so used being graphite and heavy oils like vaseline. This result was still fur- ther aided by first forming the mixture into a paste and then converting it into hard grains or rods, which burned more slowly, as in the case of gunpowder. It was not long, though, before it was found that the nitroglycerine, when used in large quantities, seriously injured the tubes of guns, by forming upon them a rust-like scale, which made repeated firing quickly wear them out. This did not cause the abandonment of gun- cotton ammunition, for its advantages were too great to permit that. By decreasing the amount of the offending ingredient used its harmful effects were lessened, while the other foreign sub- stances were increased to offset the loss. Of guncotton powders there are scores today, all THE GUN BOOK differing slightly, nearly all containing some nitroglycerine, though the tendency is to reduce the amount used and to do away with it entirely where possible, relying upon the less objection- able deterrents. Guncotton powder burns quietly when lighted in the open, seeming to be in no hurry at all. It cannot be exploded by a blow unless first made hot. In the gun barrel it takes a strong primer to set it off, for the explosion seems to result partly from heat and partly from shock. Just how its gradual decomposition takes place in the gun we do not wholly understand, but the most reasonable theory now held is that, when the flame from the primer strikes the base of the charge, it burns the outer layers of the rearmost grains, making gas, and doing this so suddenly that a shock is communicated to that part of the charge, exploding it. The gas thus formed heats and shocks into explosion the grains next to it; and so on, heating and shocking, until the grains in front are reached and the whole charge turned into gas. During this rather complicated and comparatively slow process, the gases first formed begin to push both charge and projectile down the barrel, the composition of the powder and the quantity used being just right to have the SMOKELESS POWDER burning completed when the bullet reaches the muzzle. Whether the reasons thus given are correct or not, we at least know that guncotton powder keeps up its decomposing process during the whole journey of the projectile from breech to muzzle. In this its action differs greatly from that of gun- powder, for with the latter the explosion takes place principally at the extreme breech. From the new powder we therefore gain the advantage of the long mild push, the value of which was illustrated by comparison with the pull of gravity and the missile from the blowpipe at the beginning of this chapter. CHAPTER XVI THE MODERN RIFLE HAVING learned in the last chapter how, by the aid of the new, slow-burning powder, we can im- part great velocity to our projectile by means of low pressure applied through longer time and distance, we are now ready to go on and note the striking changes this development has wrought in the gunner's art. Especially are we to see how the coveted flat trajectory was thereby secured. Though guncotton gives, weight for weight, about three times the amount of gas produced by the older explosive, yet when the retarding adulterants have been added to make it smoke- less powder, the difference between the two in the amount of gas is much decreased. In general, however, it may be said that the smokeless powder gives about twice the propulsive effect of gun- powder, which means, of course, that only half the quantity is required to give the same velocity to the bullet. But this is only the starting-point 246 THE MODERN RIFLE 247 in the enumeration of the virtues of the new ex- plosive. There was an early limit to the velocity that could be given to a projectile by gunpowder with its sudden explosion. Where very large charges were used, as we have seen, the main body of gas spent an appreciable time in fighting the walls of the gun barrel before acknowledging defeat and taking the longer journey to liberty through the muzzle. The bullet, meanwhile, having been moved forward by the gas nearest it, was far down the barrel, or clear of it entirely, before the strongest outrush of gas began. Therefore an excessive powder charge created great pressure on the gun, and unduly increased the shock of recoil, without adding much to the speed of the projectile. By experiment the later gun makers determined the correct amount of powder that could be burned behind their bullet to give it the greatest velocity with least waste and with an ex- plosion moderate enough not to strain the gun, or create undue recoil. The quantity of powder so fixed was called an "ordinary charge" for that particular kind of gun. In the days of black powder it was estimated that if the length of the gun barrel were twenty times the diameter of its bore the bullet would 248 THE GUN BOOK then gain practically all the speed which an " ordinary charge" could impart to it. Thus if the bore were half an inch, the barrel need be only ten inches long to allow the bullet to receive the full propulsive effect of the explosion. If the bore were only a third of an inch the barrel thus prescribed would be but six and two-thirds inches in length. Any additional extension only created greater friction to retard the bullet. With the coming of smokeless powder this formula has been greatly changed, so that the rule now is that the length of the barrel must be at least fifty times the diameter of the bore, in order to give the bullet the full propulsive effect. This change reveals to us how much greater is the distance through which the new powder applies its force. The push administered to the base of the pro- jectile is continued two and a half times as long as formerly. Of course the barrels of hand guns have always been longer than is called for by formulas, but the point to be noted here is that under the old conditions only a short section of the barrel near the breech sustained the pressure of the explosive, while now the work is distributed over a much greater section of the tube. The result is that, instead of an immense strain at the immediate breech, we now have a more THE MODERN RIFLE 249 moderate pressure extending further forward than before. Therefore a well-made gun barrel in these days requires a longer section of medium strength, rather than one extremely thick at the very breech and becoming thin again within a few inches. In the case of the rifle a long barrel is regarded necessary to give the bullet a longer passage through the grooves, insuring proper spin. In all guns, however, the extra weight at the outer end is a benefit in preventing the violent upward throw from recoil, such as we see in the short revolver when fired. The long tube, too, allowed greater distance between the sights, which is of much assistance in straight aiming; then again, there was in times past a firm though illogical belief that great length of barrel guided the ball more truly. It was in pursuance of all these ends that the old Spanish musket boasted a tube of six or more feet in length, while the New England colonists ordered their match-locks "4 foote in the barril." The modern rifle, likewise, bears a longer barrel than is demanded by propulsive requirements; for, according to the rule, since the bore is one-third of an inch in diameter, the length of the barrel need be only sixteen and two- thirds inches to insure proper combustion of its 250 THE GUN BOOK charge ; in fact, however, it is usually twenty-four inches or more. The barrel of the hand gun, therefore, being intended for purposes other than propulsion alone, does not readily show in its outward form the changes in construction introduced by smoke- less powder. In artillery, where weight and length have always been reduced as far as possi- ble, the visible changes wrought are startling, as the two following pictures will show. The first cannon shown was made in 1880 and is one of the best of its time. Its caliber is twelve and one-half inches and its tube sixteen and one- half feet long; which length was carefully calcu- lated to allow the projectile to receive all the force the black powder explosion would transmit to it. The second picture shows a twelve-inch modern naval gun which is forty-five and one-half feet long. In this weapon the strong gas pressure follows the projectile the whole length of the tube and is yet strong enough at the muzzle to give it a slight added impetus after it clears the bore. The great contrast in the shapes of the two pieces reveals clearly the difference in the nature of the explosions produced by the two kinds of powder. Above the picture of each gun is a curve which indicates the pressure in tons per square inch THE MODERN RIFLE 251 exerted against the walls of the tube at various points when an "ordinary charge" is exploded in it. The weights of the projectiles and their velocities differ too greatly for ready comparison (for the long slender gun is immensely more FIG. 67. Illustrating the pressure of powder explosion in different types of cannon. A, Rodman Gun; B, Modern Naval Gun. powerful than the short, bulky one) ; but the dif- ferences in pressure are very interesting. The old gun used one hundred and thirty pounds of black powder and, as its curve shows, this com- paratively puny charge created a high pressure of nearly twenty-four tons, confined to a short THE GUN BOOK section near the breech. Such a force in so large a bore is dangerous in any gun, however carefully constructed, for even steel has its limitations in strength. It is a curious fact that piling steel upon steel does not increase the strength of the tube in proportion to its thickness, so that the big gun of 1880 represents about the maximum power possible in artillery using gunpowder as an explosive. The new gun, on the other hand, shows a maximum pressure of only fifteen and three-tenths tons per square inch, though its charge produces three hundred and sixty-five and one-half times as much gas as the black powder charge in the old gun. This great difference in maximum pressures arises from the peculiarities of the two explosives. The one creates its smaller amount of gas suddenly and at the extreme breech; while the other, burning slowly, dis- tributes its pressure gradually from breech to muzzle ; the total thrust given the projectile, how- ever, being five times that imparted by the smaller, quick-burning charge. In the one case great strength is required of the gun around the powder- chamber itself, though the pressure dwindles rap- idly from there forward; in the other case mod- erate strength is required of the tube throughout its length. The total weight of the tube built for THE MODERN RIFLE 253 smokeless powder will be less than half that of the one built to withstand an equivalent charge of black powder. The revolutionary effect of smokeless powder upon artillery is thus apparent. Now, after using the cannon to illustrate the great virtues of smokeless powder as a pro- pellant, let us note the effects of the new explosive upon hand guns. In Chapter XIV we left the gun inventor struggling to lower the trajectory of his bullet by making the missile thinner and longer, but finding his efforts thwarted by in- ability to make it spin fast enough to remain point forward in flight. He had succeeded to some extent in the endeavor by using alloys to harden the lead, thereby giving it a firmer grip on the rifling, though the reduction in diameter thus gained was still much less than he desired. He could send his over-broad bullet out of the muzzle of his gun at good speed, but the great air resist- ance it met quickly slowed it down, resulting in high trajectory and consequently poor marksman- ship. His hopes were now to be realized, how- ever, and in greater measure than he even foresaw. When about 1890 smokeless powder was per- fected sufficiently to permit its being used in hand guns, the many virtues it possessed recommended it highly for that purpose. The absence of smoke THE GUN BOOK alone promised great things for the soldier. With the new powder he could shoot from cover, with- out the telltale blue vapor to reveal his hiding- place; while the battle line could fire repeatedly without having its view shut off by clouds of obscuring smoke, such as was emitted by the old powder. The avoidance of residue in the gun barrel after firing, too, was a great relief, for with the new explosive cleaning was necessary only after fifty shots, instead of ten as before. Another advantage of the cellulose powder, even more important than any of these, was the effect on recoil. It was found that the gradual burning process started the bullet very slowly, giving it speed by degrees, and thus greatly decreased the shock against the shoulder of the firer, and les- sened the upward throw of the barrel. This qual- ity alone would have given smokeless powder pre- eminence, for it meant that more gases could be created in the gun barrel and more speed given the bullet, without increasing the kick. The chief part played, however, by smokeless powder in lowering trajectory yet remains to be stated. When the bullet starts very slowly down the tube, receiving its impetus in easy stages, the rifle grooves cause it to revolve gently at first, the speed of rotation gaining as the forward mo- THE MODERN RIFLE 255 tion quickens. Now this is exactly what the so- called " accelerating twist" did to the old sugar- loaf bullet. In the latter case the rifling turned slowly near the breech, increasing the rotation toward the muzzle. Smokeless powder achieved the same result by actually allowing the bullet to lag along at first, progressing slowly and revolv- ing slowly, giving the rifle grooves a chance to get the rotating motion under way by degrees, instead of almost instantly, as with the more sudden explosion of black powder. The effect of this was, of course, to allow faster spin to be imparted to the projectile, without the danger of its rushing through the tube in partial or entire disregard of the spirals. In spite of these manifold advantages of the new powder, however, it developed a very serious drawback in the early attempts to use it in hand guns. Smokeless powders, and especially those varieties containing much nitroglycerine, as most of them did at first, produce great heat in ex- ploding, even up to 4,500 degrees. Then, too, it is a peculiar fact that when two metals are blended together in an alloy the mixture melts at a lower temperature than either of the metals would in its pure state. Therefore when the lead bullet, hardened by admixture of tin or some other metal, 256 THE GUN BOOK was fired by means of a charge of smokeless powder the butt end of the missile melted under the high heat created by the explosion. The molten metal remaining in the gun barrel then choked the rifling, while the defprmed bullet sped forth a cripple, unbalanced and unsteady in flight. This difficulty was fatal to the use of the new explosive for a short time, until the inven- tion of a means of avoiding it. This invention, too, did more than merely prevent fusing of the bullet, for by its aid practically the whole remain- ing question of rapid rotation was solved. Instead of trying to increase the melting-point of the bullet, some one not now known to history, but entitled to high credit for his ingenuity, hit upon the idea of encasing the leaden missile in a thin envelope of steel or other hard metal. This device not only protected the soft lead from the heat of the explosion, but at the same time gave the bullet a more secure hold on the rifle grooves than had ever before been deemed possible. By its use, and with the aid of smokeless powder, practically any speed of rotation could be im- parted to the missile, without its "jumping" the grooves. Of course the wear upon the inner sur- face of the gun barrel was intensified by the hard- surfaced projectile, but material damage has been THE MODERN RIFLE 257 successfully avoided by making the walls of the tube also extremely hard. It is now estimated that at least fifteen thousand shots can be fired from a well-made gun using such bullets before signs of wear will appear. The missile with the hard envelope, which is usually made of alloyed copper and nickel, we call the "metal-patched" bullet, and its use has become well-nigh universal with smokeless powder. The slow start of the bullet down the barrel allowed by smokeless powder, combined with the superior gripping powers of the new bullet, had the immediate effect of reducing the diameter of rifle barrels. From .45, .44, and .38 caliber, the standard bore became three-tenths of an inch, or .30 caliber. This was practically the old .32, which had previously been considered as little more than a toy. The metal-patched bullet did not require so deep a "bite" as the one with the softer surface, so that rifle grooves became much more shallow than before, changing from two to four one-hundredths of an inch in depth, to the same number of thousandths. The grooves now im- parted a spin of one turn in from six to ten inches, which expressed in calibers would be one turn in 20 calibers for the six-inch twist, and one in 33% calibers in the ten-inch spiral. 258 THE GUN BOOK In comparison with the old rifles, which gave a turn in seventy-five or a hundred calibers, the modern bullet spins at a terrific rate, advancing from hundreds of revolutions per second to thou- sands. With this remarkable decrease in calibers and increase in spin to keep the bullet straight upon its course, the thin, sharp missile could not only be sent off at a higher speed, but owing to the low air resistance met on its journey, that speed was maintained through a long distance. Thus the two requirements of lower trajectory were supplied in good measure. But the whole story of trajectory is not yet told. The mildness of recoil from smokeless powder, permitting a much more powerful ex- plosion in the gun barrel, without serious dis- turbance from the shock, allowed an increase in the amount of explosive which could be used. When this was done, still higher velocities re- sulted. From fifteen tons to the square inch, which was about the limit which recoil per- mitted in black-powder guns, the pressures were increased to twenty and twenty-five tons per square inch. Improvements in steel making not only furnished barrels capable of bearing these tremendous strains, but the ability of the gun barrel to resist the high pressure was also aided THE MODERN RIFLE 259 by the reduction in the size of the tube itself. This latter principle was what permitted the use of the ancient corned powder in hand guns when prohibited in artillery; for, as we recall, the small-bored tube, having fewer square inches of surface than one of larger bore, will bear the greater pressures, though the materials and thicknesses of the two be identical. From these heavy pressures the new projectiles received velocities of two to three thousand feet per sec- ond; whereas, in the old guns, fifteen hundred feet per second was about the highest speed at- tainable, on account of the greater weights of their bullets, their excessive recoil, and the low efficiency of large powder charges. One other important reason for the low recoil experienced under the new high pressures lay in the decreased weight of the bullets used. The old bullets, lacking high velocity, had to have weight to enable them to hit hard. The .45 caliber, there- fore, contained from three to four hundred grains of lead. The new bullets, on the other hand, are only about half these weights, ranging from one hundred and fifty to two hundred grains. As we have already learned, a heavy bullet shot slowly produces as much recoil as a 'lighter one sent off fast. Thanks to its great speed, the smaller mis- 260 THE GUN BOOK sile strikes a powerful blow, for our rule is that the energy of the projectile increases as the square of its velocity. The smaller body going fast does as much execution as the heavier one going more slowly. The chief advantage of the small one is that its narrow body meets less air resistance, which allows it to fly further, faster, and closer to the ground. These qualities are just what the earlier gun makers tried to attain in their "express" rifle, but of which they, with their limited facilities, fell far short. Encased in its hard metal envelope the new bullet, however, revealed one defect so serious that both soldier and hunter hesitated to adopt it whole-heartedly. Being so thin and sharp, the projectile fired at a man or an animal would, unless it struck a bone, slip through the flesh, making a wound so slight that little damage was done. The hunter found that his deer would run off almost unconcernedly with one or more of these small punctures through his body. British soldiers, in skirmishes with natives in Africa, had to hit a warrior several times before he would cease his half-frantic rush forward. To overcome this defect it became customary to form the en- velope so as to leave the soft lead exposed at the point, thus making what are known as "dum- THE MODERN RIFLE 261 dum" bullets, which spread on entering even soft flesh. On account of the frightful wounds in- flicted by such bullets, civilized nations agreed not to use them in warfare with one another (a compact flagrantly ignored, however, by a certain nation now fighting in Europe). But since the purpose of the hunter is to kill his quarry as quickly as possible, and to avoid the wounding of animals only to have them escape and die in slow misery, he has adopted the soft-pointed bullet. By its aid, the small-bored, high-velocity gun has become available for sportsmen, who be- fore its introduction stuck to their old big bores and heavy projectiles, simply because of their superior killing power. Let us now compare the areas of the cross- sections of some of the old bullets with that of the .30 caliber. As air resistance, generally speaking, increases directly in proportion to the area of missiles traveling at like speed, the won- derful reduction of air pressures accomplished by the use of the thin bullet will be made clear from the following pictures. The difference between the old and new trajec- tories is also very interesting. We give below diagrams of a few of the former, for comparison with that of the Springfield rifle now used by the THE GUN BOOK United States army, one of the best of modern military guns. The low trajectory curve followed by the FIG. 68. That the reader may adequately realize the great changes which have come in the sizes and shapes of bullets, five well-known types are here given for comparison. They are, respectively: A, the spherical musket bullet of ancient memory; B, the Minie bullet used prior to 1865; 0, the Spencer repeating rifle bullet introduced during our Civil War; D, the hugh projectile used in our army Springfield rifle from 1870 down to the war with Spain; E, our present service bullet, sometimes called the Spitzer, after a German army officer, but which is merely a refinement of our old sugar-loaf form. As air resistance decreases with decrease in area of cross-section it is easy to see why the .30-caliber missile will carry over three miles. The channels around the bodies of the bullets are to contain grease 01* wax which lubricates the passage down the barrel. Springfield bullet thus permits a soldier to lie upon the ground and shoot his bullet 636 yards before it comes to earth, the missile at no time THE MODERN RIFLE / \ J jj / 1 / 1 / / / f t i I t 1 _ \t t! V Lu ) CT) | 1 yz? i ^2 l-^ '1 \Qj t \ \ \ \ i co o 10 o s $- W ** O ws . Wi d, ] ted m 0. ing ;;i?* : fi *|l CO S 53 -r o aSs p-l DH OQ -M S .8^ ga ,o" ^ ^ 264 THE GUN BOOK rising above five and one-half feet, the average height of a man. If a human target be anywhere in front of the bullet within that distance he will be hit in some portion of his body. How greatly such low trajectories aid the soldier and hunter will be apparent when we recall that in field shooting with black-powder guns it was estimated that errors in judging distance caused four missed shots for each miss due to variations of the bullet to right or left of the target. The modern rifle, therefore, sends a low-flying missile over a course so long that the human eye is taxed to aim the piece truly at full range, which fact suggests that the next great advance in gunnery will be some practical apparatus to aid the rifleman's vision. In rapidity of fire the rifle now in use cannot be said to have reached the end of its develop- ment, though breech mechanisms seem to be as efficient as is permitted when the firer's hand is employed to eject the empty shell and recharge the gun for each shot. But speeding up the rate of fire in hand guns is a problem now almost attained, as will appear when we come to the subject of the automatic rifle offspring of the machine gun. CHAPTER XVII FROM MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE IN reading what has, in times past, been written about the origin of the gun, one does not go far before coming across the name Berthold Schwartz, that half-mythical German who was born in Freiburg about the year 1300. To him many German historians have credited the inven- tion of cannon and hand gun. And not content with that they have gone the further length of allotting to this superman the honor of being the Erfinder of gunpowder itself. To make his fame secure in their memories his fellow-towns- men have erected to him a statue at the base of which is set forth these three great achievements. That Schwartz lived and made cannon in the fourteenth century is true enough; but the total lack of evidence to support the preposterous claims made in his behalf makes their assertion a piece of mere national self -flattery. A somewhat similar charge is likely to be made 265 266 THE GUN BOOK by one not familiar with the facts when he reads the story of firearms as set down by an American covering the growth of the gun during the last two hundred years. The constant recurrence of American names and inventions in the record actually grows so monotonous that the casual reader might easily decide that we indulge in con- siderable " Schwartzing " on our own account. Such a critic, however, is advised to go to the original facts for verification of the vital part men of the United States have commanded in the weapon's modern progress. In examining the development of the important weapon now called the machine gun leading, as it has done, to the automatic rifle, American names force their way to the front even more per- sistently than before. Indeed it is conceded by the world that America has practically monop- olized the invention and improvement of rapid- fire guns. Beginning with the Gatling gun, invented by Dr. Gatling of Chicago, Illinois, during the Civil War, down through the list of Maxim, Hotchkiss, Nordenf eldt, and Gardner guns, each revealing ad- vantages over their successors, we come in more recent days to the weapons invented by Browning and Lewis, which seem destined for a time at MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 267 least to have the field to themselves. The ma- chine guns now used by European armies are chiefly variations of American types. Shortly after 1830 Samuel Colt worked upon a rapid-fire gun which had a number of barrels arranged in a circle parallel with each other, so as to rotate upon a spindle when the firing hammer was drawn back. It was, of course, a muzzle-loader, using percussion ignition. Colt did not succeed in making his new weapon workable, but in 1836 adapted the principle to his rifle and revolver, changing them in the important respect that the revolving part contained the powder and ball, while a single barrel was used for the passage of the successive bullets. As we have seen, the idea was not new, but it is the first appearance of the principle in America. During our Civil War the demand for faster- firing small arms was so insistent that many in- ventors turned their attention to the production of such weapons, among the number Dr. Richard J. Gatling. He produced the Gatling gun, which was used occasionally in minor com- bats in the later days of the great struggle. Our 4 military men, however, thought so little of Gat- ling's invention that the inventor was obliged to hire his own men to go with the machines and 268 THE GUN BOOK operate them. As a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, Dr. Gatling's gun gained attention first in Europe, rfmong the French. Gatling's gun was a breechloader, using pre- pared ammunition with metallic rim-fire shells. It had ten barrels arranged parallel with each other around a circle, the whole group turning together upon a spindle, as in Colt's previous model. An attendant at the rear of the gun turned a crank which caused the barrels to pass the breech mechanism successively, the top one being fired while the others were having their empty shells ejected and new cartridges inserted. Though so heavy that it had to be rolled about upon a car- riage, it could fire several hundred shots per min- % ute, and, when improved sufficiently to become reliable in operation, became a truly famous gun. Shortly before 1870, Napoleon III, anticipating a war with Germany, seized the ideas of Gatling and secretly equipped his armies with similar guns, which the French called "Mitrailleuse." In the subsequent contest with the Germans these guns were used with considerable effect at times ; but the enemy soon learned their weaknesses and succeeded in keeping infantry out of range until artillery could be brought up to destroy them at a distance. Against cannon the mitrailleuse MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 269 could not stand on account of the difference in range, and especially when the Germans, using breech-loading field pieces, could remain behind their guns to load and fire them, using the gun and carriage as shield against small-arm missiles. On the whole, the new weapon proved a severe disappointment to the French, though chiefly be- cause they used it as a substitute for artillery, which function it was never intended to perform. To Hiram Maxim, American born but later of British citizenship, goes the credit for making the first successful automatic rapid-firing gun. His ideas were revolutionary, for he not only employed a single barrel in place of many, but he made his gun load and fire itself without more human intervention than the touch of a finger at the trigger to set it going. The Maxim gun, invented in 1883, was six years later officially adopted by the British army, that Government at the same time conferring knighthood upon the inventor as a partial reward for his achievement. A verbal description of the Maxim quick-firer is not necessary here, as the manner of its working may easily be made out by an examination of the accompanying illustration. For motive power in its operation the force of recoil is used, by means of which the gun, when the trigger is once pulled 270 THE GUN BOOK for the first shot, ejects the empty shell, inserts a loaded one into the firing chamber, and fires again. A belt contains the ammunition and feeds raph ir i Kadei & Herbert, New York. FIG. 70. FIRST AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN, WITH HIRAM MAXIM, ITS INVENTOR Hiram Maxim is here shown testing out the first model of his invention. It was while testing this machine gun that Mr. Maxim became deaf. it to the gun by sliding transversely at the breech. It was originally so heavy that it was mounted on wheels, to be pushed about by its operators; but the models now in use are light enough to MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 271 272 THE GUN BOOK be carried by two men. The weapon fires three to five hundred shots per minute, or faster than a man can count, and is even today a gun highly valued in European armies. Maxim's idea for using recoil as the actuating force for a machine gun originated in his mind when a boy by having his shoulder bruised by the impact of a large-bore gun while shooting. Here was energy not only going to waste, but doing harm to the gunner and to his shot. " Could not that power be put to work operating the gun, thus relieving the firer's shoulder from shock, his arms from labor, and at the same time speeding up the delivery of bullets from the muzzle?" Such was the problem which kept presenting itself in the mind of the youthful Maxim for many years after, until at last his hands gave form to the thought, the wonderful gun resulting. Thus great oaks from little acorns grow. After the pronounced success of the Maxim gun had been revealed many other automatics came into existence both in this country and abroad, but none showing any basic difference until 1898, when the American, Browning, cam'e forward with a rapid-fire weapon, using a new principle for its operation. In Browning's opinion a machine gun lighter than the Maxim could be made by utilizing, MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 273 ^ _ t eg p.''- 274 THE GUN BOOK not recoil, but the expansive force of the gases in the gun barrel to operate the mechanism. With a proper arrangement of cylinder and piston much the same as those in the ordinary gasoline engine, using powder gas instead of that from burning petroleum, the thing, he was convinced, could be done. The result of his experiments was the ma- chine gun, afterward named the Colt's, from the manufacturer. Eemembering the tremendous gas pressure cre- ated in the gun tube during a shot, we may readily believe Browning when he says that his problem was not the getting of enough power to operate the little engine he proposed to attach to his gun barrel, but rather in keeping the actuating force within reasonable limits. He therefore drilled a hole almost microscopic in size through the gun barrel near its muzzle, which allowed the escape of a slight portion of powder gas into his aux-< iliary cylinder. There it pressed down a piston which in turn tilted a lever and the mechanism at the breech thus set in motion ejected the empty shell, inserted the new cartridge from the belt, and fired it, somewhat as in the Maxim gun. With this information the detailed picture of the work- ings of the Colt gun can be made out more easily than by a description in words. MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 275 One of the chief problems in devising quick- firing guns with a single barrel is to find ways and means of carrying off the tremendous heat generated by the burning powder. When a gun barrel grows very hot the tube expands so much that the bullet no longer fits, thus allowing gas leakage around the sides of the missile and at the same time making useless the rifling spirals. The gun must, therefore, be kept rea- sonably cool, or it will be worthless. In obedi- ence to this requirement, Maxim fixed around the barrel of his gun a water jacket holding nearly a gallon, which when filled with water kept the gun cool enough for operation under all ordinary conditions. This water-cooling feature of the Maxim gun is one of its great handicaps. With each thou- sand successive shots after the gun is hot, about a pint and a half of the fluid is evaporated, thus requiring the soldier to carry not only the extra weight of the water in the gun, but a supply to keep up with the loss, if any, in action. Browning succeeded in avoiding the use of the water cooler by placing around the barrel of his gun a number of flanges, which, by increasing the surface of the outside of the barrel, allow more air to come in contact with the metal to absorb its heat 276 THE GUN BOOK Though air cooling is not as efficient as cooling by the use of water, yet in the opinion of many military experts the other advantages gained in the Browning system more than offset that ob- jection. Of course, in ordinary use, even in the heat of battle, the gun is seldom called upon to deliver shots by the thousand in a steady stream, but to provide for such a crisis the Colt gun is supplied with an extra barrel which can be at- tached in a few seconds. As we are tracing only the development of new principles in gunnery we will not stop to describe the Gardner, Hotchkiss, and Benet-Mercier quick- firers (the latter a French production), which have been and are now being used under those and other names. They differ from the Maxim and Colt guns in minor details alone. But the recently invented Lewis gun gives us something new in this field which deserves attention. Like the Browning gun, that invented by Colonel I. H. Lewis of the United States army, and which bears his name, is operated by gas taken from the barrel through an orifice, in the usual manner of weapons of that type. The operating parts are shown in the accompanying diagram. One of its distinctive features is the method by which the ammunition is fed to it, MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 277 for instead of the usual transverse belt the car- tridges are placed in compartments in the top of a flat, circular, plate-like magazine holding forty-seven rounds in two layers. In this respect the Lewis gun is really an adaptation of that of Copyright by the Western Newspaper Union Photo Service. FIG. 73. BENET-MERCIER MACHINE GUN This gun uses long metal clips instead of belts with which to feed cartridges to the mechanism. Colt with its revolving cylinder. The magazine, when set on a spindle at the breech of the gun, revolves as the gun is fired, bringing fresh ammunition to the firing chamber. Only about two seconds are required to remove the emptied magazine and replace it with a full one. Though the whole weapon weighs but twenty-seven 278 THE GUN BOOK pounds, it is capable of firing as high as seven hundred and fifty rounds per minute. The Lewis gun is being used in all of the Allied armies now in France, and has been found especially adapted, by reason of its low weight and reliability, to use by soldiers flying and fighting in aeroplanes. (See Frontispiece.) The Lewis gun is of especial interest, however, by reason of the cooling device it carries. Brown- ing, as we have seen, caused his gun to stay cool by means of corrugations encircling its barrel, thereby exposing much heated surface to the sur- rounding air. Colonel Lewis added similar in- creased surface to his gun barrel by running thin plates of metal lengthwise along the tube. But to bring still more air in contact with the barrel, he devised an apparatus whereby the powder gases rushing out at the muzzle would produce a strong draft of air upon the barrel. This device appears in the picture, consisting of a large hollow jacket around the forward part of the gun, taper- ing in size in front of the muzzle. To the mouth of the barrel is fixed a nozzle through which mis- sile and burned gases pass in firing, of course at great speed. The propulsive gases the instant they emerge from the muzzle widen out, increas- ing their volume, but still proceeding rapidly for- , MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 279 280 THE GUN BOOK ward. This action creates a partial vacuum in- side the air jacket at the rear of the gun muzzle, causing a current of air, coming from behind, to sweep along the barrel and so carry off its heat. The draft thus created reaches a velocity of sev- enty miles an hour when the weapon is operated at full capacity, and serves to maintain the de- sired low temperature, except under the most ex- traordinary conditions of rapid fire. Those familiar with the ancient "water-blast" apparatus used in early iron furnaces will readily understand how the Lewis gun cooler works, and where its inventor got his idea. In order to melt iron ore in quantity great heat is required, this calling for forced draft to bring the necessary oxygen into the furnace fire. Engines and fans were, of course, unknown in olden times, so the ingenious iron maker produced the air blast he needed in the following manner : the furnace was located near a plentiful source of water, and below it, so that the fluid could be brought to the furnace in pipes and under pressure; then by admitting confined water from a small pipe into a larger one, the resulting jets and sprays of the liberated stream occupied the space inside the big pipe, and falling, drove the air ahead of it, pro- ducing a partial vacuum above. This upper space MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 281 in the big pipe was connected with the furnace, and as the stream of water continued to flow, a steady draft of air was drawn through the fire, FIG. 75. The water blast, formerly used in smelting furnaces, utilized falling water to produce air suction. In the type shown the water coming through the pipe A under com- pression sprays out of the nozzle; the falling drops, each driving air ahead of it, produce a draft through the furnace fire passing in through the pipe, B. Observation of the strong air currents existing at the foot of all high waterfalls proba- bly suggested this ancient invention. producing the high heat desired. Examination of the drawing of the water blast and comparison of its parts with those of Colonel Lewis's gun THE GUN BOOK cooler will make the similarity clear at a glance, the one using water under pressure to accomplish the purpose, and the other gas at high velocity. While it is hardly true that there is no new thing Copyright by the Western Newspaper Union Photo Service. FIG. 76. BBOWNING HEAVY MACHINE GUN This gun is fed from a belt of 250 rounds of cartridges. It weighs 34% pounds with water jacket filled and is operated from a tripod. This model has fired 20,000 shots in forty- eight minutes. While this is called the heavy Browning gun, it must not be confused with heavy guns of other types, some of which now in use in Europe weigh 250 pounds and are carried about upon an automobile or a horse. under the sun, such adaptations of old ideas to new uses show that there are fewer real novelties than we sometimes suspect. Much like its predecessors is the new Browning machine gun which has appeared within a year and which is now being manufactured in large MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 283 quantities for use by our soldiers in France. It is of the water-cooled type, using recoil as its motive power, and weighs twenty-two and one- half pounds, to which must be added ten pounds of water, or a little over a gallon, when the cooling chamber is filled. Its ammunition is also fed to it by a belt which is peculiar to the new gun, in that it is made wholly of cotton, instead of the metal or part metal hitherto employed for that purpose. The chief merits of the new gun, how- ever, lie in its simplicity and reliability, for it has fewer main parts than have ever been used before in a like weapon. Thus it is easily manu- factured, has great endurance, and is less likely to get out of order during the stress of battle. Six hundred shots per minute are possible from the gun; while in the Government test it fired twenty thousand shots in succession with a loss of only four and one-half seconds for stoppages, part of this delay being due, too, to defective cartridges. While we are permitted to present a picture of the exterior of this remarkable gun, a more detailed description is rightly forbidden at this time by our authorities, to the end that our national enemies may not profit by the in- formation. If the reader is by now asking himself why, in 284 THE GUN BOOK a book devoted primarily to the hand gun, so much space is being given to machine guns, the answer is at once forthcoming. It will be re- membered from a preceding chapter how the Spanish musketeers after the sixteenth century advanced upon the battle-field with two men car- rying a single gun of the weight of forty pounds or more, and how our present light hard-shooting rifle is descended directly from this cumbersome ancestor. It has been pointed out, too, that the standard hand gun of a few years hence promises to be the automatic rifle. The connection between these two facts is that just as our modern arm came into being through refinements added to the clumsy musket, so the machine gun by one improvement after another is coming close to the point where both soldier and sportsman will adopt the automatic weapon for his ordinary pur- poses. The truth of this statement will be borne out by a casual glance at the revolutionary char- acter of the weapon next to be mentioned the Browning automatic rifle. But let us pause for a moment in our examina- tion of machine guns to say a word about this man Browning, whose name appears so often in connection with the firearms of the last twenty- five years. His Christian name, John M., was MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 285 given him in Ogden, Utah, where he was born sixty-two years ago of Mormon parents. Young Browning began inventing useful improvements in guns at tfie early age of fourteen years, by whittling out of wood the breech-operating mech- anism afterward adopted for, and now used in the famous Winchester repeating rifle ; from that time down to the present day this Western genius has continued to produce one device after another for the improvement of the gun until there is hardly a modern rifle, shotgun, pistol, or machine gun that does not embody one or more of his ideas. Growing up as he did in the remote fron- tier, Browning's youthful environment was satu- rated with guns and the talk of guns, for firearms were almost as necessary to him and his people as the very clothes they wore. But as further stimulus in the study of gunnery, Browning had the advantage of being assistant to his father in the little gun shop and store by which the family gained its livelihood for many years after reach- ing the village at the head of the Great Salt Lake. The familiarity with firearms and the knowledge of the metals, tools, and processes used in their making, which Browning in this situation ac- quired, gave such fostering opportunities to his exceptional natural talents, that it is a moderate 286 THE GUN BOOK statement to say that no one man has ever con- tributed more to the development of the hand gun than John M. Browning. Browning's culminating achievement seems at Copyright by t'le Western Newspaper Union Photo Service. FIG. 77. BROWNING AUTOMATIC RIFLE As used in the shoulder position. Three hundred and fifty shots may be fired, with magazine pauses of 2^ seconds between bursts of forty, before the gun becomes too hot to operate. Weight, 15 pounds. Our men are also being taught to fire this gun with deadly precision " from the hip " that is, while being held at the side, the aiming being done by marking the course of the bullets as they strike the ground ahead. By this method the firer can deliver shots with surprising accuracy while walking or running forward. present to be the automatic rifle he has just pro- duced and turned over to his country, for her use in preserving her rights and liberties now so treacherously assailed by the Prussian Aristoc- MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 287 racy. And surely the gun has never set out on a more righteous mission than that of this new weapon, which promises such aid in restoring justice to the world. As with Browning's ma- chine gun, we are not allowed to present the de- tails of his automatic rifle, but a picture of its outward appearance is permissible, as well as the telling of a few of its leading merits. In the first place the new arm weighs but fifteen pounds, thus enabling the soldier to carry it and aim it from his shoulder almost as easily as the ordinary service rifle, much of its lightness being due to the fact that it is of the air-cooled, gas- operated type. The bearer can with it fire a single shot, or more as he wishes, by pulling the trigger for each shot; or if he desires, he may let the automatic mechanism operate the gun, giving a firing speed of twenty shots in two and one-half seconds. The cartridges are fed to the breech in clips of twenty, the empty shells being thrown to one side, the .30-caliber ammunition of the service rifle being used. But besides its light weight, the chief merit of the gun is its unusual simplicity, which permits of its use in the field by the non-expert, and adds to its reliability, as well as to the low cost of manufacture. Only one small wrench is needed for use in taking apart or 288 THE GUN BOOK reassembling the gun ; and these features, coupled with the weapon's ability to go on shooting after being subjected to immersion in dust and sand, seem to indicate that at last we have a true hand gun of the automatic type, light and sturdy enough for use by the common soldier a weapon that has been long sought. In reading and hearing of the battles and aeroplane duels now going on in Europe, how monotonous becomes the expression: "Then the machine gun jammed and went out of commis- sion," the sequel frequently being a tale of death and disaster. It is only when we realize the seriousness of this distressing fault of the old- style machine gun that we can appreciate the vir- tues of the new weapon with which Browning has presented us. The theory he followed in its construction was that a high degree of exactness in framing the parts was undesirable, for this meant- that with undue heating the precisely fitting members would refuse to act together; or if the weapon should receive a bump, or if bits of foreign matter like dirt should enter the mechanism, the gun would become hampered in operation, if not forced to quit working entirely. And not alone is great precision a detriment to the gun itself under trying conditions in the field, MACHINE GUN TO AUTOMATIC RIFLE 289 but a weapon so made is immensely more difficult to produce. With these two important facts in mind, Browning has made his weapons, both the machine gun and the automatic rifle, with parts loasely engaged wherever possible, confining ac- curate workmanship only to those members and parts where precision is imperative, and which, as he has proven, are surprisingly few in number. Hence the American soldier is enabled to enter the war with quick-firing weapons not only so light in weight as to be easily portable, but so trustworthy in operation that his courage is but- tressed by the knowledge that his gun will stand by him unfalteringly through thick and through thin. In 1914, in the city of Serajevo, in Austria, an Archduke was struck down by a pistol bullet, and this assassination furnished the Kaiser his pre- text for beginning the war which has deluged, Europe and Asia with blood. That fateful bullet was fired from the pistol invented by John M. Browning. When the curtain falls upon the har- rowing scenes of this world disaster we hope to see the Prussian tyrants overwhelmed, their mis- guided people repentant, and the rights of the little man and the little nation restored so se ? curely that peace with liberty will be founded as 290 THE GUN BOOK upon a rock. If this cherished end comes about, as we have reason to believe it will, not a little of the credit will be due to the superior imple- ments of war devised by the distinguished Mor- mon inventor who created the weapon which set in motion the whole train of sorrows. CHAPTER XVIII HOW THE NEW WEAPONS HAVE AFFECTED THE ART OF WAR THOUGH the science of projecting missiles from guns has greatly advanced, the changes which the new weapons have wrought in the art of war are less than we sometimes suppose. Remembering that strategy is, roughly speaking, the planning of the battle before it begins, while tactics deals chiefly with the methods of carrying out those plans when the armies have been brought face to face, a survey of the present European cam- paigns reveals the fact that it is the latter branch of military art that has been most affected by the introduction of better guns. From time immemorial the main object of op- posing generals, as has been already pointed out, is not so much to kill the soldiers of their ad- versaries as to disorganize them, crumple them up into mobs, and so capture men, weapons, and supplies. Mere killing takes too much time and is a game at which two can play, while reducing 291 THE GUN BOOK an army to a confused rabble robs it almost en- tirely of its fighting power. Cold-blooded trading -of man for man is the resort only of stupid gen- erals or of dire necessity. When two armies are about to confront each other for hostilities there have always been two general methods by which one of them can, with- out excessive losses, throw the other into con- fusion; one of these methods being the frontal attack, the other the flanking movement. In the parlance of our American football game these maneuvers are known as "bucking the line" in one instance, and "running around the end" in the other. In the frontal attack the enemy is engaged with especial vigor at orie or more points in his line, in the hope of breaking through and so being able to assail the foe from side and rear where he is exceedingly vulnerable. In the flank movement the object of the attacker is to bring a force suddenly against or around the end of the enemy's line and in this manner gain a van- tage point at his side or rear. Napoleon em- ployed both of the theories of attack with con- summate skill, and in our Civil War each plan was used time and again by the opposing forces. In the Battle of Gettysburg Lee battered a sec- tion of the Union line with artillery, and then EFFECT OF THE NEW WEAPONS 293 launched Pickett's Brigade against the front so weakened. More successful was Jackson's secret march around the end of the Federal line at the Battle of Chancellorsville, which stands as a classic example of the flank attack. Why, then, do we see in Europe no " end runs," but only the plunging of huge forces headlong into the enemy's lines in frontal attacks? The answer lies not in the fact that weapons of increased deadliness are being employed, but rather in the enormous size of the armies now in the field. Look back at the Battle of New Orleans, for instance, where the defenders lay behind earth- works while the attackers advanced in front and in the open. Packenham probably was not aware of the efficiency of the American rifle and rifleman, but even if he had been, there was no choice of strategy for him because on each side Jackson's army was protected by waters deep and wide. The Americans, though outmatched in both num- bers and military skill, were still sufficiently numerous to permit their line to reach entirely across the neck of land the British had to pass in order to reach New Orleans, their objective, thus compelling the invader to attack in front or not at all. On a small scale the Battle of New Orleans is THE GUN BOOK a counterpart of the situation existing in the principal campaigns being waged in Europe. In Russia, France, and Italy, owing to the num- ber of men engaged, the battle lines have been so extended as to permit the flanks to be protected by some natural obstacle such as deep waters, high mountains, or bottomless swamps; or, in place thereof, the forbidden boundaries of some neutral nation. Under such circumstances the European general finds himself in the same pre- dicament to which Packenham was reduced at New Orleans ; that is, he is confined to the frontal attack in order to make any advance. During the invasion of France, the German, von Kluck, in trying to outflank Joffre's army, was himself outflanked by a separate French force advancing from Paris. The Germans thereupon retreated, but slowly enough to permit the dig- ging at their rear of a line of trenches, which was ultimately extended from Switzerland to the sea. To these trenches they withdrew, followed closely by their French and British adversaries. The latter, being unable to turn either German flank, though General French tried manfully to do so on the west with his small British army, could assail the Germans only by advancing upon their line from the front. This they tried again, EFFECT OF THE NEW WEAPONS and again, unsuccessfully and with terrific losses. The Germans were well supplied with machine guns, and one of these operated by a single man well protected or well concealed, is deemed to be equal to a hundred men armed with ordinary rifles, advancing in the open. This means that one hundred German machine gunners firing from their trenches were equivalent to ten thousand' attacking French and British a superiority which the latter forces could not overcome. The Allies thereupon dug themselves into the ground confronting the Germans to gain protection, to be the better able to resist a renewed attack, and last but not least, to gain time in which to con- sider what next was to be done. They were face to face with the enigma of how to make a suc- cessful advance in frontal attack against the ma- chine gun, a problem not yet wholly solved after four years of fighting. The only recent example of war on a large scale to which the puzzled generals of the Allies could turn for the lessons of experience was the Russo-Japanese conflict in Manchuria; but not much of value was to be learned there because the little brown man had overthrown the bearded Slav chiefly by means of successful flank move- ments. The German line being in much the same 296 THE GUN BOOK situation as a city to be besieged when encircled by fortifications, it was early seen that artillery and explosive shells were likely to prove the sole means of driving the Germans from their strong- holds and force them to fight in the open, and therefore on more equal terms. This conclusion inaugurated the tremendous blasting operations we have since witnessed, in which cannon in num- ber and effectiveness unheard of before have been employed in preparing the way for advances by infantry. In principle, however, the methods thus employed do not differ from those of Lee at Gettysburg. Preparation by artillery for infantry advances, however, turned out to be less simple than at first supposed. While the huge projectiles which the Allied armies poured lavishly upon the German trenches smashed the earthworks and drove their occupants into their deep caves, still enough ma- chine guns and gunners always survived the storm to enable the defenders, when the fire lifted, to emerge from their dens and inflict severe pun- ishment upon the unprotected soldiers advancing. To make the difficulty of such attacks all the greater, the wily German invented the "machine gun nest," a concrete shelter apart from the trenches, so hidden as to be unseen by aeroplane EFFECT OF THE NEW WEAPONS 297 observers and vulnerable only to direct hit by] a large projectile. Some of these nests are even, made with small conning towers which rise out of the ground at the critical moment the oppos- ing infantry appears, when the machine guns in- side spit out deadly mis-siles by the thousands. To meet this new German invention the British produced their tanks, those crawling armored vehicles which carry guns of considerable size, but which are proof against impact of machine- gun bullets. So dangerous are machine guns, protected and concealed, that before an infantry attack neither side hesitates to send shells by the hundred into a spot of ground where the existence of one is suspected. But until recently the machine gun has been useful in defense alone, being too heavy to be readily carried and used by the soldier while making an advance. The French and Germans, however, are now using light automatic guns weighing a little over twenty pounds, which soldiers are taught to carry and shoot in charging trenches of the enemy ; while the British are using the Lewis gun for the same purpose. All of these guns are giving good results, though they are not so efficient as when fixed to the tripods or bases which they are really meant to use in action. But 298 THE GUN BOOK for the soldier walking or running the new Browning automatic rifle promises to give a firing power far beyond that of any such weapon now in use. The advance of infantry upon the modern battle-field is conducted substantially as follows: the artillery, light and heavy, pour projectiles upon the opposing trenches for hours, sometimes for days, before the attack is started, destroying 1 machine-gun emplacements, tearing up trenches, and spreading heavy, noxious gases over the enemy's zone. Then at a set moment the infantry in concert emerge from their own trenches and start forward at a pace carefully calculated be- forehand. As the attackers approach the enemy's line where the explosive shells are dropping, the artillerymen at the rear slightly elevate the muz- zles of their pieces, thus placing their projectiles a little farther forward, covering the trenches there and interfering with oncoming reinforce- ments. This is the moment when the survivors in the assailed trenches and machine-gun nests come to the top as best they can and commence to pour bullets into the oncoming ranks. Though the survivors of the preliminary bom- bardment may be few, such is the strength of the shelters in which they hide during the shelling EFFECT OF THE NEW WEAPONS 299 that seldom are all wiped out, no matter how fierce the artillery fire may have been. If tanks are being employed in the attack they now come into action, wandering over the battle-field looking for machine guns and turning upon them, when discovered, the artillery with which those steel monsters are armed. The attacking infantry, of course, are firing at every spot before them that shows signs of hostile men, using their ordinary rifles, automatic rifles, and portable machine guns. Part of such infantry, however, carry no guns, but are armed with a kind of weapon resurrected from the distant past the grenade, thrown from the hand and bursting, either by means of a timer or upon contact with the ground. A twelve- pound grenade can only be thrown about one hun- dred and thirty feet, so that the rifle bullets must keep the enemy below ground, if possible, to enable the grenadiers to get within throwing dis- tance; but once close enough to hurl their de- structive missiles into the machine-gun emplace- ment, the latter must succumb. The barrage fire advances yet again, with the infantry following, until trench after trench is thus taken, the ad- vance being limited, however, to the zone of fire possible to the supporting artillery. Then, ex- perience has shown that if losses are to be con- 300 THE GUN BOOK sidered, infantry must stop and wait for cannon to be moved up and preparations completed for a new battle. The crucial moment in an infantry attack against machine guns is that elapsing after the barrage fire has lifted, and before tanks and grenadiers can fall upon the defenders with their cannon and high explosives. So great is this defect in the offensive that even aeroplanes are used to swoop down, braving the projectiles of their own side as well as those of the enemy, to shoot the emerging machine gunners and force them back into their caves, during the few sec- onds which the infantry line requires to reach, the hostile trenches. When the charging infantry are able to protect themselves against the machine gun during these few precious moments by a strong counter-fire, the question of successful of- fensive fighting will be to a large extent solved; and this vital need seems to be now supplied in the coming of the Browning automatic rifle al- ready mentioned. If our army and those of the Allies ever succeed in pushing their way through the German line and so bring the war to the enemy in his home, we believe that the remarkable new American arm will play a large part in the achievement. CHAPTER XIX SHOTGUNS AFTEE a survey of the wonderful attainments of musket and rifle in shooting their single mis- siles, the companion arm, the shotgun, seems a laggard in the path of progress. In ignition, in breech-loading, and in repeating systems it has been a follower rather than a leader, taking the benefit of such ideas as could be adapted to its uses, but contributing little to the science of gun- nery. With one single exception, the discovery of the principle of choke-boring, it has experienced no such revolutionary advancements as those wit- nessed in the other classes of firearms. The shotgun is the direct descendant of the old blunderbuss, the office of which was to scatter a handful or so of nondescript missiles over a wide area, at a range of about a hundred feet. Its shooting distance is not much greater even now. The only superiority it can boast is the ability to deliver its pellets in a closer group than the ancient weapon did, together with less weight and 301 302 THE GUN BOOK greater strength, due to good workmanship and material. Quick shots at short range, without accurate aiming, are now, as they have Always been, its distinctive qualities. It is believed that the shotgun has possibilities much greater than have ever been achieved by it, for in artillery the shrapnel shell has shown how small missiles in large number may be thrown to a distance and made to scatter when and where desired. But no inventor has come forward with any similar plan to increase the range of the shotgun. This suggests that if it had held prom- ise of usefulness in warfare its progress might have been much more marked. The rich financial prizes for improvements in guns have almost in- variably gone to inventors working upon military weapons. Thus, Minie, the Frenchman, received a hundred thousand dollars from the British Gov- ernment for the right to use the rifle ball which took his name ; while other nations also paid well for the same privilege. There are many other examples of the same sort today, where govern- ments are paying millions in royalties to men who have furnished ideas for the betterment of military arms. In all this the shotgun has had no share, though what it might have been today under such stimulus no one can say. SHOTGUNS 303 As early as 1580 guns seem to have been made for the purpose of shooting at flying birds, for in that year the 'sport is mentioned in Italian records. In 1626 we have already seen that the New England colonists were supplied with "ffowlinge peeces, 6 foote longe," delivered with a lot of muskets. The weapon therefore is not an infant. In the United States it has been put to more uses than the killing of birds and rabbits, for even now there are hunters who load it with buckshot and pursue deer or bear in brushy coun- try where. short ranges and quick shots are the ruling conditions. On the frontier, too, for many years the guards on stage coaches habitually car- ried "sawed-off" shotguns to repel bandits. These had short double barrels about eighteen inches long, which permitted easy handling, and when loaded with heavy shot were weapons to which even the hardy road-agent showed respect. The writer has vivid recollections of sheriffs and their posses armed with these ugly-looking dwarf guns going about after outlaws and other crim- inals in the early days of the Northwest; while even today we hear that our American soldiers in France are using sawed-off shotguns to repel trench raids and that with good effect. But the chief use of the shotgun has always been that 304 THE GUN BOOK to which it is put today, the killing of small game in motion, at short ranges. The principal part of the fowling piece is its "barrel, which is large in bore, long, and thin. As it scatters its missiles so widely it must throw a comparatively heavy charge of lead in order to succeed in hitting a small target; the bore must therefore be ample to receive and eject it. To prevent the shot from scattering too much* the barrel is made long; but so short are the ranges intended that severe pressures are not required, hence the tube may be made quite thin as com- pared with the barrel of the rifle. The shotgun is never expected to develop more than from four to six tons of pressure per square inch, whereas the rifle must bear four or five times that much,. A shotgun with a good barrel is nearly always a good gun. Upon the making of these barrels has been lav- ished the genius of many generations of skilled gun makers. The large-bored tube was, of course, very heavy unless made thin, and the thinner a, given piece of metal is the weaker it is and the more easily damaged. As thickness decreases, furthermore, the more serious become any slight defects the material may contain. Then, too, the larger the tube the greater the number of square SHOTGUNS 305 inches of its inner surface exposed to the powder pressure, thereby adding to the danger of rupture. So that the production of a tube large, light, and still strong enough for its work, re- quires exceptional skill and pains. The severest strain upon a gun barrel is always at right angles to the bore. Expanding gas presses equally hard in all directions, but as the missile moves forward under the first impact of the explosion the pressure in front is quickly re- lieved ; the walls of the tube, however, must stand firm. Therefore the tendency of the barrel is to burst at the side, instead of being pulled apart endwise. This is almost invariably the manner in which gun barrels give way. This peculiarity has given rise to interesting methods in the making* of the thin shotgun barrel. A well-worked iron or steel rod has fibers run- ning lengthwise through it, something like the strands of a rope. When such a rod is pulled upon in the direction of the fibers it will bear a great load before Breaking, while a strain across its grain will tear it apart much more readily. Taking advantage of this difference in strength, shotgun makers in the last century began form- ing barrels for these guns by winding strips of iron into a spiral-like tube, and then welding the- 306 THE GUN BOOK edges together to make the whole a solid unit. By this means the powder pressure inside the barrel was resisted by the lengthwise strength of FIG. 78. Showing the methods by which shotgun barrels are made of coiled rods of steel and iron, and how such barrels, after being subjected to an acid bath, appear as if beauti- fully engraved. the fiber. Thus a much stronger tube was pro- duced than those formed by simply boring a hole in a long solid rod of iron. The same principle is used in the construction of big artillery, where unusual transverse strength is obtained by layers of wire wrapped around the inner tube. It is this spiral method of manufacture that gives us the SHOTGUNS 307 shotgun with the "twisted" barrel, very common a few years ago and even seen today in the more costly weapons. The beautiful figures appearing on the outer surface of twisted barrels are the result of the discovery that alternate strips of iron and steel coiled into a tube and welded together gave better results than either steel or iron used alone. The iron gave elasticity and toughness, while the steel added more strength than mere iron could supply. When these barrels of combined materials are dipped in weak acids the iron corrodes more rap- idly than the steel, and thus is produced upon, the surface of such tubes the beautiful scroll-like lines so much admired. The more complicated figures are the result of twisting the strips around each other, before they are coiled to make the tube itself. These fancy barrels, pleasing as they are to the eye, are easily damaged by rough usage and are giving way to sturdier, though no heavier ones, of special steel, molded and compressed by modern processes until great resistance is ob- tained. Early in the nineteenth century this success in making tubes strong yet light led to the produc- tion of the double-barreled gun. This plan not only gave the hunter a second shot when he 308 THE GUN BOOK needed it, but the extra weight was a distinct ad- vantage in overcoming recoil; for we must not forget that a gun too light is worse than one too heavy. The loads which the shotgun is required to shoot have never been decreased, as in the rifle, so that a very light shotgun has always been out of the question. Therefore except in re- peaters, which have the added weight of their increased mechanism, the double-barreled shotgun remains the standard type to this day. After breech-loading principles became well established in rifles, shotguns also were made to load at the breech. There have been many plans tried for making the gun open easily for charg- ing and closing it securely again for firing, but the method that has finally won out is that seen: in the old breechloader of Philip V, in which the gun breaks on a hinge at the lock, the muzzle descending, exposing the rear of the barrels. The levers by which this operation is performed have been variously placed at the bottom, top, and side ; the top device having in the long run proved best. The real difficulty has always been in fastening the barrel to the stock and frame when in position for firing. Even in this respect im- provement has been made only in recent years, though the problems involved have been of the SHOTGUNS 309 simplest kind. The early breech-loading shotguns had their sole fastenings below the barrel, close to FIG. 79. TYPES OF SHOTGUN BOLTS When the drop-down principle became generally adopted for the breech-loading shotgun, we were long without a satis- factory method of securing the hinged barrel to the stock. A. and B show the lug under the barrel into which a wedge operated by a lever fitted to hold the barrel in place for firing. B has in addition a wedge extending back from the top of the breech, called a " doll's-head," which helped some ; but all these fastenings were insecure. The method now used is to place a wing below the barrel to check side strains and then bolt the barrel to the stock by means of a per- forated pin extending backward into the stock at the top of the barrel, as shown in figure C. the hinge, which of course put such great strain on them that with use the barrel became so loose that it would rattle when shaken. The first 310 THE GUN BOOK breech-loading shotgun the writer owned, a rather expensive gun, too, began to rattle before it was three months old. In the modern gun, however, this defect has been remedied by placing the fastening at the extreme breech and on top, the position in which it belongs, and where the Smith & Wesson revolver used it long ago. Just how crude the old guns were and how simple the cure was, can best be judged by a view of the prin- cipal types of breech fastenings which have been used at various times. For two reasons the range of the shotgun is necessarily very short. When the group of tiny missiles is sent out of the barrel the pellets al- ways spread more or less, each fighting its own way through the air. According to the principle that the small object exposes more surface in pro- portion to its contents than a larger one of the same shape, the resistance each pellet has to over- come is great, compared with its weight. There- fore, no matter how fast shot are sent .out from the barrel, their speed is quickly cut down. Large-sized pellets carry further and have greater penetrative power, but of course the number used in a charge must then be lessened, which results in broad spaces between the shot; and, if the target be small, misses will be frequent. Then, SHOTGUNS 311 too, it is found that if the muzzle velocity exceeds ten to twelve hundred feet per second, the pellets scatter too much for effective shooting. Hence, in the present state of knowledge, the weapon has about reached its limit of efficiency. It is a good gun that will in continued shooting deliver sev- enty per cent of its shot within a thirty-inch circle at forty yards. Nor was even this mod- erate result attainable until the principle of choke-boring was discovered. Some time before the middle of the last cen- tury a practice grew up in the United States of slightly decreasing the bore of the barrel at the muzzle, with the result that the shot scattered less than when fired from the true cylinder. Who first conceived the idea and put it into practice we do not know, but who ever did it is entitled to the credit of making the single important dis- covery peculiar to this type of weapon. It seems to be generally conceded that the invention orig- inated in America, and though a man named Roper secured a patent for a similar gun barrel in this country, in 1866, the idea was in use long before that. It took a good many years to test out the full limits of the choke-boring principle, the final result of the experiments proving that in a ten-gauge gun, if the final two or three inches 312 THE GUN BOOK of the bore at the muzzle be made four one-hun- dredths of an inch narrower than the rest of the barrel, the shot will be best held together. As the size of the gun decreases the constriction must also be lessened; so that in a twenty-gauge gun, for instance, the amount allowable is only half that of the ten-gauge. We do not know exactly the reason why choke- boring should cause the pellets to remain closer together, but modern photography and the use of powder without smoke have given us a tolera- bly clear idea of the operation. By shooting the charge against a wire which electrically operates the camera shutter, we have been given pictures of the charges as they emerge from both plain and choke-bored barrels. From these pictures it seems that in the plain barrel when the gases push the charge from the rear, with the air press- ing against it in front, the effect is to squeeze the center pellets out sideways at the instant they leave the tube, thus causing them to fly off at angles, and so arrive at their target widely spread. The peculiar effect of choke-boring in sending the pellets off in a closer group seems to depend chiefly upon the action of the wad behind the shot charge when it reaches the constriction. This wad, being strong and tight-fitting, appears SHOTGUNS 313 Cof/- n>/3WaJ S * Shot Wac/ FIG. 80. Photographs of shotgun charges leaving the muzzle, the camera being snapped by contact of the forward wad against the wire. A shows the shot leaving an ordinary barrel in a compact body, while B reveals the shot from the choke-bored barrel stringing out for the reasons explained in the text. to have its progress checked momentarily by the slight obstruction; in turn the oncoming gases are similarly retarded. This happens just as the THE GUN BOOK charge is leaving the muzzle. Thus the pressure being relieved at the rear, the squeezing effect produced in the plain barrel is avoided, and the units of the charge pass on straighter to their mark. While this explanation is not entirely satisfactory, it is the best of the many ingenious ones offered. All agree that we have still some- thing to learn about how the choke-bored barrel produces its results. It might naturally be expected that the choke- bored barrel, keeping the pellets close together, as it does, would have caused a reduction in the number of missiles necessary to a charge. This has not been the case, though, because of the sub- stantial percentage of them practically destroyed at the muzzle. The slight shoulder against which the missiles are forced so suddenly flattens about thirty per cent of those on the outside of the mass, and these deformed ones fly wildly because of unequal air pressures on their surfaces ; many of them, too, while going fairly straight, arrive at the journey's end too late to be of service against a moving target. On account of this waste the aggregate charge is, therefore, not much less than before choke-boring was introduced. Better workmanship and more careful loading, however, are giving adequate results with smaller-sized SHOTGUNS 315 guns, and there is in consequence a distinct tend- ency toward the adoption of guns as low as six- teen and even twenty gauge. The repeating principle has been applied to shotguns with excellent success, though most sportsmen find that the double-barreled weapon giving its two shots supplies all ordinary needs in hunting small game. In America the repeating shotgun, like the repeating rifle, is more popular than in Europe, and its use here seems to be growing. There are a number of good weapons of this kind to be had, but as they do not differ in principle from the types already shown in rifles, none calls for special mention here, except per- haps that invented by Browning, which operates by means of a slide under the barrel, whereby the firer is permitted to reload with his left hand while the gun remains in firing position. Americans are now beginning to take up the automatic loader, which promises in time to displace all other types. When these attain greater simplicity and become less expensive the existing shotguns will surely be laid aside. The mechanisms of these new weapons are not dissimilar to those of the self- loading pistol, which we shall consider in detail in the next chapter. CHAPTER XX THE PISTOL OF all the forms which firearms have taken none has become so closely intertwined with the lives of modern men as the pistol. Cheap, light, and handy, powerful at short ranges, and requir- ing little skill in ordinary use, it has proved to be the ideal weapon for personal defense. The result is that the number of pistols in existence and use is probably greater than that of all other weapons combined. Yet only within the last cen- tury has this prominence come about. Before that time it was the sword that men, even in private life, generally carried or kept in the home as a convenient and reliable weapon for self- defense. On the backs of some of their coats men wear buttons even down to this day, the original purpose of which was to support the sword belt of the wearer. It was the revolving pistol pro- duced by Samuel Colt in 1836 that sent the non- military sword to the garret as a relic, and at 316 THE PISTOL 317 the same time made the ancient art of swords- manship obsolete. The early pistol was designed to be held in and fired from a single hand, and was especially in- tended for the us.e of cavalry. It was really the only weapon that could be used to advantage by the horseman, for this weapon could be aimed and fired by the right hand, while the left was free to hold the reins and guide the horse. The musket proper, as we have seen, was too long and heavy and too hard to load to be of much use to the mounted man. The lighter weight of the short arm permitted the addition of an extra barrel, and this became common, for though mak- ing the weapon somewhat more unwieldly, the firing power of the bearer was thereby doubled. From the early part of the sixteenth century on the pistol in some form has usually been a part of the cavalryman ' equipment. For several centuries the mounted soldier was taught to charge the enemy, fire his pistol at short range, and then throw it as a missile, a purpose for which the old, heavy instrument was quite well fitted. After thus relieving himself of the firearm, the charging horseman drew his sword and began the real fighting. In 1544 we read of a combat between Germans and French, in which 318 THE GUN BOOK the cavalry of the former fought with pistols alone, riding forward one after another, firing, and retreating to reload. This maneuver became much used after that, being called "caracole," a term still employed to describe the wheeling of cavalry ranks into lines or files. But the pistol FIG. 81. OLD PISTOLS a, Highland pistol for horseman, 17th century; 6, Derringer; c, Highland pistol for the belt, 16th century. never took a leading part in warfare, and has always been regarded by the soldier as a minor weapon. Down to the time of Colt's invention the pistol commonly used did not, except in length and the shape of its stock, depart far from the type of the muskets used alongside of it. The various advances in ignition were transferred to it, as they came forward from time to time; while the rifling of the barrel to spin the projectile was also THE PISTOL 319 adopted for the pistol as soon as the greased patch made loading easier. Until 1836 the pistol was in fact only a musket or rifle of smaller size. Colt's invention, made when he was only twenty-one, was not new, as has been explained, except in the method of making the cylinder re- volve, and holding it fast while being fired. One other attachment which he added to the arm, and which tended to quicken the loading of it, was the ingenious ramrod under the barrel. This was a lever which, when pulled downward, operated a plunger in and out of the chamber of the cylinder; by its help the powder and lead could be rammed into the chambers tightly and quite rapidly considering that the operation was re- stricted to one charge at a time. The ratchet which turned the cylinder, the stop which held it in place, and the manner of working the jointed ramrod are shown in the illustrations. The Colt revolver proved to be such a meri- torious weapon that within a few years after its introduction its use had spread throughout the civilized world. No contribution to firearms of any sort has ever achieved such quick and general recognition; which fact not only emphasizes the virtues of the invention itself, but reveals also 320 THE GUN BOOK the universal need which existed for such an arm. In measuring Colt's success it must at the same time be remembered that without the percussion principle, with which even his earliest produc- tions were fitted, the usefulness of his revolver would have been doubtful. Therefore to Forsyth FIG. 82. MECHANISM OF THE ORIGINAL COLT REVOLVER The above diagram shows the ingenious invention of Samuel Colt, which formed the basis of the successful revolvers. In such weapons used heretofore the cylinder was turned by hand, with the result that the firing chamber did not always come opposite the barrel, which made them dangerous. In Colt's weapon mere cocking of the hammer moved the cylinder exactly into place and locked it there. (See Figs. 48, 49, 50, Chapter XII. a, hammer; 5, hand; c, ratchet; d, bolt; e, nipple; /, cylinder. the Scotchman and Shaw the American are due a substantial share in the triumph. During the life of Colt's patent his invention enjoyed practically a monopoly of the field in pistols. With the coming of the metallic car- tridge shell and the resulting success in breech- THE PISTOL loading, the cylinders of the revolver were altered to use that kind of ammunition, thereby increas- ing its rapidity of fire substantially, and making it a better weapon than before. The self-cocking action added in later years also permitted quicker operation. Upon the expiration of the patent a large variety of revolvers came upon the market, nearly all using Colt's ideas, and differing chiefly in modes of loading cartridges and discharging the empty shells. None of these new arms used any novel principle of sufficient importance to receive mention here; and then, too, most of us are already familiar with the parts and workings of the best of them. The revolver has never been a perfect weapon, for, though the later models loaded at the breech of the cylinder, the gap remained at the junction between cylinder and barrel. No matter how skilfully made, there must always be play enough at that point to allow the cylinder to revolve easily, the effect of which is to permit substantial escape of gas and consequent loss of power. The man who can devise a plan to close that joint without obstructing the cylinder in its motion may ask and receive practically his own price for the invention; for thereby will be cured the one great drawback from which the revolver has suffered THE GUN BOOK from the beginning, ^o far no successful method to accomplish this has been evolved, though hun- dreds of men have worked valiantly at the task. But in spite of this great fault the revolver has for seventy years continued to hold its important place among firearms. Though it happened to him as a boy many years ago, the author distinctly remembers the day when he first had forced upon his attention the quantity of gas wasted by the revolver at the junction of its cylinder and barrel. It was in the sagebrush near the Yellowstone Eiver when, as he rode along, a coyote jumped up from his covert and ran ahead. The author drew his revolver, a .44 Colt, and spurred forward in chase. After missing a shot or two, the reins were dropped while the weapon was grasped with the left hand to steady it in the effort to make a sure hit. The shot was delivered, but whether or not the bullet took effect the young hunter never knew, for his attention was instantly arrested by an unexpected occur- rence. At the explosion, the fingers of the sup- porting left hand were thrust violently apart, while a dart of pain in the members made their owner wince. A glance at the fingers showed them seared and blackened. His first thought was that the weapon had burst, but examination THE PISTOL 323 proved it still intact, whereupon the truth dawned upon the mind of the startled youngster. The burned fingers had been placed around the rear of the barrel and the side-way blast of gas at the explosion had been powerful enough to forcibly disengage them and burn the hand severely. The lesson then learned by the author he now passes along to other novices in revolver shooting, which is that if extra support is to be given the weapon in making a shot, the left hand, or better, the arm, should be placed under the frame of the weapon and not in proximity to the upper chamber of the cylinder where danger lurks. The ascendency of the revolver is now upon the wane, however, for a rival has appeared against which it probably cannot long contend. This new weapon, the self-loading pistol, is rap- idly gaining the place of honor, not only among private citizens but in armies as well. Nearly all the nations have adopted it as the official weapon for officers in army and navy; while the United States infantry is equipped with it in France, where it is relied upon as an adjunct to the bayonet in fighting at close quarters. The type of automatic pistol that has received prac- tically unanimous favor both in America and Europe is that invented by Browning. As it is THE GUN BOOK the official weapon of our military forces and a good example of the whole class of firearms which use the force of recoil to effect the loading opera- tion, a careful inspection of the Browning pistol, or, as it is called after the manufacturer, the Colt Automatic Pistol, will be instructive. FIG. 83. COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL, GOVERNMENT MODEL This pistol, .45 caliber, has been adopted by most of the armies and navies of the world, including our own. This production of Browning promises to displace entirely Colt's invention, which has reigned supreme in its field for 80 years. The magazine is within the stock and holds seven cartridges, inserted from below; a spring pushes them up, keeping one always near the breech of the barrel. After loading, the slide is drawn back once by the hand, which operation places the cartridge in the firing chamber, and locks the weapon. When the trigger is pulled the THE PISTOL 325 recoil thrusts the barrel and slide backward to- gether, during which journey the bullet escapes from the barrel. By the time this takes place the barrel drops downward on its toggle joints and stops, while the slide continues to the rear, SLIDE AND BREECH STOPPER IN BARRELv ONE PIECE BLOCKING RIBS tfflfa. \ CARTRIDGES JNSERTED HERE FIG. 84. COLT AUTOMATIC PISTOL, GOVERNMENT MODEL (Browning Pistol) Sectional view, showing mechanism. cocking the hammer, and opening a space under- neath into which the magazine spring thrusts a cartridge. The retractor spring then pulls the slide forward, which inserts the cartridge in the barrel; after which both barrel and slide return 326 THE GUN BOOK to their former positions, the toggle joints rais- ing the barrel again so that the locking ribs en- gage the slots in the slide, and the weapon may be fired again when the trigger is pulled. This operation is repeated as long as a cartridge re- mains in the magazine. Thus this type of pistol is not only a repeater, but avoids the gap which exists in the revolver between cylinder and barrel, for the cartridge is exploded in the barrel itself. Not the least of the advantages of the new weapon is the decreasing of the shock of recoil, which was a serious drawback to the revolver of large size. Instead of disturb- ing the shot, this force is now largely taken up in the operation of the mechanism, the result being that a .45-caliber pistol of this kind gives no more recoil than a revolver of .38 caliber of the same weight. Why is it, one may well ask, that while rifle calibers have so steadily decreased, our military authorities have adopted the huge .45 caliber for their service pistol? At first glance this seems to be a turning backward of the clock of prog- ress; yet the answer is quite satisfying. The pistol is essentially a weapon for moderate ranges. With its short barrel bringing the sights too close together for distance work and intended, THE PISTOL 327 as the pistol is, to be supported and fired from a single hand, fifty to seventy-five yards are about the limit within which hits from it may be ex- pected. Recoil being largely taken up by the reloading mechanism, heavy powder charges are permissible, giving a surplus of power which the arm should in some way be made to utilize. The modern pistol firer then finds himself in much the same situation as did the musketeer mentioned in Chapter VII; he can send a small missile far but not accurately, hence he may as well use a big, hard-hitting bullet with low velocity, which will inflict the maximum damage to the human enemy for which it is intended. The small metal- patched bullet will frequently pass through a man without checking his advance, and the soft-nosed variety, which spreads on contact, has been, as we have seen, barred from use in warfare by consent of nations. There has, however, been no limit placed upon the size of the missiles which the soldier may employ. Therefore our .45-caliber pistol is a legal man-killer the irony of it which, upon entering the body of a German in the present war is expected promptly to cause him to lose interest in his mission of spreading "kultur" by force. There are already on the market a number of 328 THE GUN BOOK sporting shotguns and rifles which utilize recoil in loading and cocking themselves, as in the Browning pistol, but a study of the latter will give a fair understanding of the merits and prin- ciples of the whole class. CHAPTER XXI THE GUN OF THE FUTURE IN the writings of past centuries about guns one is struck by the cocksure beliefs constantly expressed that the particular kinds of firearms which the authors saw about them, in their various times, were the best that could ever by any possi- bility be produced. And we of these later days, even with all the former false predictions before us, are also inclined to take the same attitude toward our own weapons. A few sober second thoughts upon this subject will, therefore, not be amiss, for there still remain some very serious drawbacks in the gun, some of which, at least, in the light of experience, we may reasonably expect to see in the near future successfully overcome. In the shotgun, for instance, there is reason to believe that some change will be made or some device originated, whereby its range will be in- creased from forty yards to a hundred or perhaps several hundred yards. It is not more than half a century since the cannon was used as a huge 329 330 THE GUN BOOK shotgun, to throw scattering charges of grapeshot a few hundred yards from the muzzle, while the shrapnel shell now permits the cluster of missiles to be carried as a mass for several miles, and then to be opened up and, with great accuracy, strewn over the space selected. If the pellets can be held in a compact body they will meet com- paratively little air resistance during their long journey forward, and arrive near their target traveling at high speed, only needing to be re- leased at the proper moment to scatter and do their work. This kind of projectile can be easily adapted to use in the shotgun if some one will come forward with a plan to make the shell cheaply enough for the ordinary sportsman's use. The specific device lacking is an inexpensive tim- ing apparatus, by which the charge can be lib- erated at the right instant. When this invention arrives, as it very probably will, shotgun shoot- ing will be the most fascinating and scientific of all sports. One of the chief drawbacks to all our firearms is the high cost of ammunition. No weapon for general use can be called a success when its opera- tion is so expensive as to prevent the average man from using it freely. The scarcity of powder and the costliness of iron did much in the earlier days THE GUN OF THE FUTURE 331 to keep the gun in the background, as it was for so long, and a similar reason now keeps the gun of standard sizes out of the hands of the majority of men. The weapon itself is quite low in price- lower in America than anywhere in the world, con- sidering quality but as long as each shot costs the gunner from two to five cents, rifle and shot- gun shooting are bound to remain the pastime of the well-to-do, to the exclusion of the masses. There is no sufficient reason why a brass, or brass and paper, shell, made of costly material and by intricate processes, should be discarded after a single shot. This part of the cartridge is its most costly item; and though it can be re- loaded, there are few persons who possess the skill to make a modern cartridge with the neces- sary accuracy, even when given the shell ready to their hands. Experience has taught most gun- ners the futility of trying to get good results from ammunition of their own creation. It not only shoots poorly, as a rule, but the mechanism of the gun is so exact that the slightest variation in dimensions of the cartridge interferes seriously with quick and easy operation, to say nothing of the very real danger from premature ex- plosions which exists in the loading and firing of home-made ammunition. The modern gun de- THE GUN BOOK mands cheaper ammunition, and the inventor who can produce it will accomplish a great contribution to gunnery. One cannot help believing, too, that our system of ignition falls far short of what is possible in that respect. The making of the primer, the form- ing of the shell to receive it, and the mechanism the gun requires to set it off, all add greatly to the cost of shooting. But it is not in cost that the chief detriment lies, for the most archaic part of the gun is the present means of discharging it, the frigger and hammer. No one doubts that at least half of the errors in shooting are the result, directly or indirectly, of faulty work in releasing the trigger. For safety's sake a pull of several pounds is generally provided for, and the exer- tion of so much force on a particular portion of the weapon, at the most crucial instant, cannot help introducing serious disturbances where mere hairbreadths on the sights count in yards at the target. In time some genius will give us an igni- tion system which will be cheap, and will permit firing by a mere touch, yet with safety. Electrical devices for this purpose are in existence today, but have been found too faulty for good service. They also require a primer to start the explosion, for we know of no means today to ignite smoke- THE GUN OF THE FUTURE 333 less powder by electric current without a cap of some sort. With this want supplied the cumber- some and costly ignition method now in use will promptly disappear, perhaps leaving us in won- derment at our having so long borne with its crudities. The military rifle of the future, it is confidently predicted, will be practically a machine gun, firing with great rapidity, by means of self-loading and igniting devices, as are the heavier weapons of that name now in use. The present objection to their general adoption for the infantryman is the difficulty in supplying ammunition in larger quan- tities than is now possible. With the standard rifle already in use the trooper can in five minutes ' time fire his full burden of cartridges, fifty to one hundred, so that faster shooting under present conditions of supply is of little importance, for the soldier without cartridges is left to his bayonet alone for offense and protection. The automatic rifle when used in France today is usu- ally accompanied by two extra men who serve as ammunition bearers ; thus three men are exposed to the fire of the enemy while only one of them is delivering fire in return. The amount of ammunition carried per man could be doubled if the brass shell could be abolished, for it con- 334 THE GUN BOOK stitutes nearly half the weight of each cartridge. The cartridge used in the United States Spring- field, for instance, weighs 3951/2 grains ; 200 grains being due to the charges of powder and lead, leaving 195% grains for the shell alone. To give the soldier two cartridges where he now has only one would not usher in the automatic weapon in FIG. 85. MAXIM SILENCER The loud noise made by the explosion in the gun is due to the vibrations of the air caused by the violent outrush of powder gases. The silencer permits the bullet to pass through a hole in its center, the gases being caught by the curling fins and made to whirl around inside the silencer; thus their forward velocity is decreased and their final escape made more gradual. place of the common rifle, but the advantage con- ferred would be a great one, nevertheless. Then there is the noise of the gun, once con- sidered one of its chief virtues, but now counted a great defect in shooting. The soldier firing from cover reveals his position by the loud report, while on the battle-field the uproar of myriads of explosions cuts him off from spoken orders from his officers. The hunter, too, would find in the noiseless gun a weapon well suited to his pur- THE GUN OF THE FUTURE 335 poses, for, should he then fire and miss, another shot would be possible before his quarry fled in alarm. The best silencer yet produced is the Maxim, which arrests the gases at the muzzle, and by causing them to follow a winding path to the outer air, and so to issue slowly, muffles the ex- plosion very substantially. In rifles of high power, however, the sound is not deadened enough to warrant general acceptance of the device. Aside from the report of the explosion, there is another detrimental sound produced in firing the modern rifle, which arises from the action of the air while being pierced by a very fast bullet. When the speed of a missile is much over 1,300 feet per second it produces a snapping sound in its passage, which at higher velocities becomes a sharp report to one standing near its path. In the days of black powder and low velocities this effect was practically unknown, though with our present arms, sending off bullets at the rate of two and three thousand feet per second, it has come to be a serious drawback, especially to the hunter. Where an animal is fired at and missed, the report of the gun at a distance is bad enough, but to have this secondary crack take place about its ears makes it flee in instant alarm. No method has yet been suggested whereby the bullet as used 336 THE GUN BOOK at present can be prevented from making its noisy passage through the air, though it is possible to make a missile of such form that it will not only dispose of this sound, but bring in with it other almost revolutionary advantages. We have seen that the modern bullet is grievously defective, in that it travels light end foremost. But combined with that is another fault which, when both are considered, would al- most justify the statement that we have been forced to adopt the worst possible form which a projectile could take. In order to apply the force of the explosion to the bullet we make its rear end flat ; though nature has shown us in its swift birds and fish that, for efficient locomotion through air or water, both ends should be pointed, the longest taper being at the rear. In building boats and torpedoes we have copied the forms of these creatures successfully; but boats and tor- pedoes carry their own propulsive power with them, while the projectile must receive its total impetus from the gases in the gun barrel. If we could send our bullet off efficiently when formed in a general way like a trout, that is, with a pointed nose, the thickest part well forward, and a long tapering tail, there would be need for only spin enough to overcome the disturbing influ- THE GUN OF THE FUTURE 337 ences of slight defects in its construction and ma- terial; for with the principal weight toward the front there would no longer be the tendency to tip over and fly rear end first, as in the broad- based bullet. Nor would the cracking sound the present missile makes in its passage be heard, for that is caused by the air snapping together after the flat-ended bullet has pierced it. The long- tailed projectile would fill up the hollow behind it, allowing the air to come together again slowly. A missile so shaped would not only slip silently through the air, and require less spin, but would actually retain its speed much longer than the clumsy object we use at present. The form of bullet we now use wastes power, as the snapping together of the air behind it clearly proves. A boat that tosses water about wildly when underway is badly built and uses up excessive energy, for experience proves that to get the most speed from a ton of coal the vessel must glide through the water, making the least commo- tion possible. The water pushed aside by the for- ward part of the hull of a well-built boat is al- lowed by the sloping rear lines to come together gradually, and by its returning weight and mo- tion helps to urge the vessel forward. A simple illustration of the principle occurs when a boy 338 THE GUN BOOK "shoots" a wet melon seed by squeezing it be- tween his finger and thumb. The bullet with pointed prow and long tapering tail would act upon the air, and be acted upon by the air, in this identical manner. The vacuum which the broad- based bullet causes would be filled up with lead, and the missile thus could be longer without in- creasing the total air resistance ; furthermore, the action of the inrushing air at the rear striking against the sloping sides would help to thrust the missile forward. With all these benefits to be derived from the double-pointed projectile, why do we not adopt it at once? The answer lies in the difficulty of projecting such an object from the gun barrel. The idea of the fish-shaped projectile is not new, for the great merits it possesses in many respects have been recognized for at least two hundred years. Its use has been so far forbidden us, because we cannot project it from a gun barrel with any degree of success, partly on account of its tendency to lean to one side or the other in the tube, and thus pass out unbalanced, and partly owing to the peculiar effect of the powder gases acting upon its sloping sides. When the gases are impeded by having their direction suddenly changed the bursting of the barrel is a likely re- THE GUN OF THE FUTURE suit, for easy escape is thereby prevented, while their velocity thus checked cannot impart much speed to the projectile itself. The flat base, then, vT^P* 1 " FIG. 86. BEST FORM FOB BULLET a, a, Air pressure. is the only form in which we can use bullets in our present state of knowledge, though perhaps at some future time the seemingly impossible dif- FIG. 87. BULLET WITH FLAT END v y Vacuum behind flat-end bullet in flight. ficulties surrounding the use of the double-pointed missile will be overcome. Of course ingenious men have already tried placing a separate piece with a flat base at the rear of an oval bullet, thus giving the powder gases a vertical surface to act upon, while the bullet once out of the barrel would speed on its way alone. In shots thus made, the separate base 340 THE GUN BOOK is a projectile itself and a wild flying, dangerous one at that, while no such auxiliary has yet been produced which will maintain the long-tailed bullet in its true position. Some better plan yet remains to be devised. The subject of the gun of the future must not be dismissed without calling attention to another point, probably the most important of all. This is the matter of sighting. The modern rifle will shoot, and with a low trajectory, as far as the average man can see to aim it, and is therefore about up to the limits of human vision in range and accuracy. The next step in advance should be in means of reinforcing the eye of the gunner, for there is no use in improving the gun further if it is to fail on account of the firer's limitations. There are instruments to be had today to aid the rifleman's vision, but they are costly and delicate, and their errors, however slight, tend to multiply the original mistakes in sighting. The crying need of the rifleman at present is a cheap, simple, and substantial device by which a distant target will quickly be made plain to the eye, and which will help, and not hinder the operation of the gun by its size, weight, and flimsiness. Fame and fortune await the inventor of such an instrument. Efficient as our guns are, therefore, they are THE GUN OF THE FUTURE 341 still open to a number of very serious objections. The improvements suggested in this chapter all seem to be within the bounds of possibility, for none of them appears to offer obstacles more insu- perable than those which have already been over- come. We have today scientific knowledge con- cerning the causes of the shortcomings of our guns better than ever before, and greater mechanical skill with which to put our ideas into working form than that of any of our predecessors. Hence it is not unreasonable to hope that the gun of the very near future will far surpass even the weapon of which we now rightfully boast. CHAPTER XXII THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING AT the Battle of Bunker Hill, in 1776, the Amer- ican troops were told: " Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes. ' ' Thirty-nine years later Jackson's men at New Orleans opened fire at four hundred yards, doing considerable execution even at that distance. In the first case the order was intended to eliminate almost entirely the act of aiming, while in the later fight marksmanship of a high order was called for. In these two inci- dents we see the striking difference between the musket, which was chiefly used at Bunker Hill, and the rifle with which most of the Americans were armed in the Southern contest. Marksman- ship can be fairly said to have begun with the in- troduction of the rifle, which in America, of course, was at least a century before 1815. The ancient musketeer, or even the rifleman of a century ago, would be amazed at seeing his modern successor coming onto the shooting range armed not only with his gun, but with ther- 342 THE PRINCIPLE? OF SHOOTING 343 mometer, barometer, and wind gauge as well. Yet these additional instruments are today all ordi- nary parts of the equipment of the long-distance marksman. The colder the air the denser it is, and the less easily the bullet can make its way through; therefore a slight fall in temperature requires an elevation of the gun barrel to allow for the extra drop the slowed-up missile will make in its long journey. A rising thermometer, on the other hand, calls for a lowering of the rear sight ; for air, like iron, grows softer the hotter it be- comes, and is thereby more easily penetrated. The presence of moisture in the air makes it heavier, and the bullet is retarded or quickened in its flight as the barometer changes. Follow- ing winds decrease the air's resistance, while against head winds the missile meets increased opposition. Cross winds, too, tend to sweep the missile to right or left as it speeds along. The wind-gauge must, therefore, not only reveal the direction of the wind, but its velocity as well. Making allowances for all these conditions, changing as they do from minute to minute, tends to make rifle shooting as complicated as a game of chess. The missiles of r.evolver and shotgun, intended as they are for use over comparatively short 344 THE GUN BOOK ranges, are less affected by changing air condi- tions than the far-flying rifle bullet, but each weapon has its peculiarities, strict attention to which is necessary to get out of the instrument the best there is in it. Full discussion of this entire subject is worthy of a whole book instead of a mere chapter ; but there are certain principles of marksmanship applicable to all firearms which can be briefly told, and without knowledge of which even moderate success in shooting is im- possible. For instance, it is absolutely necessary, in aim- ing any of the three weapons, to hold it squarely, so that it does not tip to one side or the other. As the leaden charge begins to fall toward the earth the moment it issues from the gun barrel and begins to slow up the instant the air resistance in front exceeds the force of the powder gas at the rear, some elevation of the tube is always required, and all hand guns are built and sighted to allow for this drop. With this fact in mind, note from the following drawing the result of firing a gun which is allowed to tip to one side. It will thus be seen that when the weapon is canted even slightly its missile will not rise as the arrangement of the sights intends. The effect is, on the contrary, to rob it of this benefit, and THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 345 at the same time to send it wide of the mark. Without the most careful attention to this im- portant matter all other efforts at marksmanship are futile. The proper operation of the trigger when the sights are on the mark is also a vital part of good shooting with any firearm. The trigger must not be pulled. Its release should be effected FIG. 88. Gun on its side at a, sighted for target at 6. Direction of bullet is from a to c, falling at d. by a squeezing action, in which the whole right hand closes gently but firmly against both trigger and stock; at the same time, especially in using a light gun, the left hand should tighten its grip slightly in its forward position, under the barrel. By manipulating the trigger in this manner, the weapon will remain steady at the explosion, with- out the twitch which inevitably results when the trigger is pulled. In aiming, the important mo- ment is that at which the explosion takes place, and if any disturbance in pointing the piece is allowed then the whole shot is spoiled. 346 THE GUN BOOK As no two triggers pull off exactly alike, only earnest practice with any particular gun will teach the shooter just when the pressure exerted by the right hand is sufficient to allow the hammer to fall and fire the shot. This practice can best be had with the gun empty, but aimed and snapped as carefully as if actually being fired. No one can hold the sights of revolver or rifle FIG. 89. Showing arrangement of sights whereby the eye in aiming looks at the target, while the bullet is projected upward, gravity later on pulling it down to the bull's-eye. steadily upon a small target in offhand shooting. In practice the sights wander over and around the bull's-eye, the trick in marksmanship being to explode the charge at one of the moments when the sights are exactly on the mark. This is really the main thing in accurate shooting, and in the operation the proper releasing of the trigger is of prime importance. Only the most delicate co- operation of hand, eye, and brain can bring off hit after hit, and while some seem to possess nat- urally the faculty for it, most of us can acquire the knack only by persistent practice. In using the eye for sighting, especially at a distant mark, there is one cardinal principle to THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 347 be heeded, applying equally to the shooting of all the three hand guns; that is, the vision must be on the target first and the sights brought into line afterward. The necessity for this is plain when we remember the peculiar action of the eye in adapting itself to far and near sight. When a distant object is looked at the pupil of the eye dilates, admitting the increase of light necessary for a clear image. When a nearby object is focused upon, the opposite process takes place and the shutters are narrowed, excluding unneces- sary light. This change of adjustment requires time, as we realize when we go from a well-lighted room to a dark one. How important, then, it is for the marksman not to handicap his eye by compelling it to show him the nearby sights, and immediately after call upon it for a clear view of the target, dim and wavering perhaps in the dis- tance ! The human machine, as well as the metal one, must be humored, if hits are to be obtained. One of the worst evils in all shooting is the habit of flinching when the gun goes off. All be- ginners are afflicted by this trait, while many ex- perienced gunners have been unable to shake it off entirely. It probably spoils as many shots as any other single cause, for its victims are seldom conscious of the act. Flinching is not the result 348 THE GUN BOOK of fear, for the most courageous of men are some- times guilty of it; nor is it wholly nervousness, because many good marksmen are persons of high- strung nerves. Whatever the real cause may be, we know that the only cure lies in cultivating familiarity with firearms, and constant practice in shooting of them, giving attention to the habit and striving to overcome it. In shooting in the field, where the ranges to be shot over are not accurately known, the judging of distance is a very essential part of marksman- ship. After our study of trajectories this fact will be apparent, for though the modern rifle bullet does not fall much within ordinary shooting ranges, the variation is still to some extent pres- ent; and even in shotgun and revolver shooting the element of distance is decidedly important. The persistent marksman, however, will not wait until he is out with his gun to practice his mind in judging quickly the space intervening between himself and objects within his view. It is sur- prising how vague are the guesses on distance the beginner at this pastime will make, and equally surprising how a little practice will sharpen the wits in this respect. One ambitious as a hunter or target shooter should learn the length of his average pace, and while walking along street or THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 349 road pick out various objects in his path, make an estimate of the distance intervening, and then count his steps to verify or disprove his judg- ment. Such a habit even occasionally indulged in will go far to make the judgment of distance not only accurate but rapid. In shotgun shooting the target is usually a moving one, and here enters into the problem, not only the distance to the object, but its rate of speed as well, for the charge must then be aimed, not at the spot where the target is when the gun goes off, but at the place where it will be when the lead reaches it. Suppose the target is a wild duck flying across the line of fire, at forty miles an hour, it being one hundred and twenty feet from the muzzle of the gun. The shot pellets will travel on an average of nine hundred feet per second, which is about sixteen times as fast as the fowl, so that for each foot the latter flies the charge will move toward it sixteen feet. The gun must then be pointed seven and one-half feet ahead of the creature, to allow the center of the charge to reach it. As the angle of the duck's flight changes, the estimation of speed and dis- tance must likewise change, and this frequently at an instant's notice. Shooting at clay targets requires similar calculations, though in less de- 350 THE GUN BOOK gree, for distances and speeds are more uniform. The accurate judging of speed, as well as of dis- tance, can be gained by practice, though actual shooting at moving targets is the only method by which the shooter can learn how far to hold his shotgun ahead of the object to make successive hits. In aiming the gaze should be fixed on the target itself, and not upon the sights. The practice of keeping both eyes open, now the common method in shotgun shooting, is gaining favor with users of the rifle and revolver as well. A good clear view of the target is essential; and this is aided both by raising the gun to the mark and by using two eyes instead of one. It is the right eye, of course, that does the aiming, but the use of both gives the stronger, more definite vision. With the shotgun, in pointing ahead of the moving target, the sight cannot well be used, for the ob- ject would thereby be at least partly obscured by the muzzle and the time allowed is only an instant ; so that with this weapon the aiming is done by pointing it as one would his finger, with arm extended. The use of both eyes in this work is, therefore, a great advantage. Upon the difficult question of what kind of rifle sights to use, no advice can be offered except THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 351 that all forms be tried out at the various kinds of work for which they are intended, and then a choice be made. Tastes and opinions differ so greatly in this matter that the experience of one person is seldom of any value to another. The front sight, if too dark in color, will be hard to see when the light is dim, while, if too bright, will give false direction when the sun shines upon one side of it. The latest cure devised for these evils besetting the front sight is make it bright and then place over it a hood to exclude excessive illumination. Such is the equipment used upon our present army rifle. In target shooting over long ranges the micrometer adjusters on rear sights are the necessary and important consid- eration. For short-range practice the rifleman may indulge his own fancy. The needs of the hunter, however, are somewhat different from those of the target shooter, for his game may be moving or half concealed, making it necessary for him to get the clearest view possible of the creature. A rear sight with a deep narrow slot will conceal his whole view, except for the small space immediately in front. That rear sight is the best which obscures the least; therefore the straight, transverse bar with a nick in it serves the hunter well. 352 THE GUN BOOK The best rear sight ever invented for permit- ting an unobstructed view and giving a quick, ac- curate line on a distant object is that invented in 1870 by William Lyman of Middlefield, Con- necticut. It is the peep sight, which does away FIG. 90. LYMAN COMBINATION EEAB SIGHT with the nick to be looked through, providing a small circular hole in the line of fire. Except for the upstanding front sight, there is no interfer- ence with the view so obtained. The value of the Lyman sight for general use has been dis- puted ever since its appearance, but for long- distance shots it has been adopted by the best marksmen the world over. With the coming of THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 353 the high-powered, far-shooting rifle the supremacy of this sight is now generally acknowledged, not only by sportsmen but by military experts as well. Hence we see it today in a modified form, affixed to the service rifle as well as in common use by the sharpshooters of the Europeans. One of the most important conditions necessary to good shooting is a healthy state of mind. No one can shoot well when tired or worried or ill; for of all sports none requires more concentra- tion of mind and control of muscles than shoot- ing. Harmonious action of the brain and limb are absolutely necessary to success. The real marksman plans the details of the shot he is about to make before he brings his gun into position, this preparation being done perhaps deliberately, or in the twinkling of an eye, as occasion requires. Hence if the brain be dull the planning will be faulty, and if the muscles do not respond promptly their failure will bring disaster. Shooting, there- fore, not only requires a serene mind and great self-control, but the admirable thing about the sport is that it teaches and encourages these most valuable traits. Correct form in shooting lies chiefly in finding a comfortable position for each style of shot and then sticking to it. The beginner should study 354 THE GUN BOOK carefully the booklets issued these days by am- munition concerns, and to be had for the asking, which contain excellent illustrations of the various postures approved by skilled marksmen. Each person, however, has peculiarities of his own and may safely depart in small details from generally accepted rules. After practice has disclosed the best positions there should be no variations from these, since a change in one particular upsets the whole arrangement, and interferes with that uni- formity which is so necessary for consistent shoot- ing. Above all, the position should be free and easy; otherwise strain and lack of balance will result, whereby progress in the art will be tem- porarily, if not permanently hindered. A besetting sin of all beginners in shooting, is the tendency to delay the shot after the gun is in position, in the hope that a better alignment will be later obtained. This practice is a grievous weakness. While the motions needed to bring the sights upon the target need not be hurried, the piece should be discharged when sights and target first come into line. There must be no dallying. It requires resolution of mind at first thus to fire promptly, especially when something is at stake on the shot, but the habit once acquired will prove invaluable. At target shooting it is possible to THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 355 be deliberate in action, but deliberation and cau- tion must not be confused with hesitation. One may act slowly, yet with decision. The target range, however, should be used only as the pre- paring ground for more manful deeds with fire- arms. It frequently happens that he who makes the best scores in practice is the last of a hunting party to bring game to camp. Only the experi- enced hunter knows how often the quarry leaves but an instant in which to plan and execute a successful shot. The onset of a wounded bear does not allow the hunter much time for delibera- tion; and the dawdling soldier will fare hard when face to face with an enemy, where not only a straight shot but a quick one is required to save himself and overcome his foe. The great merit in trap-shooting with the shotgun lies in the neces- sity for there observing this vital element of time. Given but a second in which to hit the flying target to best advantage, the trapshooter must fire then or risk wasting his shot. It is for this reason that many fathers, in teaching their sons to shoot, take them to the traps for practice before permitting use of the rifle. Let the novice, then, take as his watchwords, not: "Straight shooting," but in- stead the better formula: " Straight shots promptly delivered." 356 THE GUN BOOK Again, there is a class, composed not only of beginners, but occasionally of veterans also, who in firing grip the gun with grim determination as if they expected it to fly from their grasp when it goes off. Others handle the weapon as if it were a crowbar, requiring a strong heave. Noth- ing could be more subversive of good shooting than this unnecessary straining of muscles, the unconscious but underlying idea of which seems to be that these exertions of the firer are necessary to keep possession of the gun, or to aid the bullet on its way. In watching a skilful gunner making hits the onlooker is impressed with the apparent ease with which the weapon is manipulated, un- hurried, unstrained, but prompt and decisive in each step of the performance. Such marksmen have learned well the adage which should be kept constantly in mind: "Let the gun do the work"; all it ever asks for is the unhampered oppor- tunity. Up to twenty years ago the American gunners habitually carried off the world's chief trophies for marksmanship. Then for a while a lull in interest crept into the sport, during which we either failed to compete or had to be content with minor honors. This period of apathy has now happily passed, and the principal championships THE PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING 357 with all arms are ours again. But we should not rest content with the training of a few men of special skill, and sending them to win or de- fend trophies and championships. Honors thus brought to us are of small importance compared with what should be our real aspiration to be a nation of skilled riflemen. It was not unthink- ingly that the Fathers wrote into our constitution the declaration that the right of the people to keep and carry arms should never be infringed. Let each one of us, therefore, train himself in the use of the gun, not only for the health-giving sport afforded, but that we may one and all be better able to go to the aid of our country when she needs us for her defense, whether the enemy assailing her be from within or without. INDEX Air pressures discussed, 199 Albertus Magnus, 13 Alexander the Great, 9 Alloyed bullets, 204 Ammunition, uniformity of re- quired, 93; high cost of, 331 Arquebuse, 35 Arrow, peculiarities of, 209 Art of war, as affected by new weapons, 291 Browning, John M., 274, 286; automatic rifle, 286; machine gun, 282; pistol, 324, 325; re- peating shotgun, 315 Brunswick rifle, 130 Bullet, advantages of, over ar- row, 31; changes suggested in, 335, 339; decreased in size, 260; pointed, 134, 211, 213; spherical, 100, 103, 104, 111 Bacon, Roger, 10, 64 Battering-ram, 8, 19 Battle of Bunker Hill, 342; Chancellorsville, 293; Cre"cy, 16, 22, 25, 70; Gettysburg, 292; New Orleans, 293; the Marne, 294 Bayonet, invention of, 76 Benet-Mercier machine gun, 277 Berdan's cartridge shell, 171; breechloader, 168 Berthollet, experiments of, 156 Bessemer steel process, 183 Black Prince, 16 Block-type gun, 168, 189 Blowpipe, 229 Blunderbuss, 301 Bolt-type gun, 149, 168, 189 Bottle-necked shell, 206 Bow, long, 24 Bow, cross-, 28 Bracconnet, discoveries of, 238 Braddock's defeat, 123 Breechloader, history of, 139, 155, 164, 168, 173 Calibers, how reckoned, 103 Cannon, 4, 14, 17, 251 Cannoneers, early customs of, 54 Caracole, maneuver, 318 Cartridges, 162, 164 Cavalry, decline of, 70 Chassepot rifle, 151 Chemical affinity, 63 Chilean nitrate, 59 Chileans use repeaters, 185 Chip-charging, 189 Choke-bore, 311 Class distinctions in Middle Ages, 71 Clive, attempted suicide of, 45 Cocoa-powder, 236 Colt, Samuel, his inventions, 147, 179, 181, 267, 316, 320; machine gun, 273 Columbus, his guns, 84 Combustibles, 9 Combustion engines, 12; nature of, 62, 65, 68 Corned-powder, 66 Cortez, his guns, 85 Crossbow, 27, 28 359 360 INDEX D Dardanelles gun, 20, 21 de Bange gas stopper, 151 Delvigne rifle, 128 Drift of bullet, 226 Dumdum bullet, 261 E Edward III, his guns, 15 Enfield rifle, 187, 190 English guns, early records of, 14, 16 Explosives, early theories of, 55 Express rifle, 203 Ferguson's breechloader, 143 Firecracker, 3, 12 Fireworks, 10 Flint-lock, 51, 177 Florence orders cannon, 14 Forsyth, Alexander, discovers ignition by percussion, 156 Franco-Prussian War, 268 Franklin, Benjamin, advocates use of bows and arrows, 30 Frederick the Great, tactics of, 175 French cavaliers, 17, 24 Fulminates, discovery of, 156 Gunpowder, combustion prod- ucts of, 61; composition of, 64; discovery of, 10; manu- facture of, 60, 64, 67; pres- sures produced by, 61 Gun stock, why bent, 90, 91 H Hall advocates "quantity pro- duction," 146 Hall's breechloader, 144, 145 Hand gun, early models of, 23, 33, 34, 36; introduction of, 22, 29 Henry rifle, 183 Hot wire, 40 Houiller's metal shell, 164, 166 Hundred Years' War, 18, 20 Ignition, progress in, 39, 149, 156, 163, 169, 171, 173, 332 Indian arrow games, 31; bat- tles, 86 Infantry, rise of, 70 James II, death of, 54 Joan of Arc, 22 G Gatling gun, 266 Gauges, how reckoned, 103 Greek fire, 9 Grenades, 299 Gun, invention of, 8; aids hu- man emancipation, 70, 77; effect of, on exploration, 83; on tactics, 75, 291 Gun barrels, 248, 306 Guncotton powders, 238, 246 Gun crews, early, 49 Gun making, effect of, on in- dustry, 82 Kaiser's war, 290 Knights and their customs, 72; overcome at Cre*cy, 24 Lancaster rifle, 130 Lead, merits of, for bullets, 100 Lewis machine gun, 278 Long bow, powers of, 24, 25, 74 Long bullet, in muzzle-loader, 127; pranks of, 209 Lyman peep sight, 352 Lyman-Haskins' gun, 231 INDEX 361 M Machine guns, 265, 295 Magellan, travels of, 84 Marine Corps, origin of, 50 Marksmanship, 340 Match-igniter, 41 Match-lock, 42, 47 Maxim, Hiram, 269 Maxim, Hudson, 239 Maxim machine gun, 269 Maxim silencer, 334 Metal cartridge shell, 164 Metal-patched bullet, 257 Middle Ages, warfare in, 23; status of common rights in, 70 Minie* bullet, 135, 136 Misfiring of guns, 45 Mitrailleuse, 268 Mons Meg gun, 20, 21 Moorish science, 11 Musket, 36, 44, 100, 177 Muzzle-loaders, 101 Potassium chloride, 59 Pressures of powder, 61, 259 Priming powder, 43 R Ramrod of iron introduced, 176 Recoil, discussion of, 88, -93, 260; effect of, on gun barrel, 95, 97 ' Repeating rifle, 175, 177, 182, 184, 187 Rifle at Battle of New Orleans, 123; history of, 111, 116 Rifling, modern, 133, 206 Riflemen in Revolution, 122 Rim-fire cartridge, 169 Rocket, origin of, 5 Rodman's powder, 56, 235 Roper, patents choke-bore, 311 Rotation, effect of, on bullet, 201, 203, 206, 217, 225 N Napoleon I, 155 Napoleon III, 268 Needle gun, 148 Niter farming, 57 Nitro powders, 69, 241 Nitrocellulose, 239 Nitroglycerine, 242 Norsemen, settlements of, 85 Patch, greased, 119 Pauli, gunmaker, 148, 163 Peabody breechloader, 167 Pelouse, his discoveries, 238 Percussion ignition, 163 Philip V, gun of, 141, 308 Pike as a weapon, 74, 75 Pin-fire cartridge, 166 Pinwheel, theory of, 4 Pistol, 316; self-loading, 323, 326 Plymouth Colony, arms of, 52 Saltpeter, production of, 56 Schultze powder, 238 Schwartz, Berthold, 265 Serpentine igniter, 46 Serpentine powder, 65 Sharp's rifle, 152-153 Shrapnel shell, 330 Shaw's nipple and cap, 44, 159 Siege guns, 19 Smokeless powder, 238; effect of, on gun forms, 248, 251; explosive effects of, 246; theory of explosion of, 244 Smooth-bore, defects of, 101 Snaphance, invention of, 51 Spanish musket, 36 Spencer rifle, 182 Spherical bullet, 100 Springfield rifle, 190 Springfield-Enfield rifle, 187, 190 Squib, nature of, 3 Squirrel-gun, 120 Sugar-loaf bullet, 131, 134 362 INDEX Tanks, British, 299 Thouvenin rifle, 128, 129 Top, how it spins, 113, 202, 221 Trajectory, discussion of, 193, 254 Trajectories compared, 263 Trigger manipulation, 345 Velocities and air pressure, 200 von Dreyse and his needle gun, 148 W Washington's riflemen, skilful- ness of, 122 Water-cooling systems, disad- vantages of, 275 Wheel-lock, detailed description, 47, 48 Whitworth rifle, 130, 132 Winchester repeater, 184, 187 Zalinski dynamite gun, BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS MAGIC PICTURES OF THE LONG AGO By ANNA CURTIS CHANDLER With some forty illustrations. $1.30 net These stories grew out of Miss Chandler's popular Story Hours for Children at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Each recounts the youth and some- thing of the later life of some striking character in art, history, or literature, and is made very vivid by reproduc- tions of famous pictures, etc. THE DOGS OF BOYTOWN By WALTER A. DYER Author of "Pierrot, Dog of Belgium" etc. Illustrated. $1.50 net New York Sun: "It takes the cake in this case, of course, a dog biscuit. ... It is the most unusual book of its kind. . . . Dyer enters a new field for boys ... all boys will want to know about Dogs their ways and habits, their histories and origins. . . . Threaded through this wonderful textbook on dogs is the story of adventures of two boys . . . shows the reader where to find out about everything from bench shows and the care of puppies to fleas . . . illustrated with photo- gra'phs and excellent pen sketches. ..." BLUE HERON COVE By FANNIE LEE McKiNNEY Author of "Nora-Square- Accounts." Illustrated. $1.35 net Tells how Blue Heron Island and its seafaring folks change "a little German countess in white satin" into "a real, authentic American girl." THE GUN BOOK By THOMAS H. McKEE Profusely illustrated. $1.60 net A book about guns for boys of all ages. The history is accurate; boys will remember the anecdotes; and the technical parts are sensibly adapted to show "just how it works." HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK Josephine Thorp and Rosamond Kimball's PATRIOTIC PAGEANTS OF TODAY By Miss Thorp : THE ANSWER, A Patriotic Festival. WHEN LIBERTY CALLS, A Pageant of The Allies. THE TORCH, A Pageant of Democracy. By Miss Kimball: THE CALL OF THE YOUTH OF AMERICA, A Patriotic Exercise for Boys and Girls of all ages. These pageants have had repeated and successful perform- ance. Full directions for their simple staging, costuming and music are given. 12mo. $1.00 n.et. Constance D'Arcy Mackay's PATRIOTIC DRAMA IN YOUR TOWN By the author of "The Little Theatre in The United States," "Costumes and Scenery for Amateurs," etc. 16mo. $1.35 net. (October, 1918.) Miss Mackay sketches the main essentials with which any fair-sized town may have pageants, A Little Theatre, or an Outdoor Theatre. She also gives detailed suggestions for com- munity Fourth of July and Christmas Celebrations, and shows how such celebrations bring a community into closer relation and make better Americans. Alice Johnston Walker's LAFAYETTE, COLUMBUS and THE LONG KNIVES IN ILLINOIS. Plays for Young Folk. By the author of "Little Plays from American History. 16mo. Probable price, $1.50 net. (February, 1919.) These plays take from an hour to an hour and a half, and have been tested by performance. Each contains a number of very picturesque, tho easily made settings. George Rogers Clark the frontiersman is the leading character in the last. Louis Calvert's PROBLEMS OF THE ACTOR With Introduction by Clayton Hamilton and index. $1.60 net. Mr. Hamilton says this books shows "the great love for a great thing that has been felt by a great man," and Mr. John Corbin in The Times calls it, "The best book on acting in English . . . teems with happy anecdotes." Romain Rolland's THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY AND DANTON Plays of the French Revolution for a People's Theatre. Authorized edition translated by BARRETT H. CLARK. 12mo. $1.50 net (August, 1918.) Romain Rolland's THE PEOPLE'S THEATRE Authorized edition translated by BARRETT H. CLARK. 12mo. Probable price, $1.35 net. (In Press.) The author here touches on many vital aspects of such a play- house of which Americans have but very recently become conscious. While not hesitating to shatter idols, he has a constructive program too, and ends up "Everything remains to be done." HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 19 West 44th Street (viii '18) New York BY ALFRED BISHOP MASON TOM STRONG, WASHINGTON'S SCOUT Illustrated. $1.30 net. A story of adventure. The principal characters, a boy and a trapper, are in the Revolutionary army from the defeat at Brooklyn to the victory at Yorktown. "The most important events of the Revolution and much general his- torical information are woven into this interesting and very well con- structed story of Tom and a trapper, who serve their country bravely and well. Historical details are correctly given." American Library Association Booklet. TOM STRONG, BOY-CAPTAIN Illustrated. $1,30 net. Tom Strong and a sturdy old trapper take part in such stirring events following the Revolution as the Indian raid with Crawford and a flat-boat voyage from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, etc. TOM STRONG, JUNIOR Illustrated. $1.30 net. The story of the son of Tom Strong in the young United States. Tom sees the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr; is in Washington during the presidency of Jef- ferson; is on board of the " Clermont" on its first trip, and serves in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. TOM STRONG, THIRD Illustrated. $1.30 net. Tom Strong, Junior's son helps his father build the first rail- road in the United States and then goes with Kit Carson on the Lewis and Clarke Expedition. HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COMPANION STORIES OF COUNTRY LIFE FOR BOYS By CHARLES