When the piece has not to be fired immediately, the lever is not placed horizontally, but in an inclined position, in which the hammer cannot move forward, even if the trigger be drawn. The Chassepot has an effective range of 1,093 yards, and the projectile leaves the piece with a velocity of 1,345 ft. per second, the trajectory being such that at 230 yards the bullet is only 18 in. above the straight line. The piece can be charged and fired by the soldier in any position, and it was found that it could be discharged from seven to ten times per minute, even when aim was taken through the sights with which it is furnished, and fourteen or fifteen times per minute without sighting. The ordinary rifled musket, which this arm superseded, could only be fired twice in a minute, and could only be loaded when the soldier was standing up. Other nations followed either by adopting as their infantry arm some form of breech-loader, or by converting their muzzle-loaders into breech-loaders as a temporary expedient, pending the selection of some more perfect type. When in 1864 a committee which had been appointed to investigate the question of proper arms for our infantry, recommended that that branch of the service should be supplied with breech-loaders, our Government, considering that no form of breech-loader had up to that time been invented which would unequivocally meet all the requirements of the case, wisely determined that, pending the selection of a suitable arm, the service muzzle-loaders should meanwhile be converted into breech-loaders. The problem of how this was to be done was solved by the gunmaker Snider, and in the “Converted Enfield” or “Snider” the British army was provided for a time with an arm satisfying the requirements of that period. This change of weapon was effected at a comparatively small outlay, for the conversion cost less than twenty shillings an arm. The breech action in the Snider consisted of a solid piece of metal which closed the breech end of the barrel, and, being hinged on the right-hand side parallel to the barrel, could be turned aside, making room for the insertion into the conically widened bore of a metallic cartridge case, invented by Colonel Boxer, which contained the projectile, the powder charge, and the means of ignition in itself. A short backward movement of the breech-lock caused a claw acting on the base of the spent cartridge case to withdraw it from the barrel, and then the reaction of a spring brought the breech-block back into position, after insertion of a new cartridge. This cartridge proved very effective in increasing the range and accuracy of the weapon. It should be mentioned that all the breech-loading mechanisms are provided with arrangements by which the metallic cases of the spent cartridges are automatically extracted from the barrel. The authorities having, in 1866, offered gunmakers and others handsome prizes for the production of rifles best fulfilling