Burlington tri-weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1852-1855, 1854-12-30
WHAT Is A MINNIE RIFLE

WHAT 5 MINNIE RIFLE.
Every account received from the war in
the Crimea is loud in praise Of the s'Minie
Rifie.''
These firearms in the hands Of good marks
MN deal certain destruction at an immense
distance, and the Wholesale slaughter of the
Russian gunners at the batteries of Sevasto-
pol, has won for this weapon of death the
soubriquet Of skiing of Firearms.o Sc
dreaded is this fatal ball that a Russian gun
ner goes to his station at an embrasure as to
certain death.
The barrel Of rife has running the
length Of its inner surface spiral grooves OF
channels-hencc the name Of rifle which
means ,ifed or grooved gun. The object
Of rifed barrel is to give greater precis-
ion to the ball by communicating to it Il 70
tary motion. This motion it receives in its
passage out Of the gun, provided the ball il
SO crowded into the barrel as to ell up par
tally or entirely the grooves; and the more
perfectly the bail fits into the barrel the tru-
er it's course, and the less ,cindage there is;
that is the less space is there between the
ball and barrel for the strength of the pow
der to escape. 1t is estimated that when the
windage is only one-twentieth of the calibre
of the gun, one-third of the powder escapes,
and Of course its strength is lost.
The great object therefore to be obtained
is perfect fit to the barr,l by the ball, thus
to give the rotary motion and to save the
powder.
Sportsmen put patch over the ball, and
by great effort hammer or ram it down. This
slow process however, would not answer
military purposes.
A French gunsmith invented rife which
h d its breech pin project wedge shaped,
about two inches into the barrel. The ball
ccnical shaped one, was then dropped into
the barrel, and few heavy blows by the
rammer, drove the wedge or pin into the bal!
so as to fill the grooves in the barrel.
The mimic ball now SO famous, is an i'm
provemcnt upon all balls inasmuch as it
makes the powder slug or spread The ball in
stead of the rammer doing thatwork,
The ball is oblong with conical point.
in its base it has a conical hollow, running
half or two-thirds the length of the ball. A
cup made of sheet iron is placed 10 the ORR
fee of this hollow which at the instant of
firing is driven by the powder with great
force into the ball, thus spreading it open so
that in its course out, to perfectly slug or fill
the grooved barrel. This accomplishes the
whole object; it saves time in ramming, it
destroys windage, thus economizing in pow
der, and MAKES the ball perfectly fit the bar
rel SO as to give the ball complete rotary
motion and certainty Of direction. Thus the
Minnie taking its name from
French officer named Minnie--is a minnie
ball not minnie rifle. The conical shape
OF the bullet gives it greater weight of metal
than a round one, affords less resistance to
the air, and greatly increases the distance it
can be thrown. This shaped ball, however,
he's been used for a long time by sportsmen
A Paris correspondent Of the New York
Tribune some months since, was witness to
experiments made by Major Minnie himself
with his bali, and saw that officer plant three
balls in succession in a target the size of a
mans hat at distance Of three fourths of
mile. And this officer said he could do it
all day long and teach any other man to do
so.
1t is not to be wondered at that Russians
have a horror Of the French chasseurs and
their minnie ball.
The present popularity Of the rife owes its
origin 10 the skill of the American sharp
shooters, bred and trained in our new set
Elements, and who in our Indian and other
wars have shown the efficiency Of the rife
ball in picking off officers, gunners, and
prominent objects, but its perfection, we i'm
agine, has been accomplished in the hands
Of the French.