The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-16 00:00:00

Mr. Gale's Ammunition S ide.

Nothing is more difficult than to describe effi-
ciently and comprehensively without pictorial illus-
trations a new mechanical contrivance, so that the
reader shall be able to form a fair judgment of its
merits and value rather than be obliged to accept
what is, in fact, no more than the criticism or the
favouritism of the describer. Nor does any amount
of simplicity in the mechanism diminish the difficulty
of description, but, on the contrary, very often tends
rather to increase it. This difficulty peculiarly
besets the effort to put before our readers an inven-
tion by Mr. Gale, F.C.S. (the well-known proposer
of the plan for rendering gunpowder incombustible
by commingling it with impalpable powder of glass
and other similar materials in such a way that they
may themselves appreciate it- through their own
judgments upon its proper merits ; and this we are
the more desirous they should do,as it is one which,
if it prove as advantageous in actual use as even in
its present embryo state'it seems to promise, must
exert a very considerable influence in practical war-
fare. Mr. Gale's ammunition slide, for so we call
it, the inventor not having, so far as we know,
given any particular name to his new mechanism,
consists of a steel bar about six inches in length,
two in breadth, and about three-quarters of an inch
in thickness, perforated with ten chambers for needle
cartridges ; the ends and fronts of these chambers
are open, and on the flat upper surface of the bar
are ten small perforations forming circular pits down
to the percussion needles of the cartridges. In the
present case this model slide is adapted to a single-
barrel pistol, and therefore, as such, we will in the
first place describe it, merely premising that of
course if would be equally suitable for muskets,
rifles, and small arms of any other class, and, as the
inventor considers, for artillery also. However, to
describe the invention. Behind the barrel, which
is permanently fixed to the stock of the weapon, is
a square cavity into which one cud of the slide con-
taining the charge is put. Along the bottom of the
slide are ten excavations or elongated holes, into
one of which a peg in the trigger slides forward as
the trigger, in the act of firing, is begun to be pulled
back; as the pulling back of the trigger is continued,
this peg, after having moved forward to the extent
of the excavation, begins to travel sideways, and to
drag the slide of charges inwards until the first charge
is brought fairly in a straight line with the barrel.
The front end of the charged chamber in the flat steel
bar is thus open, while the hind end of the chamber
abuts closely on a metal buttress attached to the
handle of the stock, and forming part of the square
of metal in which the slide works. When the charge
has thus been brought into position there is still a
small residue of action left to the trigger, and this
effects the release of the hammer, which now falls,
and being armed with a small metal peg, which en-
ters in the act of striking the pit over the needle of
the charge, the explosion is effected and the weapon
fired. As the hammer falls the peg in the trigger,
which has dragged in the first charge to position,
and in so doing has described a nearly semicircular
path, returns diagonally straight back to the spot
from which it began its motion. As the trigger is
pulled back for the second fire the peg again goes
forward into the second groove, again travels side-
ways, dragging into position the second charge, and
as soon as the discharge takes place returns again
to commence its third operation, and so on without
intermission for as many charges as may be sup-
plied.

The action of the firing is, however, far more rapid
than we oan make our descriptions of it ; all that
has taken us so many lines carefully to describe is
done by the ordinary pulls of the trigger, as fast as
it can be pulled, and thus as fast as one can count.
can the whole of the ten charges be fired ; or at a
moderate estimation in time, two charges could be
fired in the beat of a pendulum, or the whole ten
charges in less than 5 seconds. To recharge the
pistol would only take the time required to return
the empty slide to the cartridge pouch and draw a
fresh one from it ; and supposing an adequate sup-
ply of slides to hand, the weapon constructed on
this principle could be continuously fired at the rate
of 60 shots a minute, including the reloading. In
other words, all other conditions being equal, a gun
on this principle would be equal in number of shots
fired within a given time to 30 guns of the ordinary
construction requiring separate loadings after each
discharge. The best way to realise an idea of what
the weapon is, is to suppose an ordinary rifle to have
a flat squared hole cut in each side of its powder
chamber, and into this chamber to put a flat tray of
cartridges laid side by side with thick walls of metal
between them. As the tray is pushed in sideways
each cartridge would be brought into the chamber
ready for discharge. This is just what is done by
Mr. Gale's invention, except that his steel slide car-
ries its own chamber for each of its cartridges, and
is drawn in by the action of the trigger instead of
being pushed in by the hand. The primary value
of Mr. Gale's method, then, is its applicability to
military small arms for wonderful rapidity of fire,
a capacity the importance of which is beyond com-
ment ; but, as is commonly the case with inventions
of real merit, subsidiary useful qualities are always
accruing as the range of application is extended ;
and in this case a secondary consideration of almost
equal importance to the primary one is found to
exist, namely, the remarkable security of the am-
munition itself.

For example, as gunpowder will not explode under
a heat of less COO deg. F., these cases of cartridges
would not be fired by any accidental conditions un-
less the steel :slidel containing them was heated to
that extent, and as a consequence of this fact we
can easily see how ammunition waggons could be
brought into action with the troops under circum-
stances and conditions which have been hitherto
impossible. The steel slides of cartridges also indi-
vidually possess an inherent property of safety, for