The Russellville Democrat., 1880-06-03
A TERRIBLE WEAPON.
Testing a Gun Which Ffreu
 5000 Shots In,13 5 Minutes.


 A very interesting test of the Gardner gun, presented to the gov ernment by Pratt, Whitney & Co, of Hartford, was given at the navy yard yesterday morning, by direc- tions of Commodore Jeffers. chief Of the bureau of ordnance. A board, consisting of Commanders Harrison and Mccormick and Lieut.. Hotch. ken, of the ordance department, had charge of the matter and there were number of prominent gentlemen present, officers and civilians, Tn cluding Representative Whitthorne, chairman of the House Naval com mlttee; Capt. Arthur, of the Eaa asz,iiish navy, the Chinese minister, and & number of other diplomatic gentle men. The Gardner gun is one of the latest improvements in this branch of field service. It IS what is called machine gun," of which the celebrated gatling gun was perhaps the earliest, as it is doubtless the best known. It diff fers, however, very materially from the gatling, and in many respects is thought to be superior. But this gun has two barrels made of steel, sncaeed in brass. It is especially adapted for and intended to be used where rapid firing is desirable. This is an auxiliary to small arms and is simply . gun which, by the ingenui- ty Of the designer, is calculated to do the work of number of muskets, and do it more rapidly and effective ly. It cannot probably shoot as ac- curately as . musket. but If proper ly handled must be fearfully des- tructive, especially when directed against line or advancing column. It's calibre is 45-100 of an inch, and the same cartridges are used as in ordinary rife practice. The charge Is seventy grains of powder and the ball wieghs 405 grains. It is mount cd on a small field carriage and is light enough to bs carried by two men. The whole length of tho gun is only four feet. It can be fired 500 times in a minute, it's capacity in this direction being only limited by the rapidity with which it can be fed. If steam could apply tue mo- tive power, and it could be fed fas, enough, there Is no telling how ra. pidly it could be fired. The firing Is done by turning crank in the rear of the gun, and it is fed through flat shaped box, into which the cartridges are placed in blocks hold ing twenty each. They fit down neatly into this box, which holds about fifty cartridges, and as fast al the crank is turned they drop down into a channel and are carried for ward to discharge and the empty cartridges turned and dropped be meath. Five thousand shots were fired today in thirteen minutes three men relieving each other a the crank. Over 10000 shots were fired altogether, and notwithstanding the barrels of the gun were so hot that piece of paper placed between them took fire from the mere con tact, the effectiveness and execution of the gun was in no wise affected The chief object of the test yester- day was to ascertain how new feed ing process. which had been perfect ed, would work. There were twt tests of this gun made before, but a that time minor defects were noticed which are now corrected. The regu
 lar inspection will take place nsx week, when the board will mak, their eport.-Washington Post.