United States or Nauru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"I'll have to use percussion fire to get the range; then I'll drop back a little an' spray her with shrapnel. Seems a pity to smash up a fine schooner like that one with percussion fire. I'd rather tickle 'em up a bit with shrapnel an' scare 'em into runnin' away." He got out the lanyard, slipped a cartridge in the breech, paused, and scratched his head again.
It was a grand, though fearful sight, to see the guns belching forth, in the darkness of the night, sheets of living flame, the deadly missiles striking the enemy with a force that we could feel. Then, when the shells struck her sides, especially the percussion ones, her whole side was lit up, and showing rents of five or six feet in length.
I'm going to be busy as a pup in a fireplug factory with this Rivers thing, and I'll need some checking-upping done inside the Fleming household." He went on, in meticulous detail, to explain about the Rivers murder. "I'll have some work for you, before you're ready to start buttling, too." Disencumbering himself of the two percussion revolvers, he laid them on the table.
The question arose, Was the pistol loaded? and he undertook to find out. He raised the hammer to full cock, and, placing the muzzle in his mouth, he blew down the barrel, with his finger on the cap nipple, to feel if the air passed through. He naïvely explained to me the certainty of this mode of discovering whether a percussion arm is loaded or not.
The guest, he observes, on arriving at a country-house, is asked whether he prefers a flint or a percussion lock, and a double-barrelled Manton is put into his hands; while after breakfast the ladies leave the table, wishing him good sport. 'I would rather have gone to the library, says the Penciller.
We pardon his puns, indeed we believe them to be inevitable, the flash of the percussion cap, the sparks of electricity, St. Elmo's stars, phosphorescent gleams, playing over the restless ocean of his fruitful imagination.
It may not be generally known that the important invention of the percussion cap is due to the scientific recreations of the English painter Shaw. "But I must not detain you from more instructive speech. One word only in closing. I have claimed for America the origination of the modern Telegraph System of the world. Impartial history, I think, will support that claim.
The main purpose, however, must be to connect the air-blast with the percussion apparatus in such a manner that, as soon as a key is depressed, the nozzle of that particular note in the air-blast is opened exactly at the same time that the wire is struck by the hammer, and it remains open as long as the note is held down.
The urine was of high specific gravity, albuminous, alkaline, and exhaled a disagreeable odor. In spite of the signs of pregnancy already noted, palpitation and percussion did not show any augmentation in the size of the uterus, but the introduction of a catheter into the bladder showed the existence of a large calculus.
The best information I could obtain leads me to believe that from one-third to a half may be added to these numbers for items which have been shipped to the Northern States as hardware. From the 1st of January to the 17th March, 1863, the custom bills of entry show that 23,870 gun-barrels, 30,802 rifles, and 3,105,800 percussion caps were shipped to the United States.
Word Of The Day