The age-herald., 1898-07-22
asoUT RAPID FIRE GUNS
Not All of Small Sizes Nor on the Revolver
 Pattern
From the Independent.

From the Independent
 The new weapon about which one hears
 the most during the present war IS the so-
 called rapid or "duick-firing' gun. Inls
 is especially the gun of today, since its
 chief development has taken place within
 the last ten years. Of course, all guns
 which throw projectiles in rapid success
 sion are quick firing; but distinctioh is
 made between the machine guns ana the
 rapid firing guns, the former being nter-
 ally machines having many moving parts'
 which cooperate to throw gerat many
 small shells in a very brief period or
 time, and the latter being simply single
 shot guns. which use what is termed fixed" ammunition: that Is to say, n-
 stead of their being loaded at the breach successively with shell and then one UT
 more cartridges, and finally provided With
 primer, which is ignited when struch
 by the hammer of the lock, they nave
 their projectile charge and primer all
 combined, just in the ordinary reVoi-
 yer or sporting small am, and hence put
 one operation is necessary in loading. put
 as compared with the little metallic car
 fridge of ones pistol, the load or DIE
 quick fire gun Is rather gigantic. for
 gun of a calibre of five inches, the com bined projectils and case measure nearly
 four feet in length and weight about nine
 ty-f1ve pounds, while for the 6-inch guns
 the total weight Of the complete eailiioe0
 is about 135 pounds
 Fixed ammunition saves time in load
 ing, and still more time is saved in ar
 ranging the door in the breech or the
 gun, which is c'ssed after the charge IS
 put in so that it can be very raploiy
 opened and shut by means of hand levers !;
 and lastly, the gun itself is so supported
 that it can be trained quickly upon It's target So that the "quickness' depends first upon the fact that you put Tn the
 whole charge at once, instead Of Tn separ- ate parts; second, upon the celerlty "lt1 which the breech can be opened ana closed. and third, upon the ease in point ing; and, as a consequence of all thls, two shots can be fired in much less time than it would otherwise take to ire one' and for war purposes the man who ooes that is more useful, even, than the much. yaunted hero who coaxes two blades or
 grass out of the reluctant earth which ordinarily yields but solitary stalk.
 From what has been said it will be eyi- dent that the rapid fire gun IS by no means necessarily a small affair. Irue' there are little rapid fires which throw proiectiles ranging in weight from one to six pounds; but the big ones of calibres of four. five and six inches are powerful enough to arm the lighter cruisers ana gunboats all by themselves. The SIX men gun is over twenty feet long, and weigns six tons. W1tn lnc SO-Sdiiou breech mechanism this gun has been nred ten times in two minutes ana n1ty-siX seconds, or in about half the time required to deliver the same number of shots when the ordinary breech closing devices were employed. ..,,, But of course, speed of shooting will depend upon many factors. With such great cartridges as are required by the six-inch gun, the supply of ammunition IS necessarily much slower than when the light charges of the one-pounder pieces are handled, and the thorough drilling or the men in the operations of loading also increases the rapidity of fire.
 On board ship the quick fire guns form the principal part of what is known as the secondary battery. Thus the Iowa in her main battery carries four twelve men, eight e,ght-inch and six four-inch guns, and in her secondary battery twenty-six- pounder and four one-pounder quick nres. They are used to destroy the ends or yes sels which are protected only over their boilers and engines, to disable unshlelded guns and gun machinery, and with the machine guns, they are the great safe- guard against attacks of torpedo boats for it is well demonstrated that fhHse light craft are powerless when confronted with a concentrated hail of quick proJec- tiles. The two Spanish boats which rushed upon Admiral Dewey's squadron at Manila were literally torn to pieces, and even the much larger and faster torpedo destroyers which attacked the Texas off Santiago de Cuba were driven back almost as soon as the searchlight revealed them.