The Saint Paul globe., 1899-02-13

Six hundred rounds fired from
baby" Maxim gun in one minute is
terrific number of bullets to be turned
loose against public enemy. Yet this
is what Hiram S. Maxim, the inventor,
recently did at the conclusion of a lee
ture on rapid-fire ordnance before the
| engineer society of Columbia univer-
sity. Mr.. Maxim used lantern slides to
illustrate the evolution of the automatic
gun and explained the differences of
the various inventions. He wound up
by firing 800 shots minute from a lit
tie weapon of his manufacture, the en-
tire weight of which was twenty-five
pounds.
The inventor said that the construc-
ton of metallic cartridges first render
ed the use of breech-loading weapons
possible. Peter Cooper was the pioneer
building such weapon as early as
1S40. The gun was not put in use, how
ever, the first machine gun to be used
being the Gatling. Then the mitra-
illeuse, the Gardner, Lowell, Pratt,
Whitney and Nordenreldt followed in
the order named. But in all these the
recoil was so great that they must be
| mounted on carriages as heavy as light
field pieces.
A little over twelve years ago Maxim
perfected the first apparatus whereby
| the recoil from the explosion of one
cartridge is used to explode another.
This is the principle wherein his weap
ON differs from other machine guns; it
is self-discharging so long as the oper-
ator holds to the trigger. 1t will grind
out bullets with amazing rapidity as
long as it is supplied with ammunition
without the necessity of heavy car
riage or, in fact. anything but the
finger pressure on the trigger. The re-
coil is used to force a new cartridge
into the barrels and discharge it, the
act being duplicated with marvellous
speed.
Mr.. Maxim did not meet with much
encoura cement from the United States
government when he explained his ma
chine. Foreign nations laughed at him
and said his claims were mere Yankee
boasting. But he took a gun to London
and the Prince of Wales tried it with
the result that 200, 900 shots were fred
in displaying the machine. Then the
government wanted him to furnish a
gun which would fire 1000 shots a
minute and not weigh more than 100
pounds He constructed one which
weighed forty pounds and which shot
1000 cartridges in three minutes. Lord
Wolseley tried his gun and the result
was his first government order.
It Is due to these remarkably effect
i've little machine guns that Lord
Kitchener was able to slaughter so
many dervishes with such an inferior
fcrce. A few regiments equipped with
Maxims are equal to whole divisions
not so armed, as Omdurman has shown.
Lord Wolseley objected to the smoke
made by the gun and Maxim began
the study which resulted in the inven-
ton of the smokeless powder. The ad-
vantage of this powder in attack or
defense was fully Illustrated in the late
war.
But it costs money to handle machine
guns For instance, DIR. Gatling has
recently perfected a machine gun which
is to be used for firing guncotton or
other high explosives. He obtained an
order from the government to test it
at Sandy hook. Congress set aside
SAC, 900 to build the gun, with an addi-
tional $4,000 for casting the steel NOR
tar. Then the ordnance board set
aside $4,000 more to test the machine
1t was taken to Sandy Hook and the
whole outfit blew to atoms at the first
fire. Thus some s73 600 of Uncle Sans
cash was lost in a second
The test was not satisfactory of
course, and ANOTHER will be made A
| new gun, which will possibly be de-
void of the defects of the first one, will
be constructed and the same interest
say. without explosive incident. will be
carried out. OF course it will cost
| money again. but guns of this kind
must be had and the government must
pay for them. Civilizers come high in
this end of the century, but the public
situation makes them imperatively nee
essary.