Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

C H B, pseud.  [Charles H Bennett] *

Subjects:

Military Technology, Expertise

    The initial letter forms part of an illustration showing three breech-loading guns, two of which stand on small human legs and have military hats over their barrels, while the third gun hangs on a nail with its barrel open. The article describes Mr Punch's visit to a camp at Wimbledon where he inspected the skills of riflemen. Notes how Mr Punch held 'some conversation with himself on the subject of the needle-gun [a new type of rifle invented by Johann N von Dreyse in Prussia] and breechloaders in general' and concluded that the 'ramrod' would be scarce in the following year's meeting at Wimbledon. Later notes Mr Punch's explanation of the greater efficiency of a breech-loader compared with a muzzle-loader.