How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man.
1879, John Fletcher Owen, Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British Service Prepared in the Royal Gun Factory, page 48:
Vent bush . Copper . Steel . Wrought iron . Position . In R.B.L. guns . In S.B. and R.M.L. Having constructed our gun ... the bush is placed at an angle of 45 ° with the perpendicular , and the vent hole will therefore be at the top ...
1883, Sisson Cooper Pratt, Field artillery, page 8:
The strength of the gun - barrel is less affected by a number of shallow grooves than a few deep ones . ... a vent bush or plug of copper , conical in shape , is screwed into a cavity cut in the gun , and contains the vent hole .
1951, Greville Bathe, Ship of Destiny: A Record of the U.S. Steam Frigate Merrimac, 1855-1862
The vent for firing the main charge was a copper or iron bouching ( bush ) screwed into the breech . On the largest guns the vent hole was lined with platinum . The wear on this part of the gun was extreme as the rush of gas at white ...
1877, Great Britain. War Office, Abridged Treatise on the construction and manufacture of ordnance in the British service, page 12:
II . vent hole will therefore be at the top right side in such guns for broadside and garrison service ... It was therefore settled that heavy guns . heavy guns should be rented so that the bush should strike the bore at that † distance ...
