(476)
II.1. The Experiments here proposed, are to be made in Guns of all Sizes, Bores, Weights, Metals, &c.
2. Three or more Shot to be made with every different Charge, and at every several tryal, that the certainty may the better appear.
3. The first Shot being Measured and marked, the rest may all be Measured from it, or from one another, to save labour.
4. The Gun is to be pointed, placed, and ordered every time in one and the same place and position, aiming still at the same Mark, or pointing still in the very same Line or Azimuth; that so all the Shot may fall in the same Line, as near as is possible.
5. The Powder must be exactly weigh'd, every time the Peece is charged, left it having been weigh'd long before, the weight may be alter'd; though Experiment may be made with Cartridges and without.
6. The Powder and Bullet is to be rammed home equally at every Shot; though the looser the Powder lye, it fire the better.
7. When the right Charge of a Peece is found, that makes the farthest Shot in the ordinary and plain way of Charging, Monsieur de Sons contrivance of a Wedge may be tryed, to make it Shoot farther; which is a piece of Board, so long, as being thrust home to the Breech of the Peece at one end, the other may reach farther out than the outside of the Bullet, being ramm'd up to its place; broad about an Inch, and thin so far as the Wadd before the Bullet reaches on the out-side; there it is to have a Shoulder, from which forward to the end, it is to be cut a sloap like a Wedge, being of such thickness, as that at the place, where the Center of the Bullet is to be, it may make it stick so fast, that the Powder finding more resistance may at length drive it out with the greater violence.
8. Another of this nature is a Wooden Tampion, like a piece of a Cylinder, big enough to fill the hollow Cylinder of the Gun, the length somewhat more than the Diameter of it and hollow'd towards the Bullet, so as to fit it; and either flat, or (which is better) hollow likewise towards the Powder, and serving instead of a Wadd. These and such others will probably render the effect of the Powder greater, than otherwise it would be.
9. The Strength of the Powder must be examin'd by a Powder-Tryer, that raiseth a Weight, such an one as has been contrived by Mr. Hook, and is made by Mr. Shortgrave, Operator to the Royal Society.
