The times., 1897-03-21

minute Each projectile weighs one pound,
and is provided with a percussion fuse so
that it explodes on striking. This gun has
been designed expressly for firing on ter
pedo boats. 1t weighs conside rably less than
the old ten-barrel Gatling gun, which only
used ordinary musket cartridges, with light
lead bullets / has heen tried in Europe
against five barrel machine guns using the
same size Of proJcctile. when it was found
that one Maxim one -and-one-half-inch gun
having one barrel with only one man
firing. made more hits in a given time
than was made with twenty men firing
five five barrel guns, each of which weighed
five times as much as the Maxim.
This gun was exhibited before Ii Hung
Chang, but he expressed his doubts as to
its being able to fire even 200 rounds II
minute. The gun was then fired by my
self at a target 900 yards distant. The
projectiles struck the target in very rapid
succession ex ploding and causing great
deal or dust and smoke, in fact, the whole
target appeared TO be on fire. When the
fire was stopped from thirty to forty re-
Dorts were heard: that is. the sound OF the
EXPLOSION of about fifteen projectiles was
in the air coming back from the target,
while another fifteen projectiles were still
in the air on their way to the target
1t very much pleased Earl Ii TO hear these
reports for a considerable time after the
gun had ceased firing. He then asked
30 see one of the cartridges, and, on eN-
arnining it. he asked how much it cost
On being told that it was rather more
than dollar and q half, he said:
"Ah, indeed; am afraid that gun fires
too fast for China
This gun has been adopted into many
navies, and very large numbers OF them
are now being made in England, France
and Germany. The gun in the upper right
hand corner of the picture shows the newest
form of fully automatic nlne-pounder de-
signed for naval purposes. The cartridges
are eabout three feet long and are placsdina a
magazine on top of the barrel, as SHOWN.
When the gun is fired, the lowermost
cartridge in the magazine is thrown back
ward into a tubular carrier, the weight
of the cartridge causes the carrier TO IAN,
and when opposite the barrel 1t jumps
suddenly forward and thrusts the cartridge
INTO the barrel As the cartridge enters the
barrel. the rim comes in contact with the
extractor, and, pushing it forward, hber-
ates the block, which closes with spIing.
The recol of the barrel not only thrusts Il
loaded cartridge into the carrier, but it also
pushes the carrier back into what might
be called the cooked position, compressing
very powerful spring at the time.
With this arm five cartridges may be
placed in the magazine and one in the bar
rel. A single gunner is then in favorable
position to watch for torpedo boats, and is
able to discharge four roundsin about three
seconds. This gun may be fired continuously
with very great rapdiity, because the mag
azine NAV beloaded from both sides at any
stage of the firing, and no danger results
from hangfire, because the cartridge can
| not be extracted until after it has eX-
ploded the opening of the breach depend
ing altogether upon the explosion. The
powder charge is large and the velocity
high, and the guushas a fiat trajectory and
very long range.
With a hardened steel projectile carry
ing bursting charge, land with a velocity
of about 2, 500 feet a second, the damage
done by single projectie upon a torpedo
boat is very considerable, in fact, it only
requires that the boat should be hit once
in order to render it,"hors tie combat"
The rate at which this gun may be fiIed
beats all previous records
HIRAM 5. MAXIM