The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-05

4 ASS oISeE the 1Qetd% il1t
| been perfected, and that Was not till after
| the war was ended. Wien the war was
over my friends advised. me to go out OF
| the gun business, in which. l had Jared so
badly. but my dander WAS up now and l
meant to persevere until ! succeeded per-
| fectiy.. 1t was true that or civil war was
| over, but there was likely to be war IN
other parts of the world: and my sym.
| pathies we're not narrowedzto continent
AT the Frankfort arsenal. near Palla-
deiphla." said DR.. Gatiine3 continuing his
narrative. Il perfected . metallic car
| fridge, and then | gave an exhibition IN
| Washington. Gen. Dyer, 5 very different
man from Gen. Ripley, w;ss now chief of
ordnance. and he took a great interest in
my gun and my efforts u make it work
we'll. AT the exhibition, besides the chief
OF ordnance. were Gen. tirant and Mr..
stanton and several army men. These Of
ficers were very much pleased, and 1t was
arranged that / should have trial of my
| guns at Fortress Monroe IL opposition to
the regular field guns before a board Of
ordnance officers. At tsiis trial / was
dreadtuIlX handicapped bT the fact that
the standard guns were manned by vet
eran artilierymen, and lad TO use green
negroes who We're more at nome in hoeing
corn than in rife practise. But / beat
them In every way, and TIE report of the
board showed that my gan was superior
not only In rapidity of tying. but in ac-
curacy OF aim and length of range. The
result of this was that tne government
them at Colts armory at Hartford, was
paid $4,000. Since then l have sold
them TO almost every civilized nation and
to some that have not enough civilization
to boast Of"
"How did you introduce them in Eu-
roper"
II took several guns to the great Paris
eYpOSitiop in 1857 Tharo fboU
very general interest and were brought to
the attention of Louis Napoleon. He ex-
amIned them very carefully and had one
taken out of the show ana fired for his
benefit. He was delighted and at once
wanted to make an arrangement that l
should make the guns secretly in France
and supply them only to the French. This
proposition could not consider for vari-
Gus reasons. l had ALREADY made a con-
tract to supply some to Russia and then it
nad never been my purpose to give my
gun exclusively to one coUntry and help
that country to bully the rest of the world
on account of owning superior arm. The
emperor thought he saw say out of it,
SO he put board of ordinance officers at
work to make machibe gun which
would be just as effective AS mine The
result was the mitrailleuse with which In
1870 the French emperor proposed to ami
hilate the Germans. This gun unques-
Germany. but 1t failed to come up to ex-
pectations. In the first place. paper cart
ridges were used, and the same difficulties
were experienced that hineered the work
OF my. guns before Petersburg. In my
guns the locks revolve with the barrel and
the trlng IS so continuous that there is
practically only one recoii. This enabled
me to do away with any great weight in
constructing my gun, whicEa is very light,
and with little power can be quickly taken
to the field or from one Fart to another
To overcome the recoil of tae mitraille use
the French officers were compelled to
make the gun so heavy THAI eight or ten
horses were needed to take Il from place to
place, and of from good roads it was of
very little service"
do you think these MACHINE guns will
be made yet more perfect?',
1T Is hard to say what may happen, but
to me my gun seems to be perfect, have
not needed to improve the gun for long
time. My recent efforts haze been to per-
feet the ammunition and am convinced
now that the cartridges are as perfect as
the gun. I have fired before board or
| ordinance officers 63, 700 shots without
stopping to clean the barrels Even after
this hard service the gun was found to
shoot with accuracy. as the grease on the
cartridges had kept the barrels clean. A
speed OF ], 200 shots had been obtained in a
minute and as many IS 100 shots have
been fired in 21s seconds. Ehis is at the
rate Of 2. 400 shots minute. By elevating
the gun the bullets can he made to kill
men two miles away. The aim in this in
stance must be by cslculation. But within
mile and so far as the object fired at can
be seen the guns shoot with great accu-
racy.. Such gun as this caanot be great
deal improved"
You feel sure that the use of such guns
will shorten wars and tend 10 make them
less freGuent?'
Il feel sure of that and also think that
these guns and the introduction of smoke
less powder will very much modify the
fighting tactics. The grand strategy of
war will probably not be altered, for STRAIT.
egg Is the application of principles, but
the tactics Will be very grFatly changed.
In my opinion in modern war between
any two of the great powers the conflict
will be short, sharp and decisive and in all
probability one battle will decide the whole
quarrel"
DR.. Calling told with much glee of the
first time one of his guas was used in
Canada. Some years ago tie half. breeds
of the northwest, instigaEed by Louis
Riel, rose up in instruction against the
Dominion authority. There were no
regular troops in Canada, so the militia
from Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto
and other places were sent to put down
what was known as the Riel rebellion
AhSoO hoAi-bICSQo WSlS H3ulSTS anu most
skillful marksmen and Eushwhackers.
The militia had hard time in this
frontier warfare. and seceived one
threshing after another, until they were
very disheartened. About this time DR..
Calling sent young mae, kind of
drummer or commercial traveller, to Can
ada with some guns TO see if he could not
sell them to the Canadians. He found the
army in the Northwest. While he was ex-
planning one of his guns t) the militia
officers Riel's little army, wi8ch had stead
lily approached under cover of the forest.
made an attack and, rs the disheartened
militiamen fled, the half sreed charged
into the open. The commercial traveller
was not trained soldier. so ne did not re-
treat with the militia and IL q moment he
found himself deserted and 1Ione with his
gun and hostile army of semi-sayages
charging his position. 1t Irever occurred
TO him to run away and leave his gun. so
he turned il loose on the advancing enemy.
II was not many minutes 5eiore the ad-
vance was checked and it vas not very
many minutes more before tie half breeds
were In rapid retreat. They tied TO the
woods. Moving his gun back and forth.
he still kept turning the crank and rain
ing bullets INTO the forest, shich became
80 hot that the haif-breeds uever stopped
running till they had got out of range.
This was the tirst success that the Cana
dams had and it was all broaght about by
one Gatling gun and the business enter
prise OF young commercial traveller from