Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1854-08-05
A New description of Firearms.


The Washington Star says that very recent,
the Army and Navy ordinance bureaus hav.
caused experiments to be made by boards o
ARMY and Navy officers with the Perry
arms, an American invention, now in course O.
being patented in this country by the inventor
an ingenious American who has established ,
factory for them in Newark, New Jersey. Com
modore Skinner was at the head of the nava
experimenting commission, and Major Mordeca
at that of the army board. According to bott
reports, this new invention proves to be likely
to excel for the practical use, any other de.
scription of firearms now in use in either
hemisphere, not excepting the world renowned
Mamie rife. The naval commission witnessed
the firing of the carbines seventy five times in
baulk
These guns, says the Star, load in a vibrating
breech cylinder, working in an arc of circle.
They are sef-priming, and when the cylinder
is brought into position to receive the cartridge,
it receives the cap which fifty of them) is pre-
viousiy placed In tube passing through the
breech of the gun, by being emptied or turned
in from another tube. In the course of the ex-
periments to which we aiude above, and others
subsequently made under supervision of Major
Dahlgreen, of the ordinance corps, at the navy
yard, where there is testing ground with a
range Of thousand yards, the Perry carbine,
carrying half-ounce ball, and weighing 1-2
pounds ut fifty yards, fired through twelve
inch boards placed in a frame one inch apart !:
and also threw balls quite mile! In the ex-
periments at the navy yard, the Perry rifle was
fred against the Minnie rife. With the back
sights of the former raised but one inch. it
threw the ball quite as accurately eight hundred
yards, as the Minnie gun, with back sight raised
three inches, threw its bali one thousand yards.
This proves conclusively that its range is much
greater than that Of the Minnie, or, according to
ordinance calculations, that with the back sight
raised but two inches, it will be quite as &C
curate and deadly in its effects Mt one thousand
three hundred yards, as the celebrated Minnie
with the back sight raised an inch higher at
thousand yards; the Minnie heretofore being
regarded as the most effective FIRE arm known
that cap be handled by single person.
We have heard many Army and Navy officers
who have witnessed these experiments speak of
the weapon, all uniting in declaring that it is
by long odds the greatest breech loading i'm
provement now known in either hemisphere
By the by, the fact that it is perfectly .sgas
tight" at the cutoff Of the cylinder, was clearly
demonstrated in the course of the experiment,
the objection to the breach loading gun hereto
fore being that it has been found next to i'm
possible to prevent portion of the burnt powder
from issuing forth at the junction of the cylinder
with the barrel. The inventor exhibits some
eight or ten different descriptions of the arm !;
pistols, carbines, rifles, shot guns and muskets,
among them being an ordinary United States
percussion musket. altered SO as to embrace the
Perry improvement, at the cost of about seventy
five cents, we hear. Experiments with this
altered musket are said to have given quite
as much satisfaction as with other arms, one
and all.
We are proud Of the success of this invention
because We desire to see American mechanical
genius outstrip that of all other nations. The
invention of the Minnie gun created great sen
sation throughout Europe and. if we remember
correctly, the French Government have en-
deavored to prevent any others from avaiing
themselves of it. We are satisfied from the
united opinion of so many scientific and prac-
teal gentlemen who have witnessed the expert
ments performed in this city-Major Ben. Nc
Cullough, the distinguished Texas ranger Of the
Mexican war, being among the nu1nber-that
this American has fairly outstripped the great
French invention. to which we refer above