Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 33

Sometimes the factor 27.68 is employed, corresponding to a density of water of about 62.4 lb per cub. ft., and a temperature 12 C., or 54 F.

With metric units, measuring P in kg., and C in litres, the G.D. = P/C, G.V. = C/P, no factor being required.

From the Table I., or by quadrature of the curve in fig. 9, the work E in foot-tons realized by the expansion of 1 lb of the powder from one gravimetric volume to another is inferred; for if the average pressure is p tons per sq. in., while the gravimetric volume changes from v - [Delta]v to v + [Delta]v, a change of volume of 27.73[Delta]v cub. in., the work done is 27.73p[Delta]v inch-tons, or

(7) [Delta]E = 2.31 p[Delta]v foot-tons;

and the differences [Delta]E being calculated from the observed values of p, a summation, as in the ballistic tables, would give E in a tabular form, and conversely from a table of E in terms of v, we can infer the value of p.

On drawing off a little of the gas from the explosion vessel it was found that a gramme of cordite-gas at 0 C. and standard atmospheric pressure occupied 700 ccs., while the same gas compressed into 5 ccs. at the temperature of explosion had a pressure of 16 tons per sq. in., or 16 2240 / 14.7 = 2440 atmospheres, of 14.7 lb per sq. in.; one ton per sq. in.

being in round numbers 150 atmospheres.

The absolute centigrade temperature T is thence inferred from the gas equation

(8) R = pv / T = p_0v_0/273,

which, with p = 2440, v = 5, p_0 = 1, v_0 = 700, makes T = 4758, a temperature of 4485 C. or 8105 F.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 9.]

In the heading of the 6-in. range table we find the description of the charge.

Charge: weight 13 lb 4 oz.; gravimetric density 55.01/0.504; nature, cordite, size 30.

So that P = 13.25, the G.D. = 0.504, the upper figure 55.01 denoting the specific volume of the charge measured in cubic inches per lb, filling the chamber in a state of gas, the product of the two numbers 55.01 and 0.504 being 27.73; and the chamber capacity C = 13.25 55.01 = 730 cub. in., equivalent to 25.8 in. or 2.15 ft. length of bore, now called the equivalent length of the chamber (E.L.C.).

If the shot was not free to move, the closed chamber pressure due to the explosion of the charge at this G.D. (= 0.5) would be nearly 49 tons per sq. in., much too great to be safe.

But the shot advances during the combustion of the cordite, and the chief problem in interior ballistics is to adjust the G.D. of the charge to the weight of the shot so that the advance of the shot during the combustion of the charge should prevent the maximum pressure from exceeding a safe limit, as shown by the maximum ordinate of the pressure curve CPD in fig. 3.

Suppose this limit is fixed at 16 tons per sq. in., corresponding in Table 1. to a G.D., 0.2; the powder-gas will now occupy a volume b = 3/2 C = 1825 cub. in., corresponding to an advance of the shot 3/2 2.15 = 3.225 ft.

a.s.suming an average pressure of 8 tons per sq. in., the shot will have acquired energy 8 [pi]d^2 3.225 = 730 foot-tons, and a velocity about v = 1020 f/s, so that the time over the 3.225 ft. at an average velocity 510 f/s is about 0.0063 sec.

Comparing this time with the experimental value of the time occupied by the cordite in burning, a start is made for a fresh estimate and a closer approximation.

a.s.suming, however, that the agreement is close enough for practical requirement, the combustion of the cordite may be considered complete at this stage P, and in the subsequent expansion it is a.s.sumed that the gas obeys an adiabatic law in which the pressure varies inversely as some m^{th} power of the volume.

The work done in expanding to infinity from p tons per sq. in. [v.03 p.0278] at volume b cub. in. is then pb/(m - 1) inch-tons, or to any volume B cub. in. is

(9) pb/{m - 1}[1 - (b/B)^{m-1}]

It is found experimentally that m = 1.2 is a good average value to take for cordite; so now supposing the combustion of the charge of the 6-in. is complete in 0.0063 sec., when p = 16 tons per sq. in., b = 1825 cub. in., and that the gas expands adiabatically up to the muzzle, where

(10) B/b = (216 + 25.8)/(2.5 25.8) = 3.75

we find the work realized by expansion is 2826 foot-tons, sufficient to increase the velocity from 1020 to 2250 f/s at the muzzle.

This muzzle velocity is about 5% greater than the 2150 f/s of the range table, so on these considerations we may suppose about 10% of work is lost by friction in the bore: this is expressed by saying that the _factor of effect_ is f = 0.9.

The experimental determination of the time of burning under the influence of the varying pressure and density, and the size of the grain, is thus of great practical importance, as thereby it is possible to estimate close limits to the maximum pressure that will be reached in the bore of a gun, and to design the chamber so that the G.D. of the charge may be suitable for the weight and acceleration of the shot. Empirical formulas based on practical experience are employed for an approximation to the result.

A great change has come over interior ballistics in recent years, as the old black gunpowder has been abandoned in artillery after holding the field for six hundred years. It is replaced by modern explosives such as those indicated on fig. 4, capable of giving off a very much larger volume of gas at a greater temperature and pressure, more than threefold as seen on fig.

8, so that the charge may be reduced in proportion, and possessing the military advantage of being nearly smokeless. (See EXPLOSIVES.)

The explosive cordite is adopted in the British service; it derives the name from its appearance as cord in short lengths, the composition being squeezed in a viscous state through the hole in a die, and the cordite is designated in size by the number of hundredths of an inch in the diameter of the hole. Thus the cordite, size 30, of the range table has been squeezed through a hole 0.30 in. diameter.

The thermochemical properties of the const.i.tuents of an explosive will a.s.sign an upper limit to the volume, temperature and pressure of the gas produced by the combustion; but much experiment is required in addition.

Sir Andrew n.o.ble has published some of his results in the _Phil. Trans._, 1905-1906 and following years.

AUTHORITIES.--Tartaglia, _Nova Scientia_ (1537); Galileo (1638); Robins, _New Principles of Gunnery_ (1743); Euler (trans. by Hugh Brown), _The True Principles of Gunnery_ (1777); Didion, Helie, Hugoniot, Vallier, Baills, &c., _Balistique_ (French); Siacci, _Balistica_ (Italian); Mayevski, Zabudski, _Balistique_ (Russian); La Llave, Ollero, Mata, &c., _Balistica_ (Spanish); Bashforth, _The Motion of Projectiles_ (1872); _The Bashforth Chronograph_ (1890); Ingalls, _Exterior and Interior Ballistics, Handbook of Problems in Direct and Indirect Fire_; Bruff, _Ordnance and Gunnery_; Cranz, _Compendium der Ballistik_ (1898); _The Official Text-Book of Gunnery_ (1902); Charbonnier, _Balistique_ (1905); Lissak, _Ordnance and Gunnery_ (1907).

(A. G. G.)

BALLOON, a globular bag of varnished silk or other material impermeable to air, which, when inflated with gas lighter than common air, can be used in aeronautics, or, according to its size, &c., for any purpose for which its ability to rise and float in the atmosphere adapts such a mechanism.

"Balloon" in this sense was first used in 1783 in connexion with the invention of the brothers Montgolfier, but the word was in earlier use (derived from Ital. _ballone_, a large ball) as meaning an actual ball or ball-game, a primitive explosive bomb or firework, a form of chemical retort or receiver, and an ornamental globe in architecture; and from the appearance and shape of an air balloon the word is also given by a.n.a.logy to other things, such as a "balloon skirt" in dress, "balloon training" in horticulture. (See AERONAUTICS, and FLIGHT AND FLYING).

BALLOT (from Ital. _ballotta_, dim. of _balla_, a ball), the modern method of secret-voting employed in political, legislative and judicial a.s.semblies, and also in the proceedings of private clubs and corporations.

The name comes from the use of a little ball dropped according to choice into the right receptacle; but nowadays it is used for any system of secret-voting, even though no such ball is employed. In ancient Athens, the dicasts, in giving their verdict, generally used b.a.l.l.s of stone (_psephi_) or of metal (_sponduli_). Those pierced in the centre, or black in colour, signified condemnation; those unpierced, or white, signified acquittal. The boxes were variously arranged; but generally a bra.s.s box received both cla.s.ses of votes, and a wooden box received the unused b.a.l.l.s. In the a.s.sembly, cases of _privilegia_, such as ostracism, the naturalization of foreigners or the release of state-debtors, were decided by secret-voting.

The petalism, or voting by words on olive-leaves, practised at Syracuse, may also be mentioned. At Rome the ballot was introduced to the comitia by the _Leges Tabellariae_, of which the _Lex Gabiana_ (139 B.C.) relates to the election of magistrates, the _Lex Ca.s.sia_ (137 B.C.) to _judicia populi_, and the _Lex Papiria_ (131 B.C.) to the enactment and repeal of laws. The wooden _tabellae_, placed in the _cista_ or wicker box, were marked U. R. (_uti rogas_) and A. (_antiquo_) in the case of a proposed law; L. (_libero_) and D. (_d.a.m.no_) in the case of a public trial; in the case of an election, _puncta_ were made opposite the names or initials of the candidates. _Tabellae_ were also used by the Roman judices, who expressed their verdict or judgment by the letters A. (_absolvo_), C.

(_condemno_), and N. L. (_non liquet_). In modern times voting by ballot is usually by some form of writing, but the use of the ball still persists (especially in clubs), and a "black ball" is the regular term for a hostile vote.

_Great Britain_.--In Great Britain the ballot was suggested for use in parliament by a political tract of the time of Charles II. It was actually used by the Scots parliament of 1662 in proceeding on the Billeting Act, a measure proposed by Middleton to secure the ostracism of Lauderdale and other political opponents who were by secret-vote declared incapable of public office. The plan followed was this: each member of parliament wrote, in a disguised hand, on a piece of paper, the names of twelve suspected persons; the billets were put in a bag held by the registrar; the bag was then sealed, and was afterwards opened and its contents ascertained in the exchequer chamber, where the billets were immediately burned and the names of the ostracised concealed on oath. The Billeting Act was repudiated by the king, and the ballot was not again heard of till 1705, when Fletcher of Saltoun, in his measure for a provisional government of Scotland by annual parliaments in the event of Queen Anne's death, proposed secret-voting to protect members from court influence. The gradual emanc.i.p.ation of the British parliament from the power of the crown, and the adoption of a strictly representative system of election, not only destroyed whatever reason may once have existed for the ballot in deliberative voting, but rendered it essential that such voting should be open. It was in the agitations for parliamentary reform at the beginning of the 19th century that the demand for the ballot in parliamentary elections was first seriously made. The Benthamites advocated the system in 1817. At the so-called Peterloo Ma.s.sacre (1819) several banners were inscribed with the ballot. O'Connell introduced a bill on the subject in 1830; and the original draft of Lord John Russell's Reform Bill, probably on the suggestion of Lords Durham and Duncannon, provided for its introduction.

Later on the historian Grote became its chief supporter in the House of Commons; and from 1833 to 1839, in spite of the ridicule cast by Sydney Smith on the "mouse-trap," and on Grote's "dagger-box, in which you stab the card of your favourite candidate with a dagger,"[1] the minority for the ballot increased from 106 to 217. In 1838 the ballot was the fourth point of the People's Charter. In the same year the abolition of the land qualification introduced rich commercial candidates to the const.i.tuencies.

Lord Melbourne's cabinet declared the question open. The cause, upheld by Macaulay, Ward, Hume (in his resolutions, 1848) and Berkeley, was strengthened by the report of Lord Hartington's Select Committee [v.03 p.0279] (15th March 1870), to the effect that corruption, treating and intimidation by priests and landlords took place to a large extent at both parliamentary and munic.i.p.al elections in England and Ireland; and that the ballot, if adopted, would probably not only promote tranquillity at elections, but protect voters from undue influence, and introduce greater freedom and purity in voting, provided secrecy was made inviolable except in cases where a voter was found guilty of bribery, or where an invalid vote had been given.

Meanwhile in Australia the ballot had been introduced by the Const.i.tution Act of South Australia (1856), and in other colonies at the same date. In South Australia (Electoral Act of 1858) the returning-officer put his initials on the voting-card, which the voter was directed, under pain of nullity, to fold so that the officer might not see the vote which was indicated by a cross. In Victoria, under the Electoral Act of 1865, the officer added to his initials a number corresponding to the voter's number on the register. In Tasmania the chief peculiarity was that (as in South Australia) the card was not put directly by the voter into the box, but handed to the officer, who put it there (this being thought a security against double-voting or voting with a non-official card, and also against the voter carrying away his card). In 1869, at Manchester and Stafford in England, test-ballots were taken on the Australian system as practised in Victoria--the voting-card containing the names of all the candidates, printed in different colours (for the benefit of illiterate voters), and the voter being directed to score out the names of those he did not support, and then to place the card (covered by an official envelope) in the box. It was found at Manchester that the voting was considerably more rapid, and therefore less expensive, than under the old system; that only 80 cards out of 11,475 were rejected as informal; and that, the representatives of candidates being present to check false statements of ident.i.ty, and the public outside being debarred from receiving information what voters had voted, the ballot rather decreased the risk of personation.

At Manchester the cards were not numbered consecutively, as in Victoria, so that (a.s.suming the officials to be free from corruption) no scrutiny could have detected by whom particular votes were given. At Stafford the returning-officer stamped each card before giving it to the voter, the die of the stamp having been finished only on the morning of the election. By this means the possibility was excluded of what was known as "the Tasmanian Dodge," by which a corrupt voter gave to the returning-officer, or placed in the box, a blank non-official ticket, and carried out from the booth his official card, which a corrupt agent then marked for his candidate, and gave so marked to corrupt voter No. 2 (before he entered the booth) on condition that he also would bring out his official card, and so on _ad libitum_; the agent thus obtaining a security for his bribe, unless the corrupt voter chose to disfranchise himself by making further marks on the card. At the close of 1870 the ballot was employed in the election of members for the London School Board under the Education Act of that year.

In 1872 W. E. Forster's Ballot Act introduced the ballot in all parliamentary and munic.i.p.al elections, except parliamentary elections for universities; and the code of procedure prescribed by the act was adopted by the Scottish Education Board in the first School Board election (1873) under the Education (Scotland) Act 1872. The Ballot Act not only abolished public nominations of candidates, but dealt with the offence of personation and the expenses of elections.

As practised in the United Kingdom, a white paper is used on which the names of the candidates are printed in alphabetical order, the voter filling up with a X the blank on the right-hand opposite the name he votes for. The paper, before being given out, is marked by the presiding-officer on both sides with an official stamp, which is kept secret, and cannot be used for a second election within seven years. The paper is marked on the back with the same number as the counterfoil of the paper which remains with the officer. This counterfoil is also marked with the voter's number on the register, so that the vote may be identified on a scrutiny; and a mark on the register shows that the voter has received a ballot-paper. The voter folds up the paper so as to conceal his mark, but to show the stamp to the officer, and deposits it in the box, which is locked and sealed, and so constructed that papers cannot be withdrawn without unlocking it. Papers inadvertently spoiled by the voters may be exchanged, the officer preserving separately the spoiled papers. If a voter is incapacitated from blindness, or other physical cause, or makes before the officer a declaration of inability to read, or when the poll is on a Sat.u.r.day declares himself a Jew, the officer causes the paper to be marked as the voter directs, and keeps a record of the transaction. A voter who claims to vote after another has voted in respect of the same qualification, obtains a (green) paper which is not placed in the box, but preserved apart as a "tendered" paper. He must, however, declare his ident.i.ty and that he has not already voted. The presiding-officer at the close of the poll has to account to the returning-officer for the papers entrusted to him, the number being made up by--(1) papers in the box, (2) spoiled papers, (3) unused papers and (4) tendered papers. During the voting (for which schoolrooms and other public rooms are available, and for which a separate compartment must be provided for every 150 electors ent.i.tled to vote at a station) agents of candidates are allowed to be present in the polling-station, but they, as well as the officials, are sworn to secrecy as regards who have voted, and for whom; and they are prohibited from interfering with the voter, inducing him to show his vote, or attempting to ascertain the number on the back of the paper. These agents are also present with the returning-officer when he counts the papers and the votes, rejecting those papers--(1) which want the official mark _on the back_; (2) on which votes are given for more candidates than the voter is ent.i.tled to vote for; (3) on which anything except the number on the back is marked or written by which the voter can be identified; (4) which are unmarked, or so marked that it is uncertain for whom the vote is given. The counted and rejected papers, and also the "tendered" papers, counterfoils and marked register (which have not been opened), are, in parliamentary elections, transmitted by the returning officer to the clerk of the crown in chancery in England, or the sheriff-clerk in Scotland, who destroys them at the end of one year, unless otherwise directed by an order of the House of Commons, or of some court having jurisdiction in election pet.i.tions. Such pet.i.tions either simply dispute the accuracy of the return on the ground of miscounting, or wrongous rejection or wrongous admission of papers, in which case the court examines the counted and rejected papers; or make allegations of corruption, &c. on which it may be necessary to refer to the marked counterfoils and ascertain how bribed voters have voted. Since the elections of 1874 much discontent has been expressed, because judges have rejected papers with trifling (perhaps accidental) marks other than the X upon them, and because elections have been lost through the failure of the officer to stamp the papers. For this purpose the use has been suggested of a perforating instead of an embossing stamp, while a dark-ground paper with white voting-s.p.a.ces would make _misplaced_ votes impossible.

The Ballot Act introduced several new offences, such as forging of papers or fraudulently defacing or destroying a paper or the official mark; supplying a paper without due authority; fraudulently putting into the box a non-official paper; fraudulently taking a paper out of the station without due authority; destroying, taking, opening or otherwise interfering with a box or packet of papers then in use for election purposes. These offences and attempts to commit them are punishable in the case of officers and clerks with imprisonment for two years, with or without hard labour. In other cases the term of imprisonment is six months.

The ballot was long criticized as leading to universal hypocrisy and deception; and Sydney Smith spoke of "voters, in dominos, going to the poll in sedan-chairs with closely-drawn curtains." The observed effect of a secret ballot has been, however, gradually to exterminate undue influence.

The alarm of "the confessional" seems to be unfounded, as a Catholic penitent is not bound to [v.03 p.0280] confess his vote, and if he did so, it would be a crime in the confessor to divulge it.

_Continental Europe._--The ballot is largely employed in European countries. In France, where from 1840 to 1845 the ballot, or _scrutin_, had been used for deliberative voting in the chamber of deputies, its use in elections to the Corps Legislatif was carefully regulated at the beginning of the Second Empire by the Organic Decree of the 2nd of February 1852.

Under this law the voting was superintended by a bureau consisting of the deputy returning-officer (called president of the section), four unpaid a.s.sessors selected from the const.i.tuency and a secretary. Each voter presents a polling-card, with his designation, date of birth and signature (to secure ident.i.ty), which he had previously got at the Mairie. This the president mutilates, and the vote is then recorded by a "bulletin," which is not official, but is generally printed with a candidate's name, and given to the voter by an agent outside, the only conditions being that the bulletin shall be "sur papier blanc, sans signes exterieurs, et prepare en dehors de l'a.s.semblee." The total number of votes given (there being only one member in each electoral district) is checked by reference to "la feuille _d'appel_ et inscription des votants," the law still supposing that each voter is publicly called on to vote. If the voter, when challenged, cannot sign his polling-card, he may call a witness to sign for him. The following cla.s.ses of bulletins are rejected:--"illisibles, blancs, ne contenant pas une designation suffisante; sur lesquels les votants se sont fait connaitre; contenant le nom d'une personne n'ayant pas prete le serment prescrit" (_i.e._ of a person not nominated). Only the votes p.r.o.nounced bad by the bureau in presence of representative scrutineers are preserved, in case these should be called for during the "Session pour verification des Pouvoirs." Practically the French ballot did not afford secrecy, for you might observe what bulletin the voter took from the agent, and follow him up the _queue_ into the polling-place; but the determined voter might conceal his vote even from the undue influence of government by scratching out the printed matter and writing his vote. This was always a good vote and scrutiny of good votes was impossible. The ballot is still used in the elections to the National a.s.sembly, but in the a.s.sembly itself only in special cases, as _e.g._ in the election of a "rapporteur." Under the law of 10th August 1871 the conseils generaux (departmental councils) are elected by ballot.

In Piedmont the ballot formed part of the free const.i.tutional government introduced by Charles Albert in March 1848; it was extended to Italy in 1861. Voting for the Italian chamber of deputies takes place under the law of 20th November 1859, and in public halls (not booths), to which admission is gained by showing a certificate of inscription, issued by the mayor to each qualified voter. A stamped blue official paper, with a memorandum of the law printed on the back (_bolletino spiegato_), is then issued to the elector; on this he writes the name of a candidate (there being equal electoral colleges) or, in certain exceptional cases, gets a confidential friend to do so, and hands the paper folded-up to the president of the bureau, who puts it in the box (_urna_), and who afterwards presides at the public "squittinio dei suffragi." Greece is the only European country in which the ball-ballot is used. The voting takes place in the churches, each candidate has a box on which his name is inscribed, one half (white) being also marked "yes," the other half (black) "no." The voter, his citizens.h.i.+p or right to vote in the eparchy being verified, receives one ball or leaden bullet for each candidate from a wooden bowl, which a clerk carries from box to box. The voter stretches his arm down a funnel, and drops the ball into the "yes" or "no" division. The vote is secret, but there is apparently no check on "yes" votes being given for all the candidates, and the ball or bullet is imitable.

The earlier history of the ballot in Hungary is remarkable. Before 1848 secret voting was unknown there. The electoral law of that year left the regulation of parliamentary elections to the county and town councils, very few of which adopted the ballot. The mode of voting was perhaps the most primitive on record. Each candidate had a large box with his name superscribed and painted in a distinguis.h.i.+ng colour. On entering the room alone the voter received a rod from _4 to 6 feet in length_ (to prevent concealment of non-official rods on the voter's person), which he placed in the box through a slit in the lid. By the electoral law of 1874 the ballot in parliamentary elections in Hungary was abolished, but was made obligatory in the elections of town and county councils, the voting being for several persons at once.

In Prussia, Stein, by his _Stadteordnung_, or munic.i.p.al corporation act of 1808, introduced the ballot in the election of the munic.i.p.al a.s.sembly (_Stadtverordnetenversammlung_). Under the German const.i.tution of 1867, and the new const.i.tution of the 1st of January 1871, the elections of the Reichstag were to be conducted by universal suffrage under the ballot in conformity with the electoral law of the 31st of May 1869.

_America._--At the first elections in America voting was viva voce; but several of the colonies early provided for the use of written or printed ballots. By 1775 ballots were used in the New England states, in Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina and South Carolina; they were introduced in New Jersey in 1776, and in New York in 1778, so that, at the time the const.i.tution of the United States was adopted, viva voce voting prevailed at public elections only in Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. Of the new states which later entered the Union, only Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas did not have a ballot system when they became states.

During the first half of the 19th century, Maryland, Georgia, Arkansas (1846) and Illinois (1848) adopted the ballot. In Missouri ballot-voting was introduced to some localities in 1845, but not until 1863 was it generally adopted in that state. Virginia did not provide for voting by ballot until 1869, and in Kentucky viva voce voting continued until 1819, but while the use of ballots was thus required in voting, and most of the states had laws prescribing the form of ballots and providing for the count of the vote, there was no provision making it the duty of any one to print and distribute the ballots at the polling-places on election day. In the primitive town meetings ballots had been written by the voters, or, if printed, were furnished by the candidates. With the development of elections, the task of preparing and distributing ballots fell to political committees for the various parties. The ballot-tickets were thus prepared for party-lists of candidates, and it was not easy for any one to vote a mixed ticket, while, as the voter received the ballot within a few feet of the polls, secrecy was almost impossible, and intimidation and bribery became both easy and frequent.