The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-12-09
HEAVY ORDNANCE
At THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITION OF INVENTIONS.
Extensive improvements In the ConstrucS
ton Of Engines of Observation-Disclosures
Styles OF Repeating Artillery
The Maxim Gun.
ILonion Cor. German Paper

tL-S-+sAJhA
Just BAG OF the main entrance, and next
to the hall decorated with twanty-four
frescoes representing the historical develop
ment OF industry, and where such a surprise
would be least expected, the ponderouS form
of breech-loading steel cannon meets the
eye of the visitor.
The muzzis is over seven inches in diam
eter and its projectiIes weigh 25l pounds
apiece The velocity of the projactile at
the muzzie is nearly 9, 900 feet per second,
and at a distance of 5000 feet has still
velocity of l,600 feet. According to the re-
port of the special catalogue of the English
war department. this riflei piece of ord
nance will pierce steel plate fifteen inches
in thickness at the muzzle and one ten
inches at a distance of 1000 feet. From
this exhibition and report, doubts are ex-
pressed in military circles on the continent
as to whether the manufacture of English
ordnance is quite up to the times
ENGINES OF DESTRUCTION.
OF course this suspicion is secuted at by
| the English. who point with pride to the
above described piece, weighing about ten
tons, and declare it is but baby compared
with the monsters that are manufactured at
| the Armstrong ordnance works; that two of
| these enormous cannons, constructed for
| the new English man or war Banbow, are
a three-foot bore, throwing a projcctIlo of
| 1000 pounds, and capabie If piercing q steel
| plate more than "a feet thick a 8 distance
| of 5000 feet A large numb'r If guns of
| smaller caliLer, with all th2Ir equipments,
| are also hero on exhihitiC& EIt spaci-
mems of the most modern ijvsnsi,.,lj Of re-
peating artillery-reguiar 81 q Ing engines
| ATTRACTED the greatest iuter@sE
| The French "mitraiieuse, Iueaa famous
| during the Franco German war s'lns to
have been but the embryo OF the autanlasic
| gun on exhibition. The Gatahs gun,
| an American invention, IS also her. 1t is
| constructed Of ten riaal barrels. revolving
upon an axle. The cartridges are placed in
| q reservoir above the barrels and fail into
place at the revolution of crank. This
engine of destruction is capable Of firing
| from 500 tos1 600 shots per minute.
Another gun of similar construction is the
| invention of MIR. Hitchcock, an American,
also. Some of the Gardner and N0rdenfelt
| guns are to be seen. But Maxim, another
American, is the inventor of the newest and
most perfect of this variety of artillery.
| The firing rapidity of ali these guns i, III
deed astounding. With one OF the ten bar
rel Nord enfeIt, 100 conse cutive salvos Of ten
| shots each, or 1000 shots in all, were fired
in fifty seconds. All of this class Of guns,
| with the exception of the Maxim, are con-
| structed with two or moro parallel barrel,
and require for their manipulation the serv-
ices of several men. The loading, friD 2,
and withdrawing of thu hulls is accom-
| plishei, of course, through the turning of a
crank, CT as with the Nordenfelt through
the movement of a lever
ENTIRELY AUTOMATIC.
But the Maxim guns have the advantage
over all the Others, in that they arc entirely
| automatic. Maxim makes use of the power
| developed by the recoil and OF the pressure
Of the escaping gases to force out the hull q:
well as to load and fire. 1t requires but
once the service of gunner, the operation
| OF load ing and firing and loading pro-
crossing unaided at tho rate of 600 shots per
minute until the supply of ammunition is
exhausted.
The cartridges are simply placed in {
light bag which hangs under the gun and is
automatically raised TO the required height,
the cartridges falling into the reservoir and
| from there into the barrel. There is the
| gunners required with the other pieces arl
constantly exposed to the fire Of the enemy,
| while the Maxim only needs attent ton when
the gun requires a fresh bag of ammuni
| tion.
These guns are principally used upoE
men-of-war as means OF defense against
torpedo-boats, and, with the exception OF
the Maxim pattern, which is entirely new,
are already in use not only in the EnglisI
feet, but also III the French. Russian, AM
Italian navies.