3-008-444 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Official trial of small-bore rifles on Plumstead Marshes: the Council of the National Rifle Association watching the target, 1862. 'At the Royal Laboratory practice-range of Woolwich Arsenal number of gunmakers of celebrity were present, either in person or by a representative - namely, Mr. Joseph Whitworth, Mr. John Rigby, Mr. Charles Ingram, Mr. Edward Burdett for Mr. Thomas Turner, Mr. William Terry, and Mr. Alexander Henry...[They] went through a course of firing, commencing over a range of 500 yards, for the purpose of enabling the National Rifle Association to determine the rifle with which the second stage of the Queen's prize shall be competed for on Wimbledon Common this year...The firing was exceedingly good, notwithstanding the severity of the north-easterly wind, which blew across the range and seriously damaged the effect...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.