s cracks or holes; chocks for the wheels;
blocks and rollers, lifting jacks, and gins for moving guns; and
drills and augers for clearing the vent (figs. 17, 44). But among the
most important tools for everyday firing were the following:

_The sponge_ was a wooden cylinder about a foot long, the same
diameter as the shot, and covered with lambskin. Like all bore tools,
it was mounted on a long staff; after being dampened with water, it
was used for cleaning the bore of the piece after firing. Essentially,
sponging made sure there were no sparks in the bore when the new
charge was put in. Often the sponge was on the opposite end of the
rammer, and sometimes, instead of being lambskin-covered, the sponge
was a bristle brush.

_The wormer_ was a double screw, something like a pair of intertwined
corkscrews, fixed to a long handle. Inserted in the gun bore and
twisted, it seized and drew out wads or the remains of cartridge bags
stuck in the gun after firing. Worm screws were sometimes mounted in
the head of the sponge, so that the piece could be sponged and wormed
at the same time.

_The ladle_ was the most important of all the gunner's tools in the
early years, since it was not only the measure for the powder but the
only way to dump the powder in the bore at the proper place. It was
generally made of copper, the same gauge as the windage of the gun;
that is, the copper was just thick enough to fit between ball and
bore.

Essentially, the ladle is merely a scoop, a metal cylinder secured to
a wooden disk on a long staff. But before the introduction of the
powder cartridge, cutting a ladle to the right size was one of the
most important accomplishments a gunner had to learn. Collado, that
Spanish mathematician of the sixteenth century, used the culverin
ladle as the master pattern (fig. 45). It was 4-1/2 calibers long and
would carry exactly the weight of the ball in powder. Ladles for
lesser guns could be proportioned (that is, shortened) from the master
pattern.

[Illustration: Figure 44--EIGHTEENTH CENTURY GUNNER'S EQUIPMENT. (Not
to scale.)]

The ladle full of powder was pushed home in the bore. Turning the
handle dumped the charge, which then had to be packed with the rammer.
As powder charges were lessened in later years, the ladle was
shortened; by 1750, it was only three shot diameters long. With
cartridges, the ladle was no longer needed for loading the gun, but it
was still handy for withdrawing the roun