The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-07

action. ana this at once sets the whole
mechanism in motion. The empty shell is
automatically Withdrawn new cartridge
is inserted, the bresch is closed and the
gun is fired with incredible rapidly The
cartridses are fed from belt something
like those worn by hunters, which holds
in little separate pockets about 1913 of them,
and is moved forward as cloth is in Il
sewing machine.
Each discharge injects a certain guam
tjty of water into the metal Jacket 50 as 40
prevent the Overheating OF the barrel, and
1000 cartridges can be fired before the
water begins to throw off steam graG-
uated quadrant permits the barrel TO be
trained m any desired direction, and a
steel armor plate protects the operator.
who sits ON a leather cushion fixed in the
rear leg of the tripod supporting the gun,
or on the tongue of the carriage if 1t is
mounted on wheels. Six hundred and six
ty-six shots can be fired in minute. The
gun mounted is only three feet high, and
measures four feet nine inches from breech
40 muzzle: its weisht without the carriage
is about fifty pounds.
The Hotchkiss gun is the extension of
the principle of machine guns to cannon.
This arm is an American invention, but
the principal factory for making il is in
France, and 1t was adopted by many Eu-
ropean governments before Il was recog-
nized in the United States. The original
Hotchkiss was a big revolver, with five
chambers, which being turned slowly, were
fired in succession and could be quickly
reloaded by hand The guns are made of
various sizes, and throw prOjectiles
weighing from one to thirty-tWo pounds.
Twenty shots per minute have been fired
from a Hotchkiss revolving 6-potder.
A rapid-firing field gun is made under
the HotchkisS patents, with a carriage
that neutralizes the recoil by means of
upper and lower frames and springs,
brakes on the wheels and an anchor plate
on the trail, so that it is unnecessary to
bring the piece back into position after
each discharge. A novel type of Hotch-
kiss gun for the defense of trenches, etc.
has a different twist in the rifing of each
barrel, so that the area covered by can
lister or shrapnel fired from them will vary
with each discharge. New devices for
feeding this gun can be worked with great
rapidity, and it is possible to fire ninety
shots a minute.
The Driggs-Schroeder gun, so named for
its inventors, Lieuts. w. II. briggs and
Seaton Schroeder of the United States
Navy, is similar in many ways to the
Hotchkiss gun and represents the most
advanced ideas in rapid-tire guns of heavy
calibre. Like the rest of machine guns
ii has been adopted by many foreign gov
ernments. 1t is pivoted on a standard
and a projecting arm at the breech ena-
bles the gunner to aim il much in the
same manner he would sight rifle, leav-
ing both his hands free. With one hand
he opens and closes the breech, and with
the other he inserts and extracts the cart
ridges The action is very simple, and not
likely to get out of order and a skilled
operator has fired as many as thirty-six
shots in one minute. For repelIing small
boats and penetrating the sides of unar-
mored vessels, the briggs Schroeder. con-
| sidering its weight, is unexceIed.