subsequently developed, Kutter's arm was the veritable rifle, and to him, therefore, so far as history shows, is due the invention of this terrible weapon, which reduces the flight of the projectile to a question of the individual skill of the marksman. The spiral groove gives to the bullet, if it fits into the grooves, a rotation rapid in propor tion to the force of the explosion and the sharpness of the twist in the spiral. This revolution of the bullet on its own axis keeps that axis, gravity excepted, in the line in which it leaves the piece. In 1628 Arnold Rotsiphen patented a new way of "makeing gonnes," which, from a subsequent patent granted him in 1635 appears to have con sisted, among other improvements, in rifling the barrels. It would be tedious to enume. rate the various principles of rifling which were tried during the two centuries following Rotsiphen-suffice it to say that scarcely a form of rifling now prevails but had its prototype among the old inventions. The difficulty of mechanical appliances making the rifling true, deferred, however, their general introduction, and the cost of rifled arms limited their use to the purposes of the chase. The revolutionary government of France had rifles issued to portions of their troops, but they met with so indifferent a success that Napoleon recalled them soon after he came to power. In the peninsula, however, picked companies of sharpshooters practiced with rifles with deadly effect on both the English and French sides. During the American war, 1812-14, the Americans demonstrated incontestably the value of rifles in warfare; but many years were yet to elapse before they were definitively placed in the hands of soldiers, many of those of every nation in the Crimea having fought with the ineffective and almost ridiculous "Brown Bess." Soon after the French invaded Algeria, they had armed the chasseurs d'Orleans with rifles, to counteract the superior range of the Arab guns. The inutility of the old musket was shown in a battle during the Kaffir war, where the British discharged 80,000 cartridges, and the loss of the enemy was 25 men struck. After experiments with the old musket, it was found that its aim had no certainty whatever beyond 100 yards. It was soon discovered that a spherical ball was not the best missile; one in which the longer axis coincided with the axis of the gun flying truer the relative length of the axis and the shape of the head being matters of dispute. The first war-rifle was that of capt. Delvigne, proposed in 1826, and adopted for a few men in the French army; but this still included the old and rude plan of forcing the leaden ball through the grooves by blows of the ramrod, it being of course requisite that the projectile should occupy the grooves tightly. In 1842 col. Thouvenin invented a carabine à tige, in which the breech had a small pillar screwed into it, round which the powder lay, and on the end of which the bullet rested, its base being flattened out by the force of the ramrod. Col. Delvigne added a conical bullet to this rifle, and the combined invention was issued to the chasseurs d'Afrique in 1846. See illus., GUNS, vol. VII., p. 166, fig. 13. But the tige, or pillar, became bent by usage, and was found otherwise objectionable. It was superseded by using with a grooved barrel the minie bullet, which, being made smaller than the bore of the piece, could be almost dropped into the barrel. It was of lead, and in its base it contained a conical recess, to receive the apex of a smaller iron cup. The force of the explosion drove this cup into the bullet, causing the lead to expand into the grooves of the barrel. (It is right, however, to state that this contrivance is claimed for a Mr. Greener as early as 1836.) The Prussians, meanwhile, had armed their troops with the needle-rifle (Zündnadelgewehr), now superseded by the Mauser. In England, however, no improvement took place until 1851, when 28,000 rifled muskets to fire the minie bullet were ordered to be issued. Notwithstanding the many advantages of the minie system, it was found defective in practice. In 1853 was produced the Enfield rifle, which had three grooves, taking one complete turn in 78 in., and fired a bullet resembling the minie, except that a wooden plug was substituted for the iron cup. From 1853 to 1865 this was the weapon of the British army. In 1865 the adoption of breech-loading arms (q.v.) caused the Enfield to be converted into a breech-loader by fitting the "Snider" breech mechanism to the Enfield barrel. See illus., GUNS, vol. VII., p. 166, figs. 15-17. This arrangement was, however, only temporary, and after a most exhaustive series of trials before a special committee on breech-loading rifles, the Henry barrel was in 1871 adopted in conjunction with the Martini breech for the new small-bore rifle for the British army, now known as the Martini-Henry rifle. No fewer than 104 different kinds of breech-loading small-arms were submitted to this committee, who decided that the Henry 45-in. bore barrel "was the best adapted for the requirements of the service," on account of its "superiority in point of accuracy, trajectory, allowance for wind, and and penetration," and also on account of its great durability. The Henry system of rifing the invention of Mr. Alexander Henry, gunmaker, Edinburgh, and its essential peculiarity consists in the form of the rifled bore.

The rifling represents a septilateral figure with angular projections extending inwards from the angles of the planes. In other words, the rifling forms 7 plane sur faces, and the periphery of the projectile touches the planes at the center. In addition to the bearing surfaces thus obtained, there are 7 angular projections which extend inward from the planes, so that the apex of each of the projections is concentric with the center of the surfaces of its contiguous planes. These seven ridges thus afford a further bearing or support to the projectile, and by this means double the points of bearing are obtained. These angular ridges fill up to a great extent the spaces between the

Rigging.

angles of the planes and the periphery of the projectile, thus reducing the windage, and from their peculiar construction facilitating the expansion of the bullet to the major diameter of the bore, so that the rotatory or spiral motion of the projectile is obtained with greater certainty; at the same time, the figure of the projectile is so little altered that it traverses through the air with less resistance, and consequently its flight is rendered more accurate.

The length of the Henry barrel is 324 inches. The mean diameter of the bore is.450 of an inch, and the rifling takes one complete turn in 22 inches. Its bullet is solid, with a slight cavity in the rear, and weighs 480 grains, the charge of powder being 85 grains. The range, accuracy, and penetration of the "Henry" barrel is nearly twice that of the present Enfield-Snider barrel, while the highest point of its trajectory at 500 yards is 2 ft. lower, or 9 ft. as compared with 11 ft. The maximum range of the Henry barrel is 3200 yards at an angle of 28° 15'.

The Lebel rifle, now used by the French infantry, resembles in general appearance the Hotchkiss repeating arm, used in the U. S. navy; but the magazine of the Lebel is under the barrel, and carries 8 cartridges; the case of the Hotchkiss is in the stock, and carries 7 cartridges. The minimum caliber of the piece is .3142 in.; the maximum, .3228; the total weight of the piece, with full magazine, 9.713 lbs. The sight is graduated for a range of 2187 yds. The bullet is 1.181 in. in length, weighs 231.48 grains, and will pierce over 15 ins. of solid oak at a distance of nearly 220 yds. from the muzzle of the gun.

As with small-arms, so with cannon, rifling is no new discovery. In the museum at St. Petersburg is a cannon which was rifled in nine grooves as early as 1615. In 1661 the Prussians experimented with a gun rifled in 13 shallow grooves. By 1696 the Germans had tried elliptical bores. From thence till 1833, many attempts were made to rifle cannon, with more or less success. In 1833 and 1836, M. Montigny of Brussels tried rifled guns with considerable success. In 1845 col. Cavalli of the Sardinian service commenced experiments with his rifled cannon: two Swedish officersbaron Wahrendorf and lieut. Engstroem-next produced rifled cannon; but none of these systems were permanently adopted. The Crimean war set inventors vigorously at work, and many admirable guns have resulted from their attempts, the great diffi culty of the day being to decide which is most effectual. The first point was the metal; and here cast-iron was found quite useless, being incapable of resisting the explosion of the large charges necessary to force closely fitting projectiles through rifled barrels. Several plans were resorted to. Sir William Armstrong welds coils of wrought iron round a mandrel into one homogeneous mass of extraordinary tenacity, which he again strengthens by similar rings round the breech. Mr. Whitworth forces rings of wrought-iron over the barrel by hydraulic pressure; capt. Blakely strengthens a barrel of longitudinal bars welded together by shrinking wrought-iron bands over it. The French rifle brass guns, and use small charges; having also guns of wrought-iron. The Austrians have made a new bronze alloy, which has proved extremely strong; the Belgians have tried Bessemer's steel. The system of rifling was the next important matter. Mr. Lancaster adhered to his oval bore; sir William Armstrong produced a bore rifled in a great number of small sharo grooves (this gun was adopted by the British govern. ment); Mr. Whitworth retained a hexagonal bore; and the French government adopted a bore with two, and subsequently three rather deep spiral grooves. After careful experiments, the Austrian, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian governments have concurred in the French system. In the Armstrong the rotation is communicated to the projectile by the latter being cased with lead, which the explosion forces into the grooves. The numerous fine grooves impart a very correct centering to the shot, and give extreme accuracy of range; but they render the gun a delicate weapon. In the Whitworth the shot is constructed to pass freely through the spiral hexagonal bore, windage being prevented by a greased wad. Lancaster's shot are elliptical to correspond with the bore. The French projectiles have ribs of projecting metal to correspond to the grooves. To sum up the Armstrong gun is the most accurate; that and the Whitworth have the longest range, each having attained 5 m.; the Lancaster fouls least; the French is simplest, and can fire ordinary cannon-balls, canister, or case.

The Armstrong gun was officially adopted into the British service in 1859, as the best weapon then known, but it has been superseded by an improved version known as the Woolwich gun, a modified form of the French rifling. See SHELL AND SHOT.

The Americans have several types of rifled ordnance. Krupp's cannon are famous over the world. The gatling, mitrailleuse, and Nordenfeldt gun are rifled machine guns, and may be described as either single or many barreled, with a cartridge feeding, firing, and extracting arrangement, which permits of a continuous rain of bullets, either of the ordinary rifle caliber, or, as with the Nordenfeldt naval pattern, of an inch or so in diame ter, capable of piercing the sides of torpedo-boats. The machine is mounted for field service on a wheeled carriage, with a large supply of ammunition. The Maxim automatic gun, used in Germany, Russia, and France, is capable of firing 750 shots a minute. See REVOLVER; SHOT; SHELLS; FIRE-ARMS; CANNON; illus., GUNS, vol. VII., p. 166. RIFLEMEN are troops armed with rifles, and employed more or less as sharpshooters. The name has nearly lost all meaning, for the whole infantry are now riflemen. See VOLUNTEERS.

RIGA, a most important seaport of Russia, capital of Livonia, and the center of administration for the three Baltic provinces, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland, stands mainly on the right bank of the Dwina, 5 m. from the mouth of that river, in the gulf of Riga. It is 376 m. s. w. of St. Petersburg, and is the terminus of a railway to Moscow, which again connects it with the Volga, and thus with the Caspian sea, bringing to Riga a considerable portion of the trade with the interior, and still more remote_parts of Russia. A junction with the St. Petersburg and Berlin railway places this Baltic port in direct communication with the rest of Europe. From the steeple of St. Peter's church, said to be the highest in the empire, a full view of the situation of the city is obtained. Riga contains a number of striking and handsome public buildings, of which the castle, or dom, built in 1204, now the residence of the governor-general of the three Baltic provinces, is the chief. The Dwina is crossed by a bridge of boats, 800 paces long, of which the boats in the middle are movable, to allow of the passage of vessels, and which is entirely removed in winter. The old town is dark and gloomy, and shows all the main features of a German town of the middle ages; but the extensive suburbs are modern and handsome, and the whole is defended by ramparts, bastions, and other fortified works. Riga is the second trading town in Russia. It contains numerous soap, candle, glass, and iron works; cloth, leather, sugar, and tobacco factories, and rope-walks. Shipbuilding is extensively carried on in the town and vicinity. The principal articles of export are flax, hemp, linseed, corn, timber, tallow, and tobacco. In 1871 the exports amounted in value to £6,473,154; the imports, to £2,867,218. The total number of vessels which entered the port was 2,396, of tonnage 559,727, and the same number cleared it; of these, 580, measuring 227,425 tons, were British. Pop. '80, 168,850.

Riga was founded in the beginning of the 13th c. by Albert Buckshoevden, bishop of Livonia, and soon became a first-rate commercial town, and member of the Hanseatic league. The Teutonic knights possessed it in the 16th century. In 1621 Riga was taken by Gustavus Adolphus, and held under Swedish dominion till 1710, but was finally annexed to Russia in 1721.

RIGA, GULF OF, an inlet in the n.e. of the Baltic sea, washes the shores of the three Baltic provinces, Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. It is over 100 m. in length from n. to s., and is about 70 m. in breadth. The islands of Oesel, Dagö, Mohn, and Worms stand in the entrance to it, and narrow the mouth of the gulf to a passage about 20 m. in width. The chief river which falls into the gulf is the Dwina. Sand-banks render navigation in some parts dangerous.

RIGDON, SIDNEY, 1793–1876; b. Penn.; received for publication while a printer at Pittsburg in 1812, a manuscript of a strange fiction in antique style, from Solomon Spaulding, a preacher noted for mental peculiarities, entitled The Manuscript Found, or The Book of Mormon. He made a copy before returning it to Spaulding, who soon after died. In 1817 Rigdon left the printing office, became a preacher of peculiar doctrines similar to those which afterward appeared in the book of Mormon. In 1829 he became associated with Joseph Smith, and they arranged to publish the book of MorWhen it appeared it was claimed by the widow as Spaulding's last work. Rigdon accompanied Smith to Kirtland, Ohio, to Missouri, and Nauvoo, where he was made one of the three presidents of the new church. After the death of Smith he aspired to succeed him as the head of the church, but Brigham Young was chosen. Rigdon refusing to acknowledge his authority was excommunicated for contumacy, returned to Pittsburg, where he died in obscurity.

mon.

RIGGING, in a ship, is a combination of very numerous ropes to afford stability to the masts, and to lower and hoist the sails. Notwithstanding the complication which the cordage of a rigged ship presents at first sight to the eye, the arrangement is remarkably simple. In all substantial points, the rig of each mast is the same; to understand one is, consequently, to understand all. In the accompanying diagram, spars are shown by capital letters; sails, by italic letters; standing rigging, by Roman numerals; and running rigging, by Arabic numerals. To avoid a confusing number of symbols and needless repetition, the corresponding ropes, etc., on each mast bear the same numbers, and in the key, the name of such rope per se is only given. To find the full title of a rope, it is necessary to prefix (unless it pertain to the bowsprit or gaff) the name of the mast (mizzen, main, or fore) to which it belongs. For example, the spars marked D are, counting from the left, i.e., the stern, called respectively mizzen-royal-mast, main-royalmast, and fore-royal-mast; the standing-ropes marked IV, are the mizzen-stay, main-stay, and fore-stay; and the running-ropes bearing the figure 5, are mizzen-braces, mainbraces, and fore-braces.

Rigging is either standing or running. The former is employed in maintaining, in fixed position, the masts and bowsprit; the latter runs freely through numerous blocks, and its functions are to raise and lower the upper masts and the yards, to trim the sails, to hoist the signals and other flags, and occasionally to furl the sails.

Each mast has the following standing rigging: at each side shrouds (I., II., III.), consisting of several very thick (usually plaited) ropes; in front, the stay (IV., V., VI., VII.); and behind, the backstays (VIII., IX., x.), coming down to the ship's sides behind the

Rights.

shrouds. Across the lowermast and topmast shrouds, thin ropes, called ratlings, are hitched horizontally, and form convenient ladders for the men to use in going aloft. The standing rigging of the lowermast reaches the chains on the ship's sides; while the shrouds of the topmast and topgallantmast are worked into the top, their stays to the tops of the mast nearer the bow in each case (the bowsprit serving as an anterior mast for the fore-rigging); all the backstays, however, are brought down to the ship's sides. In steamers, the mainstays require modification, in order to avoid the funnel; they are often adjusted on a plan similar to that of the backstays. The standing rigging of the bowsprit consists of the bobstays (XIV.), generally of chain; the martingale stays (XI., XI.), and martingale backstays (XIII.), which all exert an adverse pressure to that of the stays from the foremast, topmast, etc.

The running rigging is of four classes: 1. Lifts for the upper masts and the jib-boom. These are not shown in the diagram, from the fact that they run parallel, and closely contiguous to the masts, topmasts, and bowsprit.

2. The lifts for the yards and sails. Each yard has two lifts, one proceeding from a point near either extremity, and passing through a pulley at the head of that section of the mast to which the sail or yard belongs. They are worked either on the deck or in the top. The yard-lifts are shown by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. The gaff and boom have separate lifts working into the mizzen-top (13, 15). Each jib-sail has a lift (not shown),

Spars, etc.-A, mast; B, topmast; C, topgallantmast; D, royal-mast; E, yard; F, topsail-yard; G, tor gallantsail-yard; H, royal-yard; K, truck; L, bowsprit; M, jib-boom; N, flying jib-boom; 0, martingale; P, chains; Q, top; R, cap; S, crosstrees; T, topmast cap; U, gaff; V, boom, or spanker

boom.

Sails.-a, mainsail; b, topsail; c, topgallantsail; d, royal; e, spanker.

Standing Rigging.-1, shrouds; II, topmast shrouds, crossed by ratlings; m, topgallant shrouds; IV, stay; v, topmast stay; vi, topgallantmast stay; VII, royal stay; VIII, topmast backstay; IX, topgallantmast backstay; x, royal backstay; XI, flying jib-boom martingale stays; XII, jib-boom martingale stays; XIII, martingale backstays; XIV, bobstays.

Running Rigging.-1, lifts; 2, topsail lifts; 3, topgallantsail lifts; 4, royal lifts; 5, braces; 6. topsall braces; 7, topgallant braces; 8, royal braces; 9, signal halyards; 10, jib-stay; 11, flying jib-stay; 12, sheet; 13, peak halyards; 14, vangs; 15, topping lifts; 16, spanker sheet.

which acts parallel and close to rv., v., 10, or 11. If the ship carry stay-sails, there will be lifts parallel to the main and mizzen topmast stays and higher stays.

3. The ropes for adjusting the sails when spread. These comprise, first, the sheets for hauling down the lower corners of each sail-specimens are shown at 12; secondly, the braces for turning the yards about, to trim the sails to the wind. Each yard has two braces, one from either end passing to an adjoining mast, except the main braces, which are brought to the ship's side near the stern. The braces are shown as Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8. The vangs and spanker sheet (14, 16) perform similar offices for the spanker. There are

Rights.

nnor ropes in connection with the sails, for assisting in furling, reefing, spreading, etc.; but it would have rendered the diagram too complicated to have inserted them.

4. Ropes in connection with the flags. Each mast has at its head a truck, containing two or more small pulleys. Over each of these a thin halyard is passed, and brought down double to the deck. On these any required flag is rapidly bent and hoisted with great ease. There are two pair of similar halyards to the gaff-peak; and when the ship is to be decorated on any festive occasion, similar halyards are affixed to the end of each yard-arm.

In different classes of ships, slight modifications occur in the rigging, to suit particular circumstances, but the main principles of rigging are as detailed above for all sizes of decked vessels. See SAILS.

RIGGS, ELIAS, D.D., LL.D.; b. N. J., 1810; graduated at Amherst college in 1829, and Andover theological seminary in 1832; went the same year as a missionary of the American board to the east. He spent several years in Athens, Argos, and Smyrna; and has been since 1853 in Constantinople, except one year which he spent in New York, superintending the electrotyping of his Armenian translation of the Bible, when he also gave instruction in the Union theological seminary. He has translated the Bible into the Bulgarian tongue, and in 1878 completed the translation into the Turkish. Dr. Riggs is a proficient in many languages, the most of his work having been in modern Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, and Turkish, of which he has published several manuals and grammars.

RIGGS, STEPHEN R., D.D., for many years a missionary to the Dakota Indians. He published a Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language, which is regarded as a valuable contribution to American philology. He prepared also school-books for the Indians. With the aid of Dr. Williamson he translated most of the Bible into the Dakota language.

RIGHI, a mountain of Switzerland, in the canton of Schwyz, between lakes Lucerne, Zug, and Lowerz, is isolated, and commands extensive views of some of the finest Swiss scenery. It is easily accessible; six mule-paths and the Righi railway, opened in 1871, lead to the summit, which, though it forms an admirable natural observatory in favorable weather, is only 5,905 ft. above the sea. Verdant pastures clothe the entire summit, and the slopes are belted with forests. Crowds of tourists, of both sexes, ascend the Righi every season, in order to enjoy the fine views, which, in clear weather, it commands. There is a large hotel at the top where tourists pass the night in order to see the sun rise. The native spelling is Rigi.

RIGHT, in legal language, is that kind of interest or connection with a subject-matter which serves as a foundation for an action or suit, or other protection of a court of law or equity; and hence it means an interest that can be enforced, for if it is such as a court of law or equity cannot take notice of, it may be called a natural or moral, but it is not a legal right. Strictly speaking, right merely means a relation between external nature and some person or other, and therefore there is no such thing as abstract rights, for a right is only intelligible when predicated of some person who can exercise or enforce it. There is an old practical division of all rights into rights of the person and rights of things. In the former class are included such divisions as rights of personal security and liberty; rights connected with marriage, infancy, etc.; while in the latter class are included the general rights arising out of the possession of real and personal property. There are various subjects which do not fall under either division exclusively; indeed, none of the usual divisions of rights can be said to be more than vaguely descriptive of their subjects. It might naturally be expected that the correlative legal expression for rights should be wrongs, but this is not the case, the word wrong being used technically to mean only that class of infringements of one's rights which are connected with the person or the personal use of property. Thus, the refusing or withholding payment of a debt is not correctly called a legal wrong; but an assault or injury to one's person, or to one's property, irrespective of any contract, is properly called a wrong or a tort. The word right is also used, more or less technically, in a narrower sense. An action called a writ of right had for its object to establish the title to real property; but it was abolished, the same object being secured by the order of ejectment. A petition of right is a proceeding resembling an action by which a subject vindicates his rights against the crown, and recovers debts and claims, the first step being a petition, which is allowed by the home secretary, and referred for trial to a court of law. A right of way is a right of a private owner or occupier to a way over the land of an adjoining proprietor, as incidental to his possession of a house, or premises, or land. Right of action means simply a right to commence an action in one of the courts of law to recover damages or property. Right of common means a right of one who is not the owner or occupier of waste land, to send cattle to graze upon it, or to cut turf, or exercise some partial right of property over it. Right of entry is a right to possess and use land or premises, etc.

RIGHTS, DECLARATION AND BILL OF. The convention which called the prince and princess of Orange to the throne of England set forth, in a solemn instrument known by the name of the Declaration of Rights, those fundamental principles of the constitution which were to be imposed on William and Mary on their acceptance of the crown. This