Fig. 1WHen I was commanded by this Society, to make some Experiments of the Recoiling of Guns: In order to the discovery of the cause thereof, I caused this Engine that lies here before you to be prepared, and with it (assisted by some of the most eminent of this Society) I had divers shots made in the Court of this College, near the length thereof from the mark, with a full charge (about a four-penny weight) of Powder; but without any other success, than that there was nothing regular in that way, which was by laying it upon a heavy Table, unto which it was sometimes fastned with Screws at all the four places R, L, V, B, sometimes only at R or L, having wheels affixed at L and V, or R and B, that it might the more easily recoil.
This uncertainty I did then conceive might arise from one or more of these three causes, viz.
1. The violent trembling motion of the Gun, whence the Bullet might casually receive some literal impulse from the nose of the Piece at the parting from it.
2. The yielding of the Table, which was sensible.
3. The difficulty of aiming well by the Sight and Button so far from the Mark.
