Experiment has shown the error of stating that only a certain quantity of powder could be consumed: the proportion stated was considerably below the actual quantity, as the experiments of punching the plates show; for since twelve drachms can be burnt in a three-feet barrel, therefore ten drachms may be consumed in one two feet eight inches, with a given weight to lift. In addition to this, must be placed the fact of improvement, both in the composition and granulation of the powder; which we have no hesitation in stating has been considerable, within only a very few years, all tending to the quickness of generating force. The granulatory system, if acted upon, will give the sportsman or soldier a completely new power in gunnery; for it must be evident, if we have the means of projecting certain bodies with an extreme velocity, say 5,000 feet per second, it becomes a simple calculation to ascertain the quantity of force and length of tube to give to a certain weight. Take, for instance, an ounce ball in a barrel two feet six inches long. Extremely fine grain powder, from its rapidity of expansion, gives to the ball this velocity at fifteen inches from the breech; the remaining fifteen inches contain a column of air highly condensed, which will inevitably reduce this velocity back nearly fifty per cent., or 2,500, and with that velocity the ball leaves the muzzle. Therefore, as we have already said, it must be evident you have here generated a high speed to be as quickly reduced; and it shows clearly that if a different grain of powder would expand from breech to muzzle, increasing the velocity on a granulated scale until it obtained the highest, or 5,000 feet per second, as the ball left the muzzle, you would save here clear 50 per cent. in force, with less recoil, less internal strain on the barrel, and with exactly the same weight of powder; thus showing that you have just a definite quantity of force in a definite quantity of powder. The true science of gunnery is the knowledge how to best arrange the collateral parts, so that you may obtain the greatest result with the least means. I have also clearly shown that the resistance of the atmosphere is one, and the principal obstruction in the attainment of high velocities; its resistance being regulated entirely by the degree of speed with which it is wanted to be displaced. Thus it is true, as both Robins and Hutton have shown, that only a certain velocity can be obtained beneficially; though the degree is considerably greater then either conceived, as far greater impetus has been obtained, and projected bodies have ranged much beyond their calculations, and that beneficially too. One drawback on the theory of these gentlemen is their calculating the velocities with iron projectiles; for the heavier the material the more powerful the momentum, and consequently the longer retention of their velocity, from not presenting the same space to the resisting medium, the air.