Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ... INSTITUTION CIVIL ENGINEERS. November 25, 1851. Sir WILLIAM CUBITT, President, in the Chair. No. 862.--" On the application of Machinery to the Manufacture of Rotating Chambered-Breech Fire-Arms, and the peculiarities of those Arms." By Colonel Samuel Colt (U.S. America), Assoc. Inst. C.E.f Among the various departments of practical science, there is perhaps none in which more rapid advancement has been made within the present century, than in the manufacture of fire-arms, and great ingenuity has been displayed in devising improvements in them; but it is the extent to which machinery may be used in their construction, that must render the subject interesting to Engineers. It is not the design of this paper to enter upon a history of the first employment of fire-arms, nor yet to trace all the gradations of improvement that have taken place, since their introduction as weapons of war, such a subject being somewhat foreign to the scientific views and peaceful occupations of Civil Engineers; but as experience has shown that perfect weapons of defence are indispensable for the pioneers of civilization in new countries, and still as necessary for the preservation of peace in old countries, the best means of producing them by the aid of machinery, must be interesting; it is therefore intended briefly to examine, chronologically, as far as recent researches extend, the gradual advances in the form and construction of fire-arms with magazines or chambers for repeated discharges, and to contrast them with the modern repeating chambered-breech arms introduced by the Author. The principal collections of arms examined for this purpose are those in the Tower of London, the United Service Museum, the Rotunda at Woolwich, Warwick Castle, in England, ...
