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Article THE FAMILY OF THE GUNS. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Family Of The Guns.
must not however be thought that the great gun had never been heard of previously . This would be a profound mistake . Indeed Ave are told that at the battle of Crecy , so long before as 134-6 , there were four guns employed which filled the eycAvitnesses with astonishment . Another authority mentions " 1366 as the probable date when they came to be
objects of fear and terror . It was said that some simple looking Germans brought to the Venetians , AVIIO Avere then besieging Gandefossa , tAvo small pieces of artillery—this is the name IIOAV taken by the tribe—together with a supply of gunpowder and leaden balls , by which the latter soon made themselves felt . At this time gunpowder AVUS exactly
ninetysix years old , having been , as some allege , described in some old monkish volume about the year 1270 . We are aware that this is open to some doubt , for it is contended by some antiquarians that gunpowder hacl been a friendless orphan in Arabia-, but was ultimately adopted by some frizzle bearded crusader . Ancl others aver that it hacl been seen many centuries before , dwelling harmlessly among the Chinese , and someAvhat later held a sinecure under the Brahminical
Hindoos Avho had—to their credit be it Avritten—the sense to keep their unruly ward from doing much harm beyond blowing off a few experimental fingers , or shattering occasionally a too intrusive arm . The guns at this period must haA'e been very harmless machines as compared with Avhat they hav ^ e since become .
We read , hoAvever , that they had produced a very numerous but someAvhat rickety family as late at 1 G 38 , Avhen Charles I . Avas king of England . A division of the family about this time was known as the matchlocks , ancl clumsy enough they were , requiring , Avhen used , to be supported upon props . King Charles the Second , hoAvever , took the guns under his especial
protection . This monarch established , by a royal charter , a college of physicians for the guns under the style and title of the Royal Incorporated Society of Gunsmiths , and from that clay the guns have become a more vigorous , active , energetic , but we regret to add , a more obstructive race than they had . ever been , before . They had previously been discharged bymoans of a rude match , by which their intended effects were made very uncertain . The next step was by attaching a match to a wheel which revolved . A firestorm was next
discovered AA'hich produced fire by percussion ; but this instrument Avas very uncertain , for it AVUS found to strike fire when it was not wanted , and to miss fire at precisely the same times . The flint succeeded this discarded servant , but AVUS found to be no better for the situation , ancl Avas dismissed in turn . A Avhole legion of pigmy imps were IIOAV administered
Avith great success , and these have undergone so many modifications that it would be impossible to enumerate or describe them Avithin the limits Ave have proposed to ourselves in this memoir . However , under the hands of the gunsmiths the family of the guns assumed a hi gh position of respectability , ancl have become the arbiters of almost every quarrel that assumes large proportions .
^ As with most families of ancient lineage , the derivation of the patronymic of this destructive tribe has become a point of learned dispute . The accomplished Selden , in speaking of this family , says that " Sometimes Ave put a IICAV signification upon an old word , as Ave know that the word gun was in use in England , for an engine to cast a
thing from a man , long before gunpowder was known . " Others of the learned say that the word is derived from an obsolete term signifying to yaAvn or gape . This opinion is supported by contexts from eminent Avriters . Milton speaks of guns gaping with hideous orifice ; ancl again as "deep throated '' ines . Shakspeare is also indebted to this
diseng tinguished tribe for many of his most effective metaphors . It furnishes a curious illustration of the care and skill bestowed upon the improvement of those bellicose individuals » ¦ rv dL > Votecs of science , to remark that Galileo wrote his " Dialogues of Motion , " to illustrate the idiosyncrasies of
artillery . Sir Isaac Newton suggested theories ot dynamic force ancl motion , that were suggested to him by a close observance of the effects produced upon a scries of experiments . Mathematicians scarcely less eminent directed their attention to the laws by which the gem worked out its results . Some of these are curious , and deserve to bo recorded .
The first writer , however , who undertook to examine this subject with a view to practical improvement , made some rather singular discoveries , which had been previously overlooked , or were , from the nature ofthe circumstances , inaccessible . The body or barrel of a musket , as it is called iu professional parlance , AVUS found to be very irregular in the
performance of its functions . The barrel of an old musket AVUS therefore secured upon a block of wood , and fired at a board one foot square at sixty yards distance . It Avas found that tiie said invalid gun missed the board only once in sixteen times , yet , when fired at a distance of seven hundred and sixty yards , the ball Avas driven Avide of the mark
sometimes more than one hundred yards . ! N ~ or Avas there any certainty as to the direction which this aberration might take , for the obstinate instrument would sometimes insist upon sending the ball one hundred yards to the right , and , the next moment , would send it an equal distance to the left . Nor AVUS this all . The line in which it was pointedthe .
, direction upwards and downwards was also equally uncertain , the ball in some discharges having struck the ground two hundred yards nearer to the musket than it did at others . These derangements led to neAV theories , and to some very curious anatomical experiments . The idea first suggested itself that the ball forced against the sides of the barrel ofthe
gun obtained an eccentric motion . It was also found that much of the expansive force of the gunpowder AVUS Avasted in being permitted to escape through the spaces left by the ball not fitting truly the bore of the musket . It next struck the professors that the ball should be someAvhat larger than the bore , and be hammered down , so as to be perfectly airtight . But this violence produced superficial inequalities , Avhich in their turn produced a result different from AV hat was expected ,
but still a very decided improvement upon the old plan . The time , however , required in administering this increased amount of food proved to be a fresh drawback . The deflection so fatal to accuracy of aim Avas found to be obviated by giving to the ball an additional ancl rotary motion upon its axis . This led to the process of rifling , which has become
UOAV all but universal . This operation consists in making a number of grooves , cut in a spiral direction , Avhich gives the ball in its passage through the barrel the motion required . The effect of this improvement was sufficiently encouraging to give increased zeal and ingenuity to the gun doctors . Tho next step was to make the ball in an egg shapeby which the
, motion v » as made more regular and equalized , and thus give greater range , greater accuracy , a more sustained velocity , and a terribly increased force , until at length the deadly projectile was enabled to accomplish its destructive mission at a distance of miles . While wc Avrite , more than a thousand human beings have fallen in a few hours under the doom of
this agent of modern civilization . The gun has moAvn CI OAVII the flower of every nation in the Avorld . It has become the weapon , of the destroying angel , and AVOO to the man or the nation who calls it to his aid without a just cause or a righteous purpose . But it is happily a source of consolation that the very
voracity ofthe gun family warns off the adventurous spirits who woidd play with them to their neighbour ' s injury . Playing Avith edged tools is notoriously dangerous , so is playing dominoes with a tiger , sAvimming a match with a shark , squirting at an elephant , and such other innocent amusements . The last of the gun family is said to be the best looking of his tribe ; heis sleek and shining , there are no menacing lines about his mouth , no diabolical expression in the flashes of his eye , but his breath is deadly neverthc-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Family Of The Guns.
must not however be thought that the great gun had never been heard of previously . This would be a profound mistake . Indeed Ave are told that at the battle of Crecy , so long before as 134-6 , there were four guns employed which filled the eycAvitnesses with astonishment . Another authority mentions " 1366 as the probable date when they came to be
objects of fear and terror . It was said that some simple looking Germans brought to the Venetians , AVIIO Avere then besieging Gandefossa , tAvo small pieces of artillery—this is the name IIOAV taken by the tribe—together with a supply of gunpowder and leaden balls , by which the latter soon made themselves felt . At this time gunpowder AVUS exactly
ninetysix years old , having been , as some allege , described in some old monkish volume about the year 1270 . We are aware that this is open to some doubt , for it is contended by some antiquarians that gunpowder hacl been a friendless orphan in Arabia-, but was ultimately adopted by some frizzle bearded crusader . Ancl others aver that it hacl been seen many centuries before , dwelling harmlessly among the Chinese , and someAvhat later held a sinecure under the Brahminical
Hindoos Avho had—to their credit be it Avritten—the sense to keep their unruly ward from doing much harm beyond blowing off a few experimental fingers , or shattering occasionally a too intrusive arm . The guns at this period must haA'e been very harmless machines as compared with Avhat they hav ^ e since become .
We read , hoAvever , that they had produced a very numerous but someAvhat rickety family as late at 1 G 38 , Avhen Charles I . Avas king of England . A division of the family about this time was known as the matchlocks , ancl clumsy enough they were , requiring , Avhen used , to be supported upon props . King Charles the Second , hoAvever , took the guns under his especial
protection . This monarch established , by a royal charter , a college of physicians for the guns under the style and title of the Royal Incorporated Society of Gunsmiths , and from that clay the guns have become a more vigorous , active , energetic , but we regret to add , a more obstructive race than they had . ever been , before . They had previously been discharged bymoans of a rude match , by which their intended effects were made very uncertain . The next step was by attaching a match to a wheel which revolved . A firestorm was next
discovered AA'hich produced fire by percussion ; but this instrument Avas very uncertain , for it AVUS found to strike fire when it was not wanted , and to miss fire at precisely the same times . The flint succeeded this discarded servant , but AVUS found to be no better for the situation , ancl Avas dismissed in turn . A Avhole legion of pigmy imps were IIOAV administered
Avith great success , and these have undergone so many modifications that it would be impossible to enumerate or describe them Avithin the limits Ave have proposed to ourselves in this memoir . However , under the hands of the gunsmiths the family of the guns assumed a hi gh position of respectability , ancl have become the arbiters of almost every quarrel that assumes large proportions .
^ As with most families of ancient lineage , the derivation of the patronymic of this destructive tribe has become a point of learned dispute . The accomplished Selden , in speaking of this family , says that " Sometimes Ave put a IICAV signification upon an old word , as Ave know that the word gun was in use in England , for an engine to cast a
thing from a man , long before gunpowder was known . " Others of the learned say that the word is derived from an obsolete term signifying to yaAvn or gape . This opinion is supported by contexts from eminent Avriters . Milton speaks of guns gaping with hideous orifice ; ancl again as "deep throated '' ines . Shakspeare is also indebted to this
diseng tinguished tribe for many of his most effective metaphors . It furnishes a curious illustration of the care and skill bestowed upon the improvement of those bellicose individuals » ¦ rv dL > Votecs of science , to remark that Galileo wrote his " Dialogues of Motion , " to illustrate the idiosyncrasies of
artillery . Sir Isaac Newton suggested theories ot dynamic force ancl motion , that were suggested to him by a close observance of the effects produced upon a scries of experiments . Mathematicians scarcely less eminent directed their attention to the laws by which the gem worked out its results . Some of these are curious , and deserve to bo recorded .
The first writer , however , who undertook to examine this subject with a view to practical improvement , made some rather singular discoveries , which had been previously overlooked , or were , from the nature ofthe circumstances , inaccessible . The body or barrel of a musket , as it is called iu professional parlance , AVUS found to be very irregular in the
performance of its functions . The barrel of an old musket AVUS therefore secured upon a block of wood , and fired at a board one foot square at sixty yards distance . It Avas found that tiie said invalid gun missed the board only once in sixteen times , yet , when fired at a distance of seven hundred and sixty yards , the ball Avas driven Avide of the mark
sometimes more than one hundred yards . ! N ~ or Avas there any certainty as to the direction which this aberration might take , for the obstinate instrument would sometimes insist upon sending the ball one hundred yards to the right , and , the next moment , would send it an equal distance to the left . Nor AVUS this all . The line in which it was pointedthe .
, direction upwards and downwards was also equally uncertain , the ball in some discharges having struck the ground two hundred yards nearer to the musket than it did at others . These derangements led to neAV theories , and to some very curious anatomical experiments . The idea first suggested itself that the ball forced against the sides of the barrel ofthe
gun obtained an eccentric motion . It was also found that much of the expansive force of the gunpowder AVUS Avasted in being permitted to escape through the spaces left by the ball not fitting truly the bore of the musket . It next struck the professors that the ball should be someAvhat larger than the bore , and be hammered down , so as to be perfectly airtight . But this violence produced superficial inequalities , Avhich in their turn produced a result different from AV hat was expected ,
but still a very decided improvement upon the old plan . The time , however , required in administering this increased amount of food proved to be a fresh drawback . The deflection so fatal to accuracy of aim Avas found to be obviated by giving to the ball an additional ancl rotary motion upon its axis . This led to the process of rifling , which has become
UOAV all but universal . This operation consists in making a number of grooves , cut in a spiral direction , Avhich gives the ball in its passage through the barrel the motion required . The effect of this improvement was sufficiently encouraging to give increased zeal and ingenuity to the gun doctors . Tho next step was to make the ball in an egg shapeby which the
, motion v » as made more regular and equalized , and thus give greater range , greater accuracy , a more sustained velocity , and a terribly increased force , until at length the deadly projectile was enabled to accomplish its destructive mission at a distance of miles . While wc Avrite , more than a thousand human beings have fallen in a few hours under the doom of
this agent of modern civilization . The gun has moAvn CI OAVII the flower of every nation in the Avorld . It has become the weapon , of the destroying angel , and AVOO to the man or the nation who calls it to his aid without a just cause or a righteous purpose . But it is happily a source of consolation that the very
voracity ofthe gun family warns off the adventurous spirits who woidd play with them to their neighbour ' s injury . Playing Avith edged tools is notoriously dangerous , so is playing dominoes with a tiger , sAvimming a match with a shark , squirting at an elephant , and such other innocent amusements . The last of the gun family is said to be the best looking of his tribe ; heis sleek and shining , there are no menacing lines about his mouth , no diabolical expression in the flashes of his eye , but his breath is deadly neverthc-