Arizona weekly citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Ariz) 1880-1901, 1891-09-26

To military men, and the mathemst-
icisns who Lave assisted IN their in
vestigstions, from the days Of Tartsglis
and Gslileo down to those OF the present
generation, says the Field, the world at
large is almost entirely indebted for its
knowledge or the phenomena connected
with the passage Of the projectiles
through the air, and for an intelligible
exposition of other curious circumstan
ces which result from tho employment
of explosives in firearms. Considering
that the leading purpase for which
these arms have been constructed has
been Of a military character, and that
the governments OF the many nations
of the earth have been striving to add
to the strength of their armies by in
creasing the effectiveness Of their wea-
pols, it is not surprising that the eI-
periments carried out have generally
been made with the military arms, and
that comparatively little has been done
with the guns used by sportsmsn. The
The smooth-bors guns that are handled
by sportsmen offer much greater facil-
tiles for the investigation Of some OF the
phsnomsna connected with firearms
than do the military weapons with
which most experiments have been
made. 1t is generally known, Of course,
that the speed Of proiectiles il reduced
by the resistance Of the air; but il is
not 80 generally known that the recoil
Of the gun is likewise greatly influenced
by the atmospheric resistance. 1t 10 af-
fsctsd, however in q reverse way; for the
velocity of the shot falls of, while the
recoil of the gun increases. We have
long been Of opinion that the formula
framed for the estimation OF rscoil fails
to give an adequate representation OF
the facts. The muzzls velocity and
weight Of shot are taken to represent
the amount of work done in the gun;
and, action and reaction being
equal, il is assumed that the mo-
fnsntum Of the shot when it leaves the
muzsle must be equal to the moment
nm of the gun in the opposite direction.
Any other work which the powderimay
have dons, besides imparting speed to
she proiectile, is left out OF sconsidera-
tion. Yet such additional work Is by no
means an inspprsciable quantity. In
-. -. Lac ~ nrnnnytInn
shan in small arms; but in the latter
there is commonly twice as much recoil
Is is indicated by the formula, and fire.
euently . still larger amount. The
great difficulty we found at first Was TO
measure the actual forcs Of the recoil
In q satistsctory way; but that end We
believe to have been fully attained,
90 far ~ small arms are concerned, by
means ot q mechanical rest, from which
the gun is fired. Ordinarily the gun,
with the apparatus to which it IL affixed,
rscoils horizontally against the action
OF . spring equal in resisting power to
their combined weight; but, il thers il
any doubt as to the proper action OK the
spring. the records thus made can be
checked by others taken with the sp-
paratus in q vertical position. The
spring then detached, the machine 10
suspended some distance above ground
and the shot fred downward, when the
gun recoils against the force Of gravity:
and the VernIer scale ons the machine
measuring the extent OF the movement
TO fractions of an inch, the weight lifted
and height to lift will indicate the
amount Of work done. The results Of
experiments seem:conclusivsly to show
that the ordinary estimates .of rscoil,
framed without regard to frictional and
atmospheric retistences, are nearly a.
misleading as calculations Of velocity
of ascending and descending shot, in
which the resistance of the air 10 left out
~of considsrstIou.