is the introduction of the conical shape. The question of a conical ball
with a saucer base is fully discussed in _Scloppetaria_, but no
practical result seems to have been before the public until Monsieur
Delvigue, in 1828, employed a solid conical ball, which, resting on the
breech clear of the powder, he expanded by several blows with the ramrod
sufficiently to make it take the grooves. Colonel Thouvenin introduced a
steel spire into the breech, upon which the ball being forced, it
expanded more readily. This spire is called the "tige." Colonel Tamisier
cut three rings into the cylindrical surface of the bullet, to
facilitate the expansion and improve its flight. These three
combinations constitute the _Carabine a Tige_ now in general use in the
French army. Captain Minie--in, I believe, 1850--dispensed with the
tige, and employed a conical hollow in the ball; into which, introducing
an iron cup, the explosion of the powder produced the expansion
requisite. As Captain Minie has made no change in the rifle, except
removing a tige which was only lately introduced, it is certainly an
extraordinary Irishism to call his conical ball a Minie rifle; it was
partially adopted in England as early as 1851. Why his invention has not
been taken up in France, I cannot say.

Miraculous to remark, the British Government for once appear to have
appreciated a useful invention, and various experiments with the Minie
ball were carried on with an energy so unusual as to be startling. It
being discovered that the iron cup had various disadvantages, besides
being a compound article, a tornado of inventions rushed in upon the
Government with every variety of modification. The successful competitor
of this countless host was Mr. Pritchett, who, while dispensing with the
cup entirely, produced the most satisfactory results with a simple
conical bullet imperceptibly saucered out in the base, and which is now
the generally adopted bullet in Her Majesty's service. The reader will
recognise in Mr. Pritchett's bullet a small modification of the conical
ball alluded to in _Scloppetaria_ nearly fifty years ago.

Through the kindness of a friend, I have been able to get some
information as to the vexed question of the Minie ball, which militates
against some of the claims of the French captain, if invention be one.
The character of the friend through whom I have been put in
correspondence with the gentleman named below, I feel to be a sufficient
gua