56 HAND-BOOK OF WASHINGTON. instead of casting them; and above all, the beau tiful machine for making and charging Percussion Caps, for small arms, invented by Mr. George Wright, a workman at the Arsenal. By this last mentioned machine, a sheet of Copper being in serted on one side and some percussion powder put in a hopper on the other, the finished Caps are produced without any further agency of the workman In the spacious Storehouses of the Arsenal are to be seen Arms and Equipments for the troops; also a large number of Gun Carriages and other apparatus for the service of the Artillery in the forts and in the field, from the ponderous Colum- biad for the defence of the coast, to the little mountain howitzer, which may be transported, with its miniature smith’s forge, on the back of a mule. The Model Office contains a collection of models or patterns of the various arms and military Equipments used in our Service, and also of such of those used in the Armies of other nations as have been obtained by the Ordnance Department. Here may also be seen some specimens of old and new inventions, repeating Arms, Revolvers, &e., which have been suggested, at home or abroad, by the organ of destructiveness.