ely
used in Norway. A breech-loading carbine, lately brought across to this
country from America as the invention of Mr. Sharpe, was patented by a
Mr. Melville, of London, as far back as 1838. I understand Mr. Sharpe's
carbine was tried at Woolwich not long ago, and found to clog, owing to
the expansion of the metal from consecutive firing. Nor has any
breech-loading weapon hitherto introduced been able to make its way into
extensive practical use, although the Americans have constantly used
them in their navy for some years past. To return to ancient
times.--There is a matchlock in the Tower of London with one barrel and
a revolving breech cylinder which was made in the fifteenth century, and
there is a pistol on a similar plan, and dating from Henry VIII., which
may be seen in the Rotunda at Woolwich. The cylinders of both of these
weapons were worked by hand.

The old matchlock, invented in 1471, gave way to a substitute scarcely
less clumsy, and known by the initiated as the wheel-lock, the ignition
taking place by the motion of the steel wheel against a fixed flint
placed in the midst of the priming. This crude idea originated in 1530,
and reigned undisputed until the invention of the common old flint and
steel, about the year 1692, when this latter became lord paramount,
which it still remains with some infatuated old gentlemen, in spite of
the beautiful discovery of the application of fulminating powder, as a
means of producing the discharge.

Mr. Forsyth patented this invention in 1807, but, whether from prejudice
or want of perfection in its application, no general use was made of the
copper cap until it was introduced among sportsmen by Mr. Egg, in 1818,
and subsequently Mr. J. Manton patented his percussion tubes for a
similar purpose. The use of the copper cap in the army dates 1842, or
nearly a quarter of a century after its manifest advantages had been
apparent to the rest of the community.

Previous to this invention it was impossible to make revolving weapons
practically available for general use.

The public are indebted to Mr. Jones for the ingenious mechanism by
which continuous pressure on the trigger causes both the revolution of
the barrels and the discharge of the piece; this patent goes back to
1829-1830. Colonel Colt first endeavoured to make a number of barrels
revolve by raising the hammer, but the weight of the barrels suggested a
return to the old rotatory cylinder, for which he took out