gunpit (gunpit)

A pit for receiving the mold used in casting a gun, or for receiving the tube or jacket in a embling a built-up IMG:content-2815.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2816.png:[blocks in formation] pair small firearms. then granulated, cleaned or dusted, glazed or gunsmith gun's mith), n. A maker of small polished, and dried. The finished powder is emarms; one whose occupation is to make or reployed for the discharge of projectiles from guns, in blasting, and for other purposes. The proportion of the ingre. dients in the composition gunpowder varies in different countries, and with the different uses for which it is designed. The powders used for military purposes are dis tinguished, according to the finene and evenne of granulation, as (a) irregular, as musket, mortar, cannon, and mammoth powders; (b) regular, as cubical, pellet, hexago nal, spherohexagonal, and prismatic (perforated hexagonal prisms) powders. These powders may have the same composition, but differ in size and form of grain, density, and method of manufacture. Musket powder is used for small arms, mortar - powder for field-guns, cannon powder for light siege-guns, and the larger-grained and special powders for heavy sea-coast guns. Mixtures of a nature similar to gunpowder were known in China and India from remote times, and were especially used for rockets. The invention of gunpowder in Europe has been ascribed to Roger Bacon (about 1214-94) and to a German monk named Schwarz (about 1320), but it was probably introduced into Europe through the medium of the Moors early in the fourteenth century. Its common use in warfare dates from the sixteenth century. I do know Fluellen valiant, And, touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder . Shak ., Hen. V., iv. 7. Caking gunpowder. See cakel, v. t. Gravimetric density of gunpowder ance consisting of unpowder density. mixture spread on paper, dried, and rolled up in the form of a cartridge. - Gunpowder plot, in Eng. hist., a conspiracy to blow up the king (James I.) and the lords and commons in the Parliament House, in 1605, in revenge for the laws against Roman Catholics. The defeat of this plot by its discovery was long celebrated publicly on the 5th of November, and still is to some extent privately, by proce ions and the burning in effigy of Guy Fawkes, its principal agent, who was executed. - Gunpowder tea, a fine species of green tea, being a carefully picked hyson, the leaves of which are rolled and rounded so as to have a granular appearance. -White gunpowder, a blasting mixture composed of chlorate of potash, dried ferrocyanide of pota ium, and sugar. It is now rarely used, owing to its liability to explode during manufacture, transportation, etc.