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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), S. (search)
terms, and it is surmised that it is the invention of Archimedes. One who has had access to the manuscript states that Da Vinci gives the credit of the invention to the Greek philosopher. A steam-gun is described in Van Etten's Recreations Mathematique, 1629, 83d Problem. It is a very clumsy contrivance, but used steam acting on a wooden piston or sabot to expel the ball. Perkins exhibited a steam-gun in England before the Duke of Wellington, 1824. It was very effective, but the Iron Duke considered that a steam-boiler that threw away balls as fast as that did would be out of place in an army, and would waste ammunition. The same objection has been until lately urged against the use of breech-loading fire-arms. The men shoot too fast. Mr. Henry Bessemer's idea is to have a steam fire-engine to throw bullets instead of water. He calculates that it will throw 181 3/4 pounds, representing 2,540 rifle-bullets per minute, to a distance of 1 mile, with a consumption of 5 pou