The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-05-13
WHAT A POM-POM GUN Is
Regarded as the Coming Land W eaDOn
Use in the BOer War.

New York, May 1.-THE Journal says:
During the present Boer war a good deal
has been heard about the Pom"
gun, and yet no one seems to know what
it really is.
The explanation is very simple. It IS
an automatic Maxim gun firing 1-pound
shell at the rate of over 800 a minute or
more than five every second. The differ
ence between the ordinary rife calibre
Maxim and the Pom-Pom IS that the lat
ter is larger and has a hydraulic cylin-
der to control the energy of the recoil
1t also has two springs instead of one
for the purpose Of returning the recoil-
ing portions Of the gun to their places.
The barrel-casing is kept full Of water
in order to keep the barrel cool. The
breech-casing contains the feed-block
through which the cartridges, which are
held crossways on a belt. are fed singly
into the gun. By an ingenious arrange
ment the recoh acts as the force which
does all the work, driving the barrel back
and forcing the lock to the rear.
All the spare energy of the recoil is
used in doing this work and in helping to
cool the gun. The cartridges are simply
large rife cartridges, six inches long,
but instead Of having bullets they each
have an iron shell loaded with powder
provided with a percussion fuse, which
explodes the missile when it strikes any
thing.
Each shell breaks up into twenty pieces
50 that minutes continuous firing
causes at least 5000 whizzing, Jagged
bits Of iron to fly about the enerny's DO
sition.
The experience of the present war has
proved that at moderate ranges of even
5000 yards the moral effect Of this gun is
immense, and the material damage done
Is considerable. The Beers seem to have
good many of these guns, and the Brit
ism army has been quite recently supplied
with a small number But no inforrna
ton is as yet to hand as to the way they
have worked.
The Beers have made very good use Of
their Pom-Poms, and nave demonstrated
their practical utility in active service
They are handy, accurate and mobile and
moreover, 1t seems that they Will stand
considerably more knocking about than
any other gun Of like calibre. Their use
was at first something in the way of an
experiment. and many military authori-
ties doubted their efficacy; but It has
been admitted on all sides that the So
called Pom-Pom is probably the most eff
Gent OF latter-day common. and il VIII
not be surprising If within a few years
they come into general use in every army
Of the civilized world
An automatic Maxim gun, firing a one
pound shell at this enormous rate of
speed is necessarily a very deadly weap-
on, and demands quite peculiad defences
adapted to the rapid manner in which its
projectiles are delivered It would APP
pear that no special qualifications are re-
CURED to work it with effect, beyond or
dinarily reliable artillery marksmanship,
and the story that the Boer guns were
exclusively worked by Freachrnen is not
borne out by any northumberland
The Boer gunners are becoming very pro-
fcient, and are capable of expert hand
ling Of all save the very heaviest pieces
of ordnance The Pom-Pom has evident
ly come to stay.