The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-29

ON UOllS every lllkAiSs SNNNAtAN q vat Il iNeNs
putting it INTO the barrel, cooking The ham
mer. firing. pulling out the cd she'll. put
ting in. the new one. and SO on through
the whole cycle, and doing every bit OF
it. moreover between each explosion and
the one following.
How rapidly? Ordinarily from $50 to 600
times per minute-but as tour de force
quite practicable but somewhat severe
on The gun-at che rate of 2.d00 times per
minute. This, perhaps does not convey
quite an adequate ,dea. Let me put X
another way The speed OF a bullet sach
as is fired is, say 2.e00 feet during the
first second after leaving the gun. Now
suppose you are the tarSet and distant
that far from the muzze. One second
after the gun is fired the first bullet viii
strike you. There will then be at thar
instant thirty-three coming a you-and
before the second second is ended you VIII
be hit by al of them and another batch
of thirgy-three viii he in flight Or. If
after the first second the bullets could
all be stopped in mid-air ana YOU walked
toward the gun, you wcu,d lind a suspend
ed bullet every six feet.
To return TO the progress Of invention
There were the old groupings after some
way to utilize the recon of the gun. which.
of course, had come 80 nothing. There
We're the machine guns at a high stage
0l NtNt.otttUl, IL - ttlN. biL lAti4tllLdllN
getting out of order constantly through
the shock of their own explosions, ana
when they got out of order THAR intri-
cate mechanism damned and cartrldg,
stuck half way in the barrels. and there
was nothing to do but pull them apart
and fix them, which is NOT so easy when
one is on the firing line. So, there being
no suggestion of any direct way whatever
of using the explosive force Of gun to
T..
pointing to the fact that of all forces
adapted to operate guns that same explo-
sion was probably the worst, least suited
and most obviously impracticable-the
time was ripe for way of doing il to
be invented, and it was done.
The man that did it was Hiram s. Max
i'm, an American electdician of consider
able note and one of the pioneers in cleo
trio lighting during the 70s. Like all great
inventions, the extreme simplicity of this
one becomes instantly manifest-after you
are told how it is done. When the gun is
fired the force of the explosion some
times seized upon through the recoil of the
barrel, sometimes through the pushing
back of the breech block only. sometimes
through the direct pressure of the gases
as they escape through the muzzle acting
on a piston, is taken up by a spring.
Now, instead of making the explosion do
All tie WOIk uiISttiSs DIS lllt ptOllG hAd
who set it merely to cooking the gun CT
raising the breech pocket. Maxim makes
it do part of the work directly and part OF
it indirectly through its energy stored in
the spring. Consequently when the gun is
fired certain things are done and the
spring compressed, and when the force of
the explosion is dissipated the spring as
serts itself and does the remaining things.
The cartridges-just like those SO common
kgarVn
are fastened in row side by side trans
versely on a long strip of cloth. The end
of the strip is put into an opening Cross
wise the gun, so as to bring cartridge in
position to be grasped by the mechanism.
For the first shot you pull the trigger, and
afterward merely keep continuous pres
sure on it. Now note what happens. The
gun is fired. The outrush of burning gas
at the muzzle meets a piston through
hole in which The bullet passes, and throws
it forward. The connecting rods reverse
the motion before il gets to the block
which closes the rear end of the barrel and
that flies backward, taking with it the
new cartridge out Of the feed belt, setting
it's own firing mechanism at full cock,
COMPRISING the main spring and then
moving the cartridge it has grasped into
line with the barrel.
The explosion having done all this at
first hand dies OUT linen the compressed
spring has chance to assert itself. For
ward goes the breech block, driving the
cartridge ahead of it into the barrel, an
other cartridge on the belt moves into posi-
ton, ready to be grasped after the next ex-
plosion, and then al the end OF the'move-
ment something frees the firing pin and
the gun fires-and all the operations begin
over again. You start the gun by pressing
the trigger, which releases the firing pin,
and after that the gun goes on and draws
in its own cartridges and pours out. the
bullets for as long as you choose. When
you want it TO stop you let go the trigger.
1t IS like rcont4ollfhS "a HOSE on Which the
gun barrel Is the nozzle. You move pc
around on Its pivot support as you like
and direct a stream of steel bullets in
stead Of a stream of wafer. When ii IS
properly handled troops cannot advance
against its fire, and it sweeps the exposed
deck of a war ship clear of men.
The Maxim gun is largely in use abroad.
The Colt gun is also employed in our navy.
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