Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/199

Rh a twenty-four pound, elongated projectile, with a maximum range of 473 yards. The Lyle gun, which has superseded these, is of bronze, smooth bore, weighing 185 pounds, with a cylindrical line-carrying shot weighing seventeen pounds, and a range of 695 yards. The reduction in weight over the lightest previous ordnance is 110 pounds, and the increase in range over the old éprouvette is 274 yards. Other advantages of the Lyle gun are its strength, owing to the tenacity and ductility of its material, its freedom from corrosion, and its exemption from the erosive action of gases, there being little windage, and from wear by the projectile, this being nearly the length of the bore. The projectile has a shank protruding four inches from the muzzle of the gun, to an eye in which the line is tied—a device which prevents the line from being burned off by the ignited gases in firing. The shot-line is made of unbleached linen thread, very closely and smoothly braided, is waterproofed, and has great elasticity, which tends to insure it against breaking. The lines in use are of varying thicknesses, according to circumstances, ranging from one eighth to three eighths of an inch, and their length varies from 500 to 700 yards. The shot-line is carried in a faking-box—a wooden chest with handles for convenience in carrying. There are two or three sizes in use, the dimensions of the largest being about three feet long by one and a half wide, and a foot deep. Connected with it is a frame, a little larger than the box, with a row of wooden pins set vertically into its four sides. A false bottom, which is a tablet of wood pierced with holes corresponding to the pins, is let down over them until it reaches their bases, and rests upon the frame. In disposing the shot-line, the faker begins at the corner, and coils it in successive diagonal loops or fakes over the pins, layer above layer, until the line is completely rove. The box is then let down over the pins, and fastened at each end to the frame. It is now ready for transportation to the scene of a wreck. When brought there, it is turned upside down, disclosing the false bottom, with the frame superimposed upon it. Two men, one at each end of the box, release the fastenings, and, each pressing his foot upon