Show FIREARMS FIRE ARMS ARKS AND projectiles 1 RECORDED I 1 in proportion as nations bee became ome in intelligent tell wars diminish in ia brutality the art of isla slaying yino a is reduced to a kind of chew game in which tho those possessing Pois g the bw best t weapons and amid the best beat powers of calculation even with inferior nam numbers bers win vm the da i and in proportion as victory becomes certain tainy there is less leas desire on the part of the intelligent to obtain it save for worthy purposes and the unintelligent 1 have a proportionate fear of stirring up strife we may therefore assume that by the time war has been made a perfect science it will cease to exist save AS a means when other means fail to coerce barbarians into good behavior on this reasoning they also are beni beni I 1 ef factors actors of their species who give their time and energy and skin skill to perfect the processes of dai destruction and render weapons of war unerring D and more mora and more widely i deis destructive swindlers lers thrive the igi norance of honest people and coarse brutes overpower overpower refined people who are unskilled in ia scientific resistance but the club is no match for the pike the musketeer falls before beford I 1 the rifle fine the regiment of cavalry is scattered like chaff before well served ar tillery and if we find that artillery is van squished bythe by the bearers of needle beedle guns and mini alinio rifles it is merely a proof that the science of artillery is in arrear and needs more studying we haa have been led to these remarks by thoughts of the existing war and the pro cases by which the civilized nations of the and south are to wage it against the barbaa barbarians ans of the east and north no former age of the world has beheld each a spectacle as 1 alt at of naC nations iorii joined in arms for no purposes of ambition but for the pursuit it of j justice e to put down the non pro gres sive element of toire military centralized despotism and give az scope to the advance advancement ament of gen general 0 ral hainan tv I 1 in the arts conductive to human buman happiness in the far furtherance therance of this otia wa attention has been strongly turned to the j question of improvement u merely of the art of war butof the implements by which I 1 war is to be carried on in future the board of hoidn ordnance rice basfor this reason called on the commissioners of patents to fair nish a vol volume ume comeri comprising rine all the objects aimed at by patentees from the earl est eat periods cods wisely judging thaia would form a good index of bf the essential points in which improvement is ia desirable and ana that it would I 1 also furnish many valuable contributions towards the accomplishment of the desirable objects that volume is ia now before Us ui many persons object to the principle of granting patent monopolies to individuals for limited periods it is evident how however ever that but for the system of patents this re cord now furnished would not have existed and much of the knowledge gleaned by thi the patentees would have again disappeared as the education of dogs and other lower animals disappears with the individual andis and ia not left to the race even the process of Pal patenting tenting does not thoroughly thorough lv overcome the I 1 difficulty so long as the specified records romain remain ma in unpublished and are not carefully and constantly brought before public notice patents are advantageous to the public inasmuch as they stimulate individual exertion to the discover discovery y of new ead nil useful things thinas by bv the hope of individual gain xi ti tu ts sometimes that this would be done better without the patents than with it an illustration to the contrary may be adduced some thirty years years hack back a mr cutler invented and patented a peculiar kind of open fire grate for appart menta ments which we called a agas gas stove 1 it was not a gas stove in the modern sense of the word but a stove in which the gas formed b by y the heating coal was consumed instead of forming Q smoke moke by y the bimble method of depositing the coal 1 in n an iron iron box and li lighting the fire on the top raising the fuel as it burned down by means of a winch analogous to the process whereby candles are burned in sprino spring r lamps there were several advantages in this st stove ove independently of its power of consuming the smoke and it was getting into extended use when the patentee brought an action against some rival manufacturers who were infringing g his bis plans the result was that the patent was overthrown on the ground that count rumford or some one else had years before alluded to some such plan in a printed panted book toe the patentee mortified and indignant di gnant on his return home from the court caused all of his patterns to be destroyed and abandoned the manulat manu manufacture fat e U re II 11 leaving baving it to his rivals arid the public in less than three years from that time the manufacture of the stove had wholly ceased the makers in competition with each other made them badly and the public was disgusted after this long lapse of time a benevolent man of science is trying to revive them under ander his own name with some simplifying alterations and probably the game same result will ill obtain as with the non patent arnots sto stoves s driven out of use b by y bad manufacture many similar instances might be adduced showing the desirability of stimulating or originators in nato re i by securing to them the reward ath otheir air originality bality we have now before us a result of the labors of the servants of the commissioners in the printed specifications mud and litho graphed drawings of two hundred and six ty two fr patents ants for acim improvements prove men to in projectiles firearms fire arms and their appurtenances gunpowder shells rockets pikes bayonets arnitor armor fec this in the year 1718 in the reign of the first george and ends in 1852 a period of one hun hundred dried and thirty four years yeara curiously enough the first patent on the list is for a rev revolving 0 I 1 ving breach gun or cannon to contain several bli chargee arges and one of the abt is ia the patent of colonel colt for a similar object applied to fo hand guns and pistols strange to as say there are not wanting persons who woxie would vitiate the claim of col colt to originality for his efficient weapon because the quaint james devised an inefficient one a hundred and thirty years earlier col clods 1 weapon ts ig 6 rifle barrow detonator ulf adf acting witha with lever fever ramrod occupying the time in loading and discharging die charging and without need of wadding a practical implement of war the weapon of james is that of a humorist a kind of demi on a tripod to be planted like a telescope and to be di discharged 11 ty by a with one hand while the revolving crank is 1 worked by the other I 1 and requiring to be primed fo for very ate afe di discharge the specification i xe is partly in in rhyme ayme A defence defending king george your coutry country and 44 lawe laves Is defending yourselves and protestant cause for Bli bridges oSes unes line and passes ships boats houses bouses and other places amongst other things the drawing wing and letters of reference contain the following fig 16 the plan of the chambers of ibe the gun gua for asar a ship ip for shooting bullets against turks 6 fig 17 for round bureta buBet yag tig ihnat ws r tiani I 1 an when the e bi biography h y of inventors invention shall be published we shall be curious to examine that of mr james pickle the a tyle style 0 of f the drawing and the twin term 9 vi edi give ve a strone 10 suspicion tw that mr ro okle efad had r received e ceiri aa a communication from a foreigner er I 1 residing abroad the patent was contemporaneous with the south sea bubblo bubble in analyzing the am subject sect matter of che two hundred and sixty two patents we find that eighty from 1775 to 1852 are specifically devoted to the various m modes 0 d es I 1 of discharging firearms fire fira arms arm by flint and d detonation e to leaving kt ct of tha que question match locks and wheel lacks yoder ander the head of firearms firearm fire arms arm we hav airty me inventions from 1772 to 1852 wading sundry adjuncts to firearms firearm fire arms arm S fot for cannon and morta mortal tom horn 1728 to I 1 1838 we have leven pate patent there are five for machinery for boring nd nd riming rifling from 1789 to 1852 ova gun calar carriages r ijes es and d I 1 wood machinery including the pa pate t tits of the late sir samuel bentham mito ace 0 seven e S iea in number bumber ranging from 1753 to te 1852 shot and are AIA AI A elevell from 1758 1759 the manufacture of gun barrels and cannon I 1 is the subject ot of twenty three patents ts from 1798 to 1852 breech loading caution cannon and arms have occupied I 1 4 f fourteen our ami inventors from 1741 to 1852 revolving evolving lt or repeating firearms occupy nine nine patents Ra tents from 1718 to 1841 9 air and steam guns are three in number bertrom from 1824 to 1817 1847 there is in one patent for a long bow and aad one other for an elastic string of to propel at ar rows row rand irand darts pikes bayonets boyone shields and breastplates breast plates are sex in number from 1804 to tb IM 1846 shot pouches cartrie a box bo x es antl and the appurtenances of warfare and 1 the chace occupy patents from 1777 to 1842 and gunpowder fuzes and roe rockets twenty patents from 1706 to 0 1852 there are about a hundred more patents for similar objects under the new law to which we may take an early opportunity of 0 I 1 referring amidst all this mass of matter are eon bained the chief improve improvements that have i 1 rought a the science of projectiles to its pres ont palmy condition and of chourio rubbish is to be found minted with then the results of oe puerile imaginations to foru a complete analysis of these the i specifications ancl and gollu out the important I 1 principles involved and wt W u t pott portions ions are in conformity with the principles principle aft would require considerable labor though aich has been done there here isa is still till much more rema mt ing ng to do and an a though although 1 I we are only repeat crepea i ing a truism in saying that the warlike skill and practical advance of greist britain are equal to the rest of tha world yet there is no doubt that what remains to he be unfolded in the use of natures power will yet th throw r into 0 t the h e shade 3 h ade al all 1 th that at n now 0 w e elcides 1 io i t es praise p r aois ve band and wonder w 0 n d e r neither N e ith er our ou r great g re a t guns g u nor our small arms are yet what they should be either as regards safety or efficiency and it will only be when original minds can see the probability of recompense oa thai they will betake themselves to the work of improvement m pro inthis in this branch if we examine the structure of firearms fire arms we find that the greatest have been I 1 in i n weapons 0 used by sportsmen for the simple reason that the general public was the patron A ift n in weapons bor war the inventor could could only depend upon government officials not dot individually interested in progress rs re the has been that national weapons have bave r aa d in un an inferior condition condi tiow and at last a parliamentary inquiry has taken place and have hare been made to erect government factories for the manu mana facture of weapons to the exclusion of vate fao factories tories spectator |