This 1999 photograph shows a ventilation slit from the inside of the stone barn on the Michael Korns, Sr. Somerset County, PA family homestead. Note that it is wide on the inside, but narrow on the outside. I believe that this is to provide the maximum ventilation while keeping the weather out. They may look like rifle slits, but they don't all seem to be wide enough. However, I admit that this may be a misconception too. While many of the slits would not be wide enough to allow side to side articulation of a relative large muzzle loading rifle barrel that was projecting through the slit, they might be usable if the muzzle was merely held up to the slit, rather than the barrel projecting through. I recall an analysis of the very narrow arrow firing slits in the thick walls of European castles, and it was determined that the way they would have been used was to stand back from the slit while firing.
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