The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-12
THE DYING CENTURY
PASSED In REVIEW
SOME ACCESSORIES OF MODERN
Warfare.
Invention at a Premium Alternately
in the Deadly Accuracy of Arms
and in the More Than Equal Means
of Defense.


yrom the Chicago Times.llcrald
Two naval victories for the United
states will stand out in history as
marking the nineteenth century, and
as between the two one may see at
a glance what this age of invention
| has done for war. In 1913 Commodore
Perry won his famous fight against
the British on Lake Erie his fleet ly-
ing almost within pistol shot of tho
enemy. At Manila. in 1898, Commo-
dore Dewey destroyed the Spanish
| fleet at such n distance as made 1t
| impossible for him to see the result OF
his broadsides, two miles away. More
than eighty years of military and ma
val progress lie between the two VIC
tories, but only in the manner of ac-
complishments have results been ef-
| fected Perry's flagship, the Law
renee. might have stood a British
! broadside at the water line and still
! floated to victory; one Spanish shell
against the hull of Dewey's Olympia
might have sent that floating fortress
to the bottom.
With the muzzle-loading fiintlock
and the single-barrel pistol, the CEN
tury opened upon the great battle OF
Marengo, which will go down to his
tory as one of the most destructive
conflicts in the ANNALS of war. No
greater gluttony for blood could have
prompted the early experiments with
the percussion principle in exploding
powder. Only the selfish hope that one
nation in the circumstance of war
might find itself better armed than an
other has been the spur to activities
such as have perfected the modern
arms and armaments of civilization.
Only once in the century has the sell
fish hope been realized, but Prussia,
with her secretly adopted needle gun,
had this satisfaction granted her in
troubles with the Danes and the Aus
trans in the '60c.
COLT AND HIS REVOLVER.
France was the first to displace the
flintlock with the percussion cap and
. nipple. In 1920 the cap and nipple
were common to firearms, but not till
ten years later was the rifling prin-
ciple adopted. Samuel Colt invented
one of the first successful breechloaders
when he secured patents on his re-
volVer in 1885. Ten years later the
, United States adopted Colts revolver
for the army, and about that time the
interest of civilized governments awoke
to the possibilities of the breechloader
Scores of breech- loading rifles were
invented between 1850 and 1860. The
, magazine principle was adopted II
many of them, but this, as rule, was
to cumbersome to be practicable. The
civil war in the United States was al
incentive to further experiments and
number of good, serviceable weapons
were perfected. However, muZzl'
leaders were not seriously displaced il
that conflict. The Spencer rifle wa:
one of the successful magazine arms
and the Sharp's rifle, too, was exten
sively used. Since then, working upol
the magazine principle, breech- -loadini
| rifles have been perfected to a remark
able degree.
Germany in 1885, adopted the famou
- | Mauser rife, resulting in a change o
= arms for many other governments
: Nearly ten years later the Unite'
=. States ostensibly gave up the OLE
. Springfield rifle for the Krag-Jorgen
= sen, but in the late war with Spain AM
h in the present troubles in the Philip
,, pines the Springfield weapon has born
= the brunt of service against the terri
4 BILE Mauser and its charge of smokeles
a powder. In some engagements Unite
, States troops have had to advance hal
Or a mile under fire of Mauser rifles in or
:. der to get an effective range for tn
Springfield arm.
o MACHINE GUNS INTRODUCTION
II The magazine behind the lock of tn
l. modern rifle has rendered the bayone
y obsolete in warfare. High explosive
generally have served to increase tn
Z firing ranges until a bayonet charg
would be impracticable.
But the magazine rifle has accen
l tuated the dangers of war; the machin
J. gun has multiplied them many times
'e Belgian genius is credited with tn
first of these, and in the mitrailleus'
adopted by France in 1870, the Prus
II slams had the first proof of its horrors
Is In America soon afterward Gatlin
d perfected a gun after the same genera
Is pattern, and until the more recent ma
III chine gun produced by Maxim it wa
% considered to be the most perfect wea
u pom of it's kind. 1t was capable of fl
lie ing 1900 shots a minute necessitatin
lt the attention OF only one man in til
ee firing process.
9, MaXims weapon, however, is a
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