_The Dynamite Gun._--Most impressive to the layman, and most demoralizing to the enemy, is this latter day form of ordnance. The first efforts to hurl dynamite shells from a gun were made with compressed air for fear of prematurely exploding the sensitive dynamite in the gun, which would be more disastrous to the gunners themselves than to the enemy. The Zalinski dynamite gun was of this class, and the first which attained any notoriety. Foolhardy as it might appear, Yankee genius was led to believe that dynamite shells could be fired with powder charges, and this is now done in a practical and safe way in the Sims-Dudley Dynamite Gun. This is manufactured under the fundamental patents of Dudley, Nos. 407,474, 407,475, 407,476, of July 23, 1889, which cover a method of exploding a charge of powder in one gun barrel, and causing it to compress the air in front of it, and force it into another barrel behind the dynamite shell, so that this relatively cool body of air is interposed between the hot powder gases and the dynamite. Fig. 275 represents Dudley’s patent drawing. C is the powder charge in barrel A, and H is the dynamite shell in barrel G. The front of barrel A is connected to the rear of barrel G behind the dynamite shell by the tube F. When the powder C explodes, all the air in barrel A and tube F is driven out and acts on the dynamite shell H to discharge it without allowing it to come in contact with the hot powder gases. A frangible plate D closes the end of barrel A, but blows out above a certain pressure to avoid bursting strain in the gun. The Sims patent, No. 619,025, February 7, 1899, covers a more simple and practical form of constructing a gun on this principle, and the gun as used in the United States is constructed in accordance with this latter improvement. [Illustration: FIG. 275.--DYNAMITE GUN, DUDLEY’S PATENT, JULY 23, 1889.] _Small Arms._--Pistols and guns are the two classes into which the layman divides small arms, although in latter years this classification has been much disturbed by the western frontiersman, who calls his pistol a gun, and by the artillerist, who also calls his cannon a gun.