Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-08-26
The French Mitrailleuse.v

10 destroy your enemy in the shortest
time, in the easiest manner, and at ths
least possible expense, is the first maxim
of war. The stone that whistled from
David's sling, the bullet of the "zundna
| delgewehr," and the volley of the tina
| chine gun" had all the same object. Since
the days of Roger Bacon the aim of al
improvements in firearms has been tC
carry the greatest possible distance
Grape, canister or case, and shrapnel ali
contain bullets, and are all means for mul.
tiplying deaths. The field gun mows
down its hundreds by showers of case at
close quarters, or at longer distances rains
bullets from the bursting shrapnelb The
mitrailleuse, or machine gun, on the con-
trary, sends large number of small pro-
jectiles Independently, and with precision,
ID considerable distance. We may
divide arms on the latter principle into
two classes, first, those which discharge
their bullets from single barrel, fed by
many chambered breech; and secondly
those in which each cartridge has its cor
responding barrel, the charging and dis
charging of which is direct and more or
less simple. 1t is obvious that for rough
usage ard continuous firing it is
better that q large number Of rounds
should be fired from q considerable
number of barrels so placed as
to support each other, and add strength
to the whole machine. The French mi
trailleuse, as well as the Belgian Montigny,
belongs to the second class, and the fol-
lowing brief description is equally appli-
cable to both arms The machine gun
consists of a cluster of barrels either
bound together or bored out of the solid,
aud mounted on the same principle as an
ordinary field gun. at a few hundred
yards, indeed, it would be difficult to as
tinguish between these two weapons, 80 for
as outward appearance goes. To the bar
rel is attached massive breech action
capable of being opened and closed by a
lever. In the Montigny arm the car
tridges are carried in steel plates perfor-
ated with holes corresponding in number
and position to the holes in the barrel.
This steel plate, in fact, forms the +" vent
piece" of the system The central fire
cartridges being dropped into the holes in
the steel plate, stand out at right angles
from it, and the plates, thus ready charg-
ed, are SO carried in timber and axletree
boxes specially fitted for their reception.
When the gun comes into action the breech
is drawn back, 3 steel plate full OF cartridg-
es is dropped into its corresponding slot,
and the breech block thrust forward and
secured. The gun is now on full cock,
and contains from thirty to forty car
tridges, which are fired by a a",barrel or
gan" handle, either one by one as the
handle works round click click, OF IN
volley by rapid turn of the wrist. When
the gun is empty, the breach block is
again withdrawn, the steel plate carrying
the empty cartridge cases lifted out, and
fresh plate dropped in if necessary. The
advantage possessed by the machine gun
over infantry fire is that it is never In
funk. Bullets may rain around, bursting
shells may I'LL the air, still the thirty
barrels of the mitrailleuse shoot like one
man, and at 800 or 1000 yards will pour
volley after volley of deadly concentrated
fire into circle of from ten feet to twelve
feet in diameter. No boring or fixing OF
fuses is srequired, and the whole operation
is performed SO rapidly that two steady
cool nen could maintain a fire of ten dis
charges per minute. On the other hand,
the mitrailleuse could not well compete
with the field gun, and it is with this
weapon it will assuredly be met. Its pull
lets would have comparatively slight ef-
feet at the ranges at which field artillery
projectiles are perhaps most elective,
while its size would offer very fair mark
to the gunner. - Lo7ad0n Globe. q ~ '5 !st