Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/265

 I caused besides two Pistol-barrels of about five inches long to be placed upon Carriages with four Wheels, and loaded with Lead, that they might not overturn when discharged, and both of equal weight, and an Iron Cylinder'' of the length of both their bores, and of the same diameter with a piece of Lead of weight equal to it. So that the piece of Lead affixed to either of these Guns (which of them I should please to charge) might equally poise the other with the Iron Cylinder. And thus indifferently charging either with eight grains more or less of Powder, and putting the Iron Cylinder home into both, the piece of Lead being affixed to that which held the Powder, and then both so set upon the floor, and the Powder fired, I could not thereby discover, that the charged Piece, or the other, either of them, did certainly recoil more or less than the other, they rather seemed still to be equal.''

These few Experiments I have made since, the Barrel being first cut at the muzzle parallel to a vertical Plane passing the line CD.