Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-06-26

l.. Provisioning opening the screw holes,
and connecting the barrel and lock.
Is. Breaking-of fitting: connecting the stock
with the fore part of the gun.
10. Hair-trigger.
20. Shooting trying the weapon.
81. The bayonet.
% The mould for making the bullets.
% Sights and swivels. The sight is brass |
frame, about three inches by one, which lies |
down or stands IN before the eve of the soldier |
and is trayersed by a slide which enables him to |
estimate distance in taking his aim. All our
muskets are henceforth to be furnished with |
sights.
"a. Rihing of which enough has been said.
Add to these, the carriage Of the article, and
we have twenty-five items of separate charge for
gun and the dispersion of the work among
thirty-two orders of artifcers, accounts for SO
few people having witnessed the manufacture of
a gun.
We are not going home yet. There is the Co.
veruIuent Proof House to be seen before we can
feel that we have done with guns. To this place
every barrel must be sent to be proved, under
a penalty of ten pounds per barrel To forge the
Proof House mark is a serious offence, punisha
BILE by high fines, and IMPRISONMENT in default
At present, the proving is going on at such a
rate that it requires some management to step in
at an hour when the establishment is open, and
escape the explosion. Guests at house two
miles from the place apt to announce thunder
in all seasons, and all sorts of weather, till taught
to distinguish the,explosions of the Proof House
from those of the sky. It may well be striking
sound to strangers; for no fewer than one hun
dred and thirty-seveu gum barrels are discharged
at once. The place in which this is done is
room, partly underground, cased in iron plates,
strongly bolted together. The door is iron; and
towards the yard the side of the room is closed
by massive iron shutters, which arc fastened up
before the train is fired. A great heap OF black
saud, :. ttioh bank OF it, faces the muZzleS, and
receives the balls. The barrels laid in
row, separated by bars of lead, and all their
touch-holes communicating with train of gum
powder. The train is lighted at end !;
everybody draws off from the spot, and then
comes the bloom and bang, which is heard,
through all the iron castings, miles off. In
minute or two, when the smoke is supposed
to have subsidized little, the shutters and
door are open, and the barrels are examined. Two
or three in that long row may have burst, but the
proportion OF unsound barrels is very small Some
that have given way in the strangest manner are
hung up against the walls curiostes. One has
its torn half doubled in two; gapes with a rag
ged wound; one is split into ribbons; and one has
its spiral strip uuwound for good part of its length.
1t badly welded.
In the centre OF the establishment stands the
magazine, isolated and black looking. In one
apartment, three persons are handling powder and
bals-loadmg the barrels for proof, with charge
many times greater than they will have to carry.
In another, an old man is casting bullets-with his
simmering lead in the copper, and his ladle, and
his bullet moulds, and the bright rows OF clean
balls he turns out of them. Elsewhere, we see
piles and laggots Of musket barrels innumerable,
rusty, aud ugly at present-both those that have
undergone proof, and those that waiting for it..
And again, we see elsewhere the punching of the
Government mark tie proved barrels. 1t is a
strange and dismal sort of place, inhabited by CT
vii and intelligent people, who do their best to
make stranger interested in this sidelong peep
at the horrors of war.
Government thinks it right to examine bayonets
too. Some military authorities say that our great
reliance, in regard to selfdeence at least, must be
the bayonet; and others aver that living SOL
der has seen two lines of infantry come to close
quarters with bayonetS actually pushing and thrus
ting. Both these accounts may be true, consider
ing how demonstrating weapon the bayonet is,
and how much of modern warfare has been vague
explosion, sangulnary enough upon occasion, but
not always very much So and wholly different in
character, and in its requirements from the soldier,
from the hand-to-hand fighting of old times. 1t
seems to be supposed, by some qualified judges of
case, that the increased precision of aim
ferred by modern rifle operations will necesitate
closer hand to hand fighting, sharp shooters are
not good at a close combat, and are not lifted,
either by training or the arms they carry, TO meet
charge; while the greater their proficiency in
their style, the more eager will their adverse
ries be to stop their fire. However this may be, and
whatever attention 1t behooveS us to give to Weap
which will be wanted in places and situations
in which rifles cannot be used, it is clear that the
British mind is at present animated with a desire
TO overtafe the proficiency of foreign soldery and
colonial savages i'll the of the rife; and the ta-
NEST citizen cannot go throug h Birmingham gun
manufactury without certain thrill of the nerves,
and animation of spirits, which indicate that hearts
will not be wanting to the defence of the principles
of liberty, if there be but due and timely training
OF hand and eye, under the guidance of military
discipline.