gun barrel (gunbar"el)

The barrel or tube of a gun.-Gun-barrel drain. See drain. IMG:content-2807.png:[blocks in formation] fixed on a pair of wheels, called a limber, to which the This all important matter will influence the gunmaker. horses are attached, so as to form a single four-wheeled The Engineer, LXVI. 65. carriage. In action it is unlimbered or detached from the fore part, and then rests on its wheels and on a strong supgunman (gun'man), n.; pl. gunmen (-men). A port called the trail. The protected barbette gun - carriage, also called the Moncrieff gun - carriage (after its inventor Major Moncrieff), is designed to store up the force of recoil on firing, and apply it to the work of raising the gun to fire over a high parapet. When fired the gun descends under cover by its own recoil, a uming at the same time the loading position, in which it is retained by a toothed wheel and ratchet. When reloaded, by releasing the ratchet, it is brought by a counterweight, which the force of the recoil has elevated, back to its original position. The carriage moves laterally on a circular rail laid on the platform, and tor has also designed a hydropneumatic carriage, in which the force is stored up in the form of air, highly compre ed in a strong iron cylinder. Also called artillery -carriage. guncotton (gun'kot"n), n. A general name for easily be in The same the nitrates of cellulose, prepared by digesting cotton or other form of cellulose in nitric acid, or preferably in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. A series of nitrates may thus be made, differing in composition and properties according to the strength of acids and time of digestion. Weak acids and short digestion yield tri nitro and tetra nitro-cellulose, which dis man employed in the manufacture of firearms. The strikes of the gunmen in Birmingham during the Crime an War undoubtedly greatly influenced our Government to take this step to ensure a sufficient supply of arms in case of emergency. W. W. Greener, The Gun, p. 270. gun-metal (gun'metal), n. A bronze formerly much employed for cannon, especially for light field-artillery. It is now nearly supplanted by steel. See bronze.