Thus it will be seen that the amount of resistance or displacement of atmospheric air by one bullet is nearly double that of the other, and this is a most important point in Mr. Whitworth’s favour; but the quantity of gunpowder used in the one is precisely the same as that used in the other, though Mr. Whitworth’s rifle is little more than half the size of bore, the pressure on the square inch being consequently nearly double; hence the circumstances are not sufficiently equal for Mr. Whitworth to claim for his rifle any great superiority: the gun may take the attention of the unwary, but its principles will not bear investigation. Let me change the circumstances of the case, by retaining the principle of the Enfield, but changing the bore to the same as Mr. Whitworth’s, increasing at the same time the length of projectile, and I will engage to beat it with a much reduced charge. The extreme degree of female screw or spiral, one turn in twenty inches, or two turns in the whole length of the barrel, creates, as must be familiar to the most obtuse mind, an enormous amount of friction, and in consequence of this an equal quantity of force is absorbed: in other words, there is a useless waste of force. The Enfield barrel has but a proportion of turn, one in six feet six inches, or exactly half a spiral in the three feet three, generating 300 per cent. less friction than in the Whitworth rifle; so that on this score alone the saving would be very great, and in this trial the Whitworth would be inferior to the Enfield; the inventor, therefore, has unjustly laid claim to superiority, as the trial has been conducted on very unequal terms.