Thus departing from the true science of the question, instead of giving the centre of gravity to the head of the bullet, he tries to overcome the difficulties by which his system is beset, by increasing the spiral motion. As other writers take a similar view of the question, I insert the following quotation from a small work by Lieutenant Simons, Bengal Artillery, entitled “A Treatise on Fire-arms,” where we have the following appropriate remarks, strongly bearing on the peculiarities of this system:-- “Every point upon the surface of a projectile in motion, whether it be a rocket, javelin, ship, bullet, arrow, or any other description of projectile, is the end of a lever, the fulcrum of which is situated in the projectile’s centre of gravity. The effect of the air to upset, _i. e._, to force the light or pointed end of such projectile to the rear, or to unsteady, or cause to waver, the same, depends upon the lengths of the levers at the ends of which it acts, and upon the angles at which it presses against such levers, as determined by the positions of the points and by the shape of the projectile; it likewise depends upon the specific intensity of the pressure, which is doubtless greatest in the neighbourhood of those parts of the projectile which least easily allow the air to escape past them. “An illustration in part of the truth of the foregoing proposition will present itself to the conceptions of those who have taken notice of the manner of the flight of rockets, or who have witnessed shells projected from mortars at night time. The light of the burning fuse, particularly during the first part of the flight of the shell, is seldom obscured from the sight of the beholders in the battery from which it is fired. The end of the fuse protruding beyond the general surface of the shell is the end of a lever whose fulcrum is the shell’s centre of gravity. The pressure of the air against this lever as the shell moves forward, drives it to the rear, in which place it would remain steady, did the shell in its course describe a straight line; a curve, however, being the line actually described, it follows that the direction from which the resistance created by the shell’s own motion comes, is ever varying; whereby the occurrence of an equilibrium is prevented, and the shell is caused to oscillate laterally as it were. If the size of the fuze end of it, however, be at all considerable, the shell will rarely topple over, and, in consequence, the light of the fuze, during the ascending curve, will generally be visible.