. The complete works of Count Rumford. Science; Gunnery; Heat; Fireplaces; Kitchen utensils; Photometry; Food; Charities. Experiments upon Gunpowder. 33 sideration, I am now convinced that it is what ought to happen, and that it may be accounted for very well, upon principles that are clearly admissible. It is certain that a very small part only of the heat that a piece of ordnance acquires in being fired is com- municated to it by the flame of the powder, for the time of its action is so short (not being, perhaps, in general, longer than about 2-g-oth or y^oth part of a second) that if its he
. The complete works of Count Rumford. Science; Gunnery; Heat; Fireplaces; Kitchen utensils; Photometry; Food; Charities. Experiments upon Gunpowder. 33 sideration, I am now convinced that it is what ought to happen, and that it may be accounted for very well, upon principles that are clearly admissible. It is certain that a very small part only of the heat that a piece of ordnance acquires in being fired is com- municated to it by the flame of the powder, for the time of its action is so short (not being, perhaps, in general, longer than about 2-g-oth or y^oth part of a second) that if its heat, instead of being 4 times, as Mr. Robins supposes, was 400 times hotter than red- hot iron, it could not sensibly warm so great a mass of metal as goes to form one of our large pieces of cannon. And besides, if the heat of the flame were sufficiently intense to produce so great an effect in so short a time, it would certainly be sufficient, not only to burn up all inflammable bodies that it came near, but also to melt the shot that it surrounded and impelled, especially when they were small, and composed of lead, or any other fusible metal ; but so far from this being the case, we frequently see the finest paper come out of the mouth of a piece uninflamed, after it has sustained the action of the fire through the whole of the bore, and the smallest lead shot is discharged without being melted. But it may be objected here, that the bullets are always found to be very hot, if they are taken up im- mediately after they come out of a gun ; and that this circumstance is a proof of the intensity of the heat of the flame of powder, and of its great power of com- municating heat to the densest bodies. But to this I answer, I have always observed the same thing of bul- lets discharged from wind-guns and cross-bows, especial- ly when they have impinged against any hard body VOL. I. 3. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enh
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