Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-03
NEW STYLE PISTOLS
Foreign Rivals to the Old Reliable
Si1-Shooter.
AUTOMATIC and RAPID FIRING
Have Little Resemblance to the
Ordinary Revolver.
LOADING AND SHOOTING
AND RAPID FIRING
LOADING AND SHOOTING
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
| PARIS, October D. 1900.
| In the forestry building of the exhibition. a
short distance from the Russian emperor s
magnificent collection of old fowling pieces
| and pistols and the retrospective show of the
| gun in all its evolutions through five CEN
turtles, have been displayed the latest forms
OF automatic small arms, deadly little snap
pers, using smokeless powder with no more
noise than the swapping of whip or silent
| ~ olscharg1ng compressed air or liqufied
gas Even more than the repeating rifles and
| shotguns shown beside them these quick
| firing, quick-loading spitfires startle the i'm
| aginatfon. The horse pistols of old czars
| and grand dukes studded with gems and
1nlaid with gold; their workmanship ap-
| pears magnificent today, and they even had
a good idea of the revolver, as may be seen
In several sixteenth century examples; but
the percussion principle was hidden from
them and the automatic device would have
Seemed Seemed 10 them something magical and
dlaoolical. The pistols of the dawning CEN
| Jury are not decorated. They are small
| enough to go into the vest pocket But in
their quick work they capable of sur
prising not only Athos, Porthos and Ara
boy himself
The French masterpiece called ia mi
|
peatlng pistol yet invented and it is claimed
for 1t that it is the quickest loader and un-
loader We are far away from the old
s thanna revolver whose empty cartridge
sheils must be elected by special move
| ment. The mitrailleuse scarcely looks like
a pistol at all, its handle descending from
Almost Almost the center of the barrel while its
| Trigger, squeezed back to the handle in a
| Iuli INST, pulls back half the barrel with it
10 Jam the waiting cartridge up against the
| striker. ''ie
| This iS hot
| eight little smokeless-powder CARTRIDGES
slowed away In its handle, ready to be
pushed up; one by one. and caught by the
s'uiHiis parrei, 1t can shoot eight bullets
| as quickly as the trigger can be pulled-no
| cocklng-and as each bullet goes. out mons
tne empty cartridge shell, leaving the pis-
| tol Tree to be reloaded.
Quick ReIoadfng.
say free to be reloaded" adyisedly he
cause II Is not necessary to discharge all
the elsht cartridges to begin reloading
hach cartridge may be replaced immedi-
a'eiy AFTER II Is fired by the simple act of
pushing new cartridge into a hole in the
top of the pistol. Three shots. for examnIe
may De hred-or two or four orr fiye-anI
lhen' II there be a moments time the
mag ahagazlne may be filled up again, or a first
shot may be fired-its empty she'll ponnine
out-and new cartridge be pushed into itS
place and hred without calling on the seven
reserve cartridges slowed away in the
AAStAHAS' anu 81 Ou lnuennlteIV,
In an expert hand the loading and shoot
Ing become almost instantaneous Loose
cartridges are held in the left hand to he
pressed into the hole in the top of the pistol
one 9iie oy one as cartridge after cartridge is
olscharsed and ejected-one, two. three
TOUR, hVe, six, seven or eight, according to
the opportunities and exigencies of the af
fray. ~ ''Ae al
Taking the mitrailleuse in the right hand
and looking down on it. the hole in the
top, Immediately above the handle dis
closes the complete working Of the device
1t is square hole, just the size of a cart
which may be pushed down to the hotton,
or the hollow handle of the pistol by the
pressure of lead pencil, for example
eaten e.. working In the right-hand side of the
mole Is seen to have an upward pushing
movement as the trigger is pulled
spring and catch maneuver the cartridges.
II one cartridge only is pressed into the
mole 1t reposes on the spring until the NOV
apie parrel is pulled back to inclose 1t and
jam 1t up against the Striker by the puII
ing of the trigger.
Slight Noise and RecofI.
AS the barrel incloses the whole CARTRIDGE
up to its neck none of the gas Is lost as in
the case Of revolver, and the bullet is sped
with the whole force Of the charge. This
permits much weaker charge than is re-
quired by revolver, with a consequent
lessen1ng of noise and recoil. As the NOV
able barrel advances with the letting-go of
the trigger after discharge the empty cart
ridge shell is let go Of and the upward
moving catch at the right-hand side of the
hole fps 1t up and out, to fall on the
ground The pistol is then empty
If, instead of discharging the first cart
ridge pressed into the hole, other cartridges
are pressed on top of it, the timber spring
pushed down further into the handle as
each new cartridge is introduced, while the
catch at the side always holds the top cart
rcge. Then, as the top one is caught, en-
Veioped by the back-pulled barrel dis
charged, let loose and tipped out, the spring
in the bottom of the handle pushes up a
new cartridge, to be caught, discharged and
elected in the same way.
AS to the possible qucknesS of this a,to-
matte firing, 1, myself without practice
watch in hand, have pulled the trigger
thirty times In ten seconds and eighteen
times in five seconds, while have been able
to discharge eight dummy cartridges in
less than three seconds.
Also We fired the new-fangled gun MANY
times one holiday afternoon in an emrty
potato field in the environs of Paris ana
While we neglected to time ourselves nv
remembrance of it is that we found we
could fire actual shots with the same ra-
pidity.
The Belgian quick-firing and ejecting pis-
tol, recently adopted for the officers of the
Belgian army, is called 1.-The Browning
although 1t seems impossible to learn who |
the Browning is. Let US hope that he is
an American because his pistol is as quick |
tirer and ejector as the mitrailleuse, while |
for loading 1t has its own good points !
The whole case Of these automatic pistols |
against the most modern type of revolver |
does not repose exclusively in the auto |
matte device. Certain revolvers have been |
called automatic because all the empty |
cartridge shells may be extracted from |
them by a single maneuver. This Belgian |
pistol elects the empty shells and intro |
duces new cartridges into the chamber, not |
by any separate maneuver, but by force of !
the recoil. AS in the case of the mitrail-
leuse, the seven shots may be fired con-
secutively and the pistol left in condition
for reloading by the simple act Of pulling
the trigger. Indeed, the automatic quail
tiles of the Belgian arm extend even to |
cooking it each time. Accuracy as well as |
rapidity is claimed as the result.
In the ordinary up-to-date revolver these |