The daily gazette., 1882-05-09
MARvELs In eUNNERY.
Recent Improvements In Fire arms in This
Country and Europe.

| Recent improvements IN Fire arms In This
/ Country and Europe.
fNew York star.l
A Star reporter in search of general infor-
nation lately visited several of the largest
manufacturers OF firearms "Anything new
In revolvers" he asked one Of them. HYes,
| Of late demand has sprung up for q more
rapidly firing revolver than those formerly
used and 10 meet this demand a new revolver
has been designed and manufactured. It
retains the distinctive features of the old
system, with the automatic extractor. tell
you there Is as much difference In pistols as
there Is in women and whiskey. Just
examine this beauty. Instead Ofbeing made
as heretofore, in such a manner as to permit
the cylinder to revolve after the discharge of
the cartridge, II Is arranged with q cylinder
stop, which holds the cylinder In position ex-
cept when being reyolved by the act of cock
ing.
"American inventive genius has been
largely directed toward the production Of q
simple form Of breech-loading small-arm. I
suppose great many patents are issued
yearly for improvements in small-armsl'
eyes; between 1860 and 1880 more than
l 400 patents Of this kind were granted,
which is quadruple the number Of the In
ventions Of all the rest Of the world in the
same direction, and with the single excep-
tion OF the needle-gun, every arm working
on q breech-loading principle used In Europe
is Of American origin, both in principle and
application"
"Can you tell me who invented the
mitrailleuse - asked the reporter, continu-
ing his Investigations with another manu-
facturer.
eyes Belgian engineer named Jules
Fasseamps has the credit Of it, but he un-
doubtedly borrowed his idea from DIR. Cat
ling. By the way, II you have never seen
Gatling will show you one." ,-.t
The manufacturer pointed out an appa-
ratus that looked like an abnormally de
veloped revolver on wheels, with few sur
veyors' instrument thrown in. "This Is the
latest improved Gatling," said the man of
business; ''it can be fired at the rate of
1000 rounds minute and fired at q target
ID feet long by II feet high; range 1000
yards, 665 hits have been made with 1t out of
1000 shots.
Can these guns be used effectively at
night 2" 9HIIIT
eyes no arms in the world are equal to
the Gatling guns for night work. They can
be placed in position in the daytime SO as to
cover any point desired, and, as they have
no rccoil TO destroy the accuracy of their
aim, an incessant fire can be kept up during
the night with the same precision as in day
light"
"Then the Calling gun will eventually
run all other mechanical guns of a like kind
off the field ?''
II think so undoubtedly, for the success
OF this gun has been brilliant, and 1t ia in
evitable in future warfare that its power
must be greatly felt Within the last two
years 1t has been perfected, and the work 1t
has already done proves II to be a necessary
part of nations armament"
"Can you inform me why the American
10 raI t,,kA A.
the European 7"
81 think 1t is in part owing to the quality
OF the native copper, which is specially
adapted for this purpose, for the heating of
the barrel by firing does not expand the
brass. In the foreign cartridges this quality
is not obtained"
81 suppose there are vast number Of
cartridges made in this countryP'
Eyes, more than you would like to count.
The Union Metallic Cartridge Company
alone turns out over. l ,000, 900 a day. They
manufacture 100 varieties of metallic cart
ridges all distinct and seprate patterns. The
Turkish Government ordered some hundreds
OF millions from this country during the late
war with liussia, and with our American
guns and cartridges they kept the whole
power of Russia at bay. They would pick
out their men and slay them before the |
enemy could get at them with their Krink |
ilhes' lIeu again Jne special Water-prOOf |
character Of the American cartridges has |
been well proved. I'll tell you Of an expert |
mcnt made myself. have a pond on my |
place in the country, and sunk in 1t last |
spring some cases of cartridges. | left |
them under water several months, then took |
them up and returned them TO the factory |
In the original cases which, when opened,
were found to be full of water; yet, upon
firing the cartridges, every one exploded |
promptly. Another big Improvement in the |
American cartridges is in the material Of |
which the shell Is composed. 1t was found |
that the metal rusted in some climates, |
particularly in China, India and In the |
tropics. To remedy this evil, experiments |
were begun to find some way of uniting |
copper and brass, and they have proved |
entirely successful; so that now the new crat- |
ridges are made with brass-copper Shells" |
"Can you tell me where Is the largest |
powder factory In the worldlp
"That Of E. !. DUPONT IL Co., near Will |
mington, Del, is by far the largest They |
produce over 1900 pounds of powder per |
day"