BULLET, an iron or leaden ball, or shot, wherewith fire-arms are loaded. Bullets are of various kinds ; viz. red-hot bullets, made hot in a forge, intended to set fire to places where combustible mat ters are found. Hollow bullets, or shells made cylindrical, with an aperture and fuse at one end, which giving fire to the inside when in the ground, it bursts, and has the same effect with a mine. Chain bullets, which consist of two balls, joined by a chain three or four feet apart. Branch-bullets, two balls joined by a bar of iron, five or six inches apart. Two headed bullets, called also angles, twn halves of a bullet, joined by a bar or chain.
The diameter of a leaden bullet, weigh. ing one pound, is 1.69 inches, according to Sir Jonas Moore; or, by a table in Muller's " Treatise of Artillery," 1.672 inches : and the diameter of any other bullet is found by dividing 1.69 inches by the cube root of the number, which ex presses how many of them make a pound; or by subtracting continually the third part of the logarithm of the -number of bullets in the pound, from the logarithm .2278867 of 1.69, and the difference will be the logarithm of the diameter requir ed. Thus the diameter of a bullet, of which 12 make a pound, will be found by subtracting a third part of 1.0791812 the logarithm of 12, fi om the given logarithm .2278867; or because this logarithm is less than the former, an unit must be added, so as to have 1.2278867 ; and then the difference 4681597 will be the logarithm of the diameter sought, which is .738 inches, observing that the number found will be always a decimal, because the dumber subtracted is greater than the other. We
may also deduce the diameter of any bul let from its given weight, provided that the specific gravity of lead is known, for, since a cubic foot of lead weighs 11.25 ounces, and 678 is to 355 as the cube of a foot, or 12 inches, i. e. 1728 to the con tent of a sphere, which is therefore 59 9.7 ounces : and since spheres are as the cubes of their diameters, the weight 59<9.7 is to 16 ounces, or one pound, as the cube 1728 is to the cube of the diame ter of a sphere, which weips sixteen ounces, or one pound ; which cube is 4.66 .63, and its root is 1.6706, the diame ter sought.
By the rule above laid down is calcu lated the following table, sheaving the di ameters of leaden bullets, from 1 to 39 in the pound.
The upper horizontal column shews the number of bullets to a pound; the second their diameters; the third, the diameters of those of 10, 11, 12, &c. and the fourth those of 20, 21, 22, &c. and the last, those of 30, 31, 32, &c.
The government allows 11 bullets in the pound for the proof of muskets, and 14.5 in the pound, or 29 in two pounds, for service , 17 for the proof of carabines, and 20 for service ; and 28 in the pound for proof of pistols, and 34 for service.
The diameter of musket bullets differs but .nth part from that of the musket barrel ; for if the shot but just rolls into the barrel, it is sufficient Cannon bul lets or balls are of different diameters and weights, according to the nature of the piece.