New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-22
mn SECOND RIFLE TESTED.
,,s TINE THE BRIGGs-KNEELAND ARM
WAS EXAMINED.
NOT UNDERGO ALL THE TRIALS. WHICH
WILL BE COMPLETED 1o-DAY-NoT CON-
sIpERED so SATISFACTORY AS

-. nm NOT UNDERGO ALL THE iiiAh'' "OiA
RE COMPLETED To-DAY-NoT CON-
srpERED so SATISFACTORY AS
THE SAVAGE GUN.
nh. second rifle tested by the ota'e
"a ~ Examiners yesterday was the brlgss-
l~.s,and Warren c. Briggs lives at NO los
D.. Ore-hundred- and-twenty-frst-st, New
W. and S F. Kneeland at No. ITO Berkeley
900 this city, The weapon was not success
oomnared with that Of the Savage Arms
,onv tried on Monday. Commissioners Ehph-
~. w Bliss and Robert A. Thurston' WIN
a".,.,arv Abel, at the 18Th Regiment
orv promptly on the stroke or ii ocioch'
o.. owners expert was William Knapp VINO
.'.n the gun at Washington, ID. Z. lie look
90, turn at firing fifteen shots from the rihe as
.,noe loader Several Of the cartridges. which
- made by the Winchester Repeating Arms
c,,ranv. at first did not explode. Commissioner
S.mrs,on recommended that they be tried again
IA they went off. an indication, 1t was said'
. the spring was too weak This was remeoled
-a tho score was finished Private William T.
GO the Boards expert, then fired fifteen shots
s.aer the same conditions. couple OF times
-. rae refused to act, and it was taken to the
..r,orer,s room to be fixed. The score at the
.nd Of the rounds was:
ka.sst: /: E. !. = 3. T. 8: g. 81 So
The magazine test came next fifteen shots to
No fred from the magazine The Briggs-knee-
and rife is loaded with five cartridges placed In
. metal Frame which Is slippel down through
,ha frame behind the slot that takes the car
,-dgs when the gun is used as single loader
In the magzine test for fifteen shots. Knapp
,.or.a "a and Crane 80. With the exception that
.or,s cartridges refused to explode. the gun be-
haved WELL
Nsrt came the tanning tests. In this Com
ro,ss,oner Bliss demonstrated that the knowledge
ha obtained Of arms while manufacturing them
IN the war and carrying them Immediately
after the first call to the field was not forgotten.
without much difficulty ne damned the cartridge
90 that the gun could not be used. and made the
EXPERT do the same. He drew from the latter the
fac. that a man should be trained so that he
would not mistake in his excitement the single
loading slot from that intended for the magazine,
or the operator was likely TO jam the gun. In
fact, the operator did jam the cartridge so badly
that he could not extract II from the magazine
slot with his fingers. In this connection it may
be stated that Mr. Bliss damned both the Lee
rife and the Krag-Jorgensen, although he failed
with the Savage arm.
The cartridge used the Lee navy, which
has a diameter Of 23OO6. while the Army
rife has a calibre OF 30.00S. The pressure
on the former is said 10 be something Ike $4,000
pounds TO the square inch; on the latter. be-
tween s. 900 and 10000 pounds. Be that as 1t
may, the rifle tried yesterday had a much more
vicious bang and far harder recoil than the
Savage rife
Next came the endurance tests. Each round
Of fifty shots was fired in the following time in
minutes and seconds, with ten-miEute inter-
walls for cooling: 400, 400, 400. 32O $40, 3:lS.
$50 and 400.
The weapon stood the firing Of these 400
shots we'll. The defective cartridge test came
next II was far from satisfactory and was
finally rejected by the Commission, and must
be tried again. The idea is 20 thin down the
primer % hat the needle shall penetrate IL
and allow the gases TO escape and so damage
the mechanism or have chance TO ln)ure
the operator They were fired with lanyard
In neither case did the primer burst, and the
Commissioners held that the requirement had
not been fulfilled, and that new test would
be necessary
The testing with excessive cartridges came
next The shots were fired with a lanyard. the
shells, carrying forty grains Of rifeite powder
instead Of the regulation charge OF thirty-slx
grains. They went off with terrific bang.
The first one was difficult Of extraction, indi-
0ting expansion of some of the parts, but the
gun was apparently uninjured
The arm was then taken apart and reassem-
bled without trouble. The sand-blast test was
the next one to have been tried. but II was
found that the owners had not brought enough
cartridges to finish. Mr. Bliss said he did not
propose to make any half-tests or give any
competitor a chance to say that one had bet
ter trial than another, or to have a gun COW
cred with sand all night. which would not be
fair either to the Commission or 10 the owner.
Consequently the sand test was adjourned until
II o'clock this morning, when the Briggs-knee-
land gun will be finished and the Burton gun
taken up.
Private William T. Crane. the Boards expert
has served nearly five years in Company A.
18th Regiment. He is the holder Of the regi-
mental Alder silver medal of the Dolan gold
medal and OF the diamond medal presented by
Captain French, Inspector Of Rife Practice.
He made the drawings for the sandbox for the
endurance tests which were approved by the
War Department at Washington, and. with
Peter Kerr. had 1t constructed The Commits
h0a has seen that the labor was too much for
one man. and Corporal Thomas Campbell Pat
vsson, Of Company G., was appointed yester-
Day to assist him in the remaining trials, and
Creedmoor.
yesterdays trials. besides the members
xA Savage Arms Repeating Company men
MaM yesterday, there were present Thomas r.
AIDA Of the Winchester Repeating Arms Com
lsly. md Charles Daily, of Hartley & Graham,
NN-York The Winchester rifle. about
Eaah there is much curiosity. will be tried
thursday.