JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post Post #120
Leafing through back-page minutiae of the George Cram Family Atlas of 1903 (a modest but full work on the level of something like the World Book Encyclopedia of the 1970's) I stumbled upon a wonderful table entitled "Rifles Used by the Principal Powers of the World" (and by "world" it meant 43 countries). (You can CLICK on the image below for a more readable, magnified version.) 
The 3x4-inch table was packed with some unusual data, and even though I just jested with its 47-country "world" that is actually a fair representation of the gun-consuming nations of the time. The table lists the name of the gun or inventor, followed by its calibre, length (with and without bayonet), weight (with and without the bayonet), number of cartridges in magazine,, the distance at which the gun is sighted, the "conveyor or jacket of cartridges", and the muzzle velocity (in feet per seconds). That’s really quite a lot of obscure data packed into such a small part of page 321 in this book.
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