the solid
ball to engage in two grooves cut in the bore of the gun. Its
proportions are illustrated by Fig. 7.

[Illustration: Fig. 8

Fig. 9

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Fig. 12

Fig. 13]

The modifications of the preceding forms, shown in Figs. 8 and 9 were
used in the Crimea by the Sardinian army which also used a smoothbore
musket with solid ball as per Fig. 10. The French army Zouaves used a
solid cylindro-conical grooved ball, as in Fig. 11, in a tige rifle.

The 1856 Austrian rifle used a solid cylindro-conical ball, "with two
deep grooves cut in the cylindrical part such that the parts between
the grooves are forced together and outwards, or upset by the explosion
of the powder, to fill the bore and the rifle grooves," as in Fig. 12.
Fig. 13 illustrates the same principle as used by the Saxon army.

[Illustration: Fig. 14

Fig. 15

Fig. 16

Fig. 17

Fig. 18]

Other forms used at the time by the various Powers are illustrated in
Figs. 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. But it was an open question as to which
was the best form, no Power being fully satisfied.

It may be noted here that as the breech-loading rifle had not up to
this time been sufficiently perfected, all the above bullets were for
muzzle loading rifles. Breech-loading arms had been known for over two
centuries but were as yet unreliable, clumsy, and generally imperfect.

[Illustration: Fig. 19. The Lancaster Gun.]

The early methods adopted in the construction of cannon to impart to
the projectile the desired rotary motion are as interesting as the
early methods adopted in the construction of the projectile. Heavy
rifled artillery was introduced in 1856 against Cronstadt. The English
artillery at Sebastopol used the Lancaster Gun, illustrated in Fig. 19.
The form of the bore section of this gun was that of an ellipse of 8"
and 8-5/8" diameters, the bore being generated by the section of such
an elipse making a revolution of about one-quarter turn in the length
of the bore, the center of the section always co-incident with the
longitudinal axis of the gun, forming thereby a continuous elliptical
cylinder, the greater axis at the muzzle lying in the vertical plane
and gradually becoming horizontal at the breech section, or in other
words, the whole length and section of the bore was a rifle twist of
one quarter of a turn in its length.

The projectile was a wrought iron shell of the form and size indicated
in Fig. 20, as ascertained by measureme