A Rifled Shot

Mr. O. R. Burnham of this city has shown us some shot of a new description. Some of them have four air holes extending from the front of the shot spirally backward and coming out of the sides near the base. The air rushing through these holes is intended to give the shot a spiral motion, even when fired from a sooth-bore gun, and when fired from a rifled gun, to insure its continuous point first, a point in which the Parrott gun is found to be defective. A few of the shots are cylindrical, say three inches thick of metal in an 11-inch shot with a 5-inch hole down the center. Along the sides of this hole are four spiral flanges, extending an inch inward. These shots are to be fired under water at the Merrimac; it is supposed that their form will offer less resistance to the water than the ordinary form in proportion to the weight of the shot. The flanges will certainly give them a rotary motion. The shots shows us were mainly 11-inch, and were shipped for Fortress Monroe yesterday. –{Tribune.

– Published in the Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Friday, April 18, 1862 & the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Saturday April 19, 1862