A rifle on the Tilini4 principle was adopted into the English service in 1851. In 1852 Lord Hardinge appointed a committee to investi 'gate the question of rifled arms, and they In 1853 adopted a modifica tion of the bullet and arm proposed by Mr. Pritchett. Fig. 7 shows the bullet first adopted, without a plug. This bullet, having only a alight windage, was found to foul. One with a boxwood plug and greater windage was then adopted. Figs. 8 and 9 show the bullet; and Jig. 10 the cartridge. The cartridges may be made with two different pieces of paper, one thicker than the other; but the best form is made of two seamless bags. Into the larger the bullet is forced base fore 'Good practice may be made with the Enfield up to 900 yards, to which distance it is sighted. The above are the dimensions of what is called the Long Enfield—there is a shorter arm for the Rifles, &c., the dimensions of which it is not necessary to particularise. A sword bayonet is used instead of the ordinary bayonet, but for many reasons it is more than doubtful whether the short rifle, with the accompany ing awkward sword, is a more appropriate weapon. The cavalry are armed with a Sharp's (breech-loading) carbine, and also some, we believe, with Westley Richards's.
Mr. Joseph Whitworth, the eminent machine manfacturer of Man chester, has invented and patented an admirable rifle : a section of the barrel 14 represented in fig. 11 ; and the bullet, with a plan of base, in fig. 12. The bore is a hexagon in plan, or rather in cross section, with the angles rounded off, the diameter of inscribed circle being only .45 inch. The bore is described by this hexagonal section moving from one end to the other, and rotating uniformly round the axis of the piece, so as to complete one rotation while passing along 20 inches; that is, that the grooves, if we may so term them, make one turn in 20 inches. The pickets are either of the form shown in fig. 11, or as shown in fig. 13, that is, cylindrical, and of a rather lees diameter than the inscribed circle, when they are expanding. The former have the advantage of allowing the use of a hard metal (9 parts lead, 1 part tin), and consequent great penetration. By easing off the edges that
Lear in loading. the former description of bullet is easily rammed down, whilst, as the bearing is thrown on the other edges as it is being driven out, almost all windage is stopped.
A trial took place in April, 1857, between these rifles and the Enfield, at Hythe School of Musketry ; the experiments have been objected to on various grounds, but it may be as well to give the results :— The figure of merit is the mean radial distance in feet from their centre of 10 shots fired from a rest table. A Whitworth bullet, with the service charge of 21 drachms of powder, penetrated thirty-three 4-inch planks of elm, and was only stopped by a solid balk of timber behind them. Mr. Lancaster's rifle, which has before been mentioned, has a gaining twist ; the section of the bore is an ellipse; the bore is formed by this ellipse moving along the axis of the piece at the same time that it rotates round it, rotating, not uniformly, but more rapidly as it comes towards the muzzle. The rifles with which the Royal Engineers are armed, on this principle, take the same ammunition as the Enfield, and make good practice up to 1000 yards.
The last rifle we need mention is that invented by General Jacob. The form of bullet is seen in fig. 14. The groove, arc of considerable depth, four in number, and are u wide as the lands. The diameter of the bore is the 32 gauge. The picket is solid, and has four projections to at the grooves. Tho grooves make one turn in 36 inches. General Jacob made many experiments with shells from his rifles. These shells had been invented many years ago by Captain Norton, and having improved upon them, General Jacob made a most formidable weapon, ex ploding ammunition waggons at 1600 and ISOO yards distance. The picket is cast with a cylindrical cavity in its conical end, into the cavity is inserted a copper tube, filled with fine-grain powder, and primed at the point with a detonating composition. These shells may be very useful, though they have never yet been tried on service, but they have been found very effective against large game in India and Africa.