$ NEW EXPERIMENTS TRACT 34.

different degrees of ramming the charge of powder, withthe effect of wads placed in different positions. Sometimesthe powder was only set up without being compressed, andsometimes it was rammed with a different number of strokes,and pushed with various degrees of force : but no sensibledifference was produced in the velocity. The wads, whichwere of 2 inches length, firmly made of junk or rope yarn,and made large to be with difficulty pushed into the gun,were diversly placed and varied in number, being isome-times introduced between the powder and ball, and some-times over both. But no effect was perceived from them onthe velocity of the ball; this being indifferently the same,either with one wad, or two, or none at all. The reasonof which is probably because the balls had very littlewindage. At the last two numbers two wads were used ;in most of the others only one; weighing on an averageabout 2 oz 9 dr.

When balls were used with the wads, it was common forthem both to enter the pendulum by the same Hole. But itis remarkable that, when the wads were discharged withoutballs, they commonly struck wide of the line of the gun by6 or 8 inches, and indifferently either too high or too low,or to the right or left ; and sometimes they flew in piecesbefore they struck the block. -

The velocities of the ball in these experiments.are notcomputed, as the effects of the blow from the ball and thewad are compounded together, and that in an unknowndegree, as the wad sometimes flies in pieces, and sometimesnot, or strikes the pendulum with various degrees of force atdifferent times ; and also sometimes the wads enter the pen-dulum, and sometimes they rebound from it.