Inventions, however, are of no use whilst kept in obscurity, and my first and natural course was to bring it under the notice of the parties for whose benefit it was intended. Accordingly, in July, 1836, a memorial was duly drawn up, and laid before the Master-General and Board of Ordnance, soliciting a trial. After overcoming some difficulties, a trial was ordered at the “cost of the inventor,” and in August, 1836, it took place at Tynemouth, in Northumberland, under the command of Major Walcot, of the Royal Horse Artillery, a party of the 60th Rifles being the firing party. The exact form of the memorial, and the points claimed by the inventor, are as follows:-- “To the Right Honourable the Master-General and Officers of His Majesty’s Board of Ordnance. The humble Memorial of William Greener, Gunmaker, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, humbly sheweth-- “That your memorialist has, after considerable trouble and expense, discovered a method by which the facility of loading all rifles, muskets, and other small fire-arms will be much increased, as well as a considerable additional force or range of the projectile be obtained, even with a less quantity of powder than at present used. Your memorialist has frequently loaded one of his Majesty’s rifles by this method, as quickly as any soldier could load the plain musket, and the balls when fired have received the same or greater effect from the action of the grooves of the rifle. Your memorialist’s plan simply consists in the manufacture of a more ready kind of cartridge, which will answer for all fire-arms as at present constructed, and will also be a considerable saving to his Majesty. “Your memorialist being aware, from former communications with your Honourable Board, that in no case is any sum of money allowed for travelling expenses, &c., and your memorialist being very far from rich, is unable to attend any committee, either at Woolwich or elsewhere, your memorialist, therefore, suggests that if it meet the approbation of your Honourable Board to issue an order to the officer commanding the depot of his Majesty’s 1st Brigade 60th Rifles, at present stationed in this town, or to any other regiment or detachment in the neighbourhood, to appoint a squad of men to fire 100 rounds of memorialist’s and 100 rounds of the cartridges now in use, and to compare their respective merits, the whole to be provided at your memorialist’s expense. “And memorialist, as in duty bound, will ever pray. “WILLIAM GREENER.” The success of the experiments far surpassed the expectations of the military men present; and that they fully established all the points claimed, will be evident from the following secret report made by Major Walcott to the Board of Ordnance:--