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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 251, 3 October 1884, Page 3

Maribyrnong has been the sire of the winner of the Hawkesbury Guineas foui times during the last six years. In bravado a young man placed the muzzle of a gun under the water and fired the charge. The result was the bursting of the barrel near the breech and the mutilation of his hand. Another placed and held the muzzle of hit piece square against a piece of plate windowglass, and fired a charge — powder and a bullet. The glass was shattered, so was the gun barrel. Another instance was that of aii experimenter who had heard that a candle could be fired from the barrel of a gun through an inch board. He drove a candle into the muzzle of the gun, fired, and the explosion split the barrel almost its entire length, and did not even drive the candle from the muzzle. Still another burst of a gun barrel was caused by the use of wet grass for a wad, well rammed over a charge of shot.— Scientific American.