Breech block

“ The breech block must be very strong, and held firmly in place, or the terrific force of the powder would blow it out, wreck the gun and kill those behind it. You see, the breech block really stands a great part of the strain. The powder is between it and the projectile, and there is a sort of warfare to see which will give way—the projectile or the block. In most cases the projectile gracefully bows, so to speak, and skips out of the muzzle of the gun, though sometimes the big breech block will be shattered.
With eager eyes Tom and Ned watched the preparations for firing the big gun. ”

“ By far the most popular principle of the breech block, however, is that of the interrupted thread, shown in Fig. 268, in which the plug, when closed, has its axis in alignment with the axial bore of the gun. Its threads are interrupted by longitudinally arranged channels, and the breech of the gun has corresponding threads and channels. When the plug is pushed into the gun, the screw threads of the plug enter the channels of the breech, and a rotary turn of the screw plug then locks its threads into those of the breech. ”

“ The gun (fig. 10) had a removable breech block having on its front face a coned copper ring which fitted into a coned seating at the breech end of the powder chamber. The breech block was secured by means of a powerful breech screw; a hole was made through the screw so that, in loading, the shell and cartridge could be passed through it after the breech block had been removed. After loading, the block was dropped into its place and the breech screw turned rapidly so that it might jam the block against its seating, and so prevent the escape of powder gas when the gun was fired. ”

“ Inside the casing is the breech, the front end of which is attached rigidly to the barrel, the rear end being in contact with the recoil arm, which is directly operated by the recoil spring lying in a recess in the stock. In the breech is the breech-block, which has three functions: first to guide the new cartridges from the distributer, which passes them from the magazine one by one into the casing, to the firing position in the chamber (i.e. the expanded part of the bore at the rear end of the barrel) ”

“ Light slushing-oil will be used on the different parts of breech mechanisms, including the threads on the block and in the breech recess, in bores of guns, and on all other bright steel or iron surfaces of mobile and seacoast armament, as a preservative when the material is to remain unused for an appreciable length of time. ”

“ The troops on the right of the breach about the same time forced the barricadoes on the top of the narrow line wall, and found their way into the houses that joined it. In many places it was necessary to apply scaling-ladders before the men could get down. At the centre of the main breach there was an excavation below the descent, and a barricado at some feet farther back; here, therefore,240 any who should have descended would have been inclosed as a mark for the enemy, till the way was cleared for them by a flanking fire from a round tower on the right, which took the French in reverse. ”

“ There was the long low main structure, built of timbers and ’dobe, thick-walled, with cool interior and a shaded patio built about a spring. To one side rose a spindling tower at the foot of which crouched the radio shack. On the right was the corrugated-iron hanger, radiating heat like an oven in shimmering heat waves; and towards this the two men made their way.
“You certainly do yourself well here,” said Captain Cornell, looking from the beautifully levelled landing field, with its hanger and piped gas flares for night lighting, to the radio tower and the comfortable ranch house. ”

“ On reaching 267the Ditch, we found it only about six feet high, so we leaped down as quick as possible and made to the Breach with all possible speed, and met with no obstacles. After getting to it, we found ourselves to be the first there; on the front rank getting to the top of it, the Enemy saluted us with a volley of grape shot and shells (the latter they had laid across the top in rows) the explosion of which was so dreadful that I thought we should have been all blown up in the air together.... Some of the Men that had got up to the top came tumbling down, dead as herrings. ”

“ The huts were of the poorest, being mere jumbled collections of shingles and tin or of ’dobe, with here and there a little patch of desert grass enclosed in a rickety picket fence before the more pretentious. As if satisfied with having done its worst, with that last dreadful jouncing given them, the roadway had become a little better. Bob was still keeping his distance of a block behind the leading car. He was wondering whether Ramirez and Ramon were aware of his presence behind them and, if so, whether their suspicions were aroused. ”

“ According to whether the projectile fell into the sand, into the moat, or on to the cement, a yellow, black, or white sheaf rose ten yards high in the air.
Towards evening, we received orders to protect a column of soldiers belonging to the Engineers, whose mission was to destroy the bridges over the Nèthe. Hidden in the fields, we saw figures gliding along by the river. In the darkness of the night, there were five immense glows and five detonations. The bridges had been blown up at Broechem, the cannonading slackened, and flames surrounded the Fort. ”

“ The aggregate number of pellets in the targets from breech-loaders was 170, the penetration 19. The aggregate number of pellets put in by the muzzle-loaders was 231, the penetration 48; and this was effected with a quarter of a drachm of powder less.
Few will doubt that this must be the inevitable result. Force cannot be expended and retained: we “cannot eat our cake and have it.” If force is destroyed by friction, it is as useless as if it had [334] never been generated. So much, then, for the shooting qualities of the breech-loader. ”

“ Nor has any breech-loading weapon hitherto introduced been able to make its way into extensive practical use, although the Americans have constantly used them in their navy for some years past. To return to ancient times.—There is a matchlock in the Tower of London with one barrel and a revolving breech cylinder which was made in the fifteenth century, and there is a pistol on a similar plan, and dating from Henry VIII., which may be seen in the Rotunda at Woolwich. ”

“ To guard against the former, and prevent the besiegers making a lodgment under the walls, at each of the four corners or angles, was erected what was called a block-house—a building which projected beyond the pickets, a few feet above the ground, and enabled the besieged to pour a raking fire across the advanced party of the assailants. Large folding gates, on huge, wooden hinges, in front and rear, opened into the enclosure, through which men, wagons, horses, and domestic cattle, had admittance and exit. ”

“ Captain Folsom bent down, his ear close to the opening whence they had climbed out and up to the surface.
“They’ve found the tunnel, I’m afraid,” he said. “They are coming.”
“Can’t we keep ’em back here?” said Bob, unexpectedly. “We can kick more dirt down into the tunnel. And we can jump down and heave out a lot of those fallen bricks, and so keep the gang back when they arrive.”
“But we couldn’t keep up a defense like that forever,” objected Jack. “Some of them would be bound to go back through the tunnel, swing around, and attack us from the rear. They have weapons, and we haven’t. ”

“ Brecon is delightfully situated upon a gentle swell above the Usk, overlooking a fertile highly-cultivated valley enlivened with numerous seats, and enriched with several sylvan knolls. On one side of the town, beneath the majestic hanging groves of the priory, the impetuous Hondy loudly murmurs, p. 328and unites with the Usk a small distance beyond its handsome bridge. Though the town boasts many capital residences, yet, encumbered by a number of mean hovels even in its principal situations, and deficient in regulations of cleanliness, it fails to create any idea of importance. ”

“ Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight; the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to view. Doubtless there was an outpost farther along. The other bank of the stream was open ground—a gentle slope topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles, with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the bridge. ”

“ Blocks formed in this manner often careen upon their edges, so that the strata may become vertically disposed or quite overturned where the lower formed strata are found on top. Between careened blocks and flexed blocks no line of demarcation can be drawn: the same block in different parts of its course may be bent or broken, and the flexed blocks themselves be quite overturned. The rocks which are upheaved or depressed by faulting and flexing, one or both, are always found to be ruptured in line of the faults or flexures, and also transversely to them. ”

“ If the breach becomes practicable, a storming party will emerge from this tunnel or gallery, and seek to carry the opposite work by hard fighting. If inner works still subsist, which would tear assailants to pieces, the double sap may be continued across the ditch, if a dry ditch, right up the breach, that counter-batteries may be formed. If the ditch be wet, means must be adopted for a causeway or a bridge. By these means, however obstinate may be the defense, if the besieging force be sufficiently strong, and aid do not arrive from without, the ultimate success of the attack becomes certain. ”

“ Big Bob, who had jumped down into the opening, kept tossing out bricks at a furious rate, and Frank joined him and did likewise. Meanwhile, by the light of his matches, aided by the moonlight, which here in the woods, however, was not direct enough to be of any great help, Tom Barnum investigated the ground about the hole.
“As soon as the boys get out o’ there,” he reported to Captain Folsom, “we can all four of us kick down enough dirt to block up the tunnel pretty well. The earth is loose around here. ”

“ Then Frank’s voice hailed them, and he scrambled aboard.
“Nobody along the trail,” he explained as soon as he could recover breath, for he had been running. “But around the bend ahead the canyon broadens out into a rather wide valley, and up above it on a hilltop on the right is a stockade. Our men are in there, and the smugglers are besieging them. The way I could tell the smugglers are outside was by blundering almost on top of a clump of Chinamen directed by ‘Black George.’”
“Guess we better radio Robbins to come up with his men,” said Jack. “Bob and I just completed stringing the aerial. ”

“ Around the center village, blockhouses were built on the forest flank, and at front and rear at points distanced from two to three hundred yards one from the other. Coils of barbed wire were transported over the snow from Bereznik and strung in wire aprons between the strong points. Every blockhouse had an automatic rifle or a machine gun, and some at the more important posts had two, all targeted and trained to lay down a devastating, enfilade fire along the connecting wire barriers. ”

“ A railway line ran here across the rolling hedgeless fields, and just at the point where my companion and I struck it there was a dip in the land and a high embankment which hid the plain beyond; but from that plain beyond one heard the separate fire of the advancing line in its scattered order. We climbed the embankment, and from its ridge we saw over two miles or more of stubble, the little creeping bunches of the attack. ”

“ Culverts are blown on main roads, and a particularly effective blockage is caused in one place by blowing a bridge across a road and stream, so that all the material fell across the road and in the river. ”

“ He had come to the surface facing down the stream; in a moment the visible world seemed to wheel slowly round, himself the pivotal point, and he saw the bridge, the fort, the soldiers upon the bridge, the captain, the sergeant, the two privates, his executioners. They were in silhouette against the blue sky. They shouted and gesticulated, pointing at him. The captain had drawn his pistol, but did not fire; the others were unarmed. Their movements were grotesque and horrible, their forms gigantic. ”

“ But how in the world did you come here?"
"Too long to tell, Dad," whispered Jack. "But have you the key to this door?"
"Key? No."
"Then," said Jack, despairingly, "it looks as if we were balked at the end. This door is too stout to break down without bringing the enemy on us. It's thick and bound with iron straps besides."
"Who is with you?"
"Bob. No. I mean Miss Calomares. She's helping me."
"This is too much for me," declared Mr. Hampton.
"Dad, we'll have to break down the door. The government troops are attacking. Even if we do make a lot of noise, it may go unnoticed. ”

“ At this crisis, Brochard, an engineer officer, devised a plan, as remarkable for its ingenuity as it was perfect in success. His project was to blow down the centre barricade, destroy the cord which communicated with the Portuguese mine, and, in the confusion, which the explosion would be certain to produce, carry the bridge by assault. To place the powder close beneath the palisades, without its being discovered, was both a doubtful and a dangerous attempt; but to the brave nothing is impossible. ”

“ The same phenomenon, of a breccia circumscribing the primary mountains, is met with in Scotland; and the Grampians, wherever they are bounded by secondary strata, whether on the south or north, afford examples of it. The breccia generally consists of the fragments of the primary rock, most commonly rounded, but sometimes also angular, united by a cement of secondary formation, and the whole disposed in horizontal beds. ”