The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23
ID RtVOLUTIONIzE CONFLICT ON LAND Work of a New Rapid-F ire Ma
 chine Gun INVENTED IN ENGLAND New Death-DeaIne Engine of War Has Several Fire Advantages Over
 All Other Makes Yet
 Manufactured.

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
 A rapid-fire machine gun has just been invented in England which has iE it possibilities for revolutionizing modern warfare. in so far as land con flicts are concerned. It has just been put out by r. A. Roberts, of London Army officers here. basing their opin- Ions on the reports of it from abroad, admit that this new engine of war fare must be a wonder in its way.
 Progress in warfare is always a mat ter of comparative values The features or the new gun cannot be appreciated unless it is set side by side with the stand ard types of Colt, Maxim Hotchkiss and Gatling machine guns in the armies of the world.
 So far as America goes, the end of the old warfare was in sight when the Confederates imported the first of tue long-range guns from Europe and. in the battle of Gettysburg pounded away with it at the Union batteries from a hilltop three miles from the battlefield. The-old tpye cannon became old-fash- toned as the wooden battleships of the navy after the duel of the Monitor and the Merrimac. It Is even contended that Pickett's historical charge on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg was the last spectacular assault of it's kind by thousands of unmounted men in battle across an open field.
 Amazing Improvements.
 Since t!len, as even the younger gen. eratlon will recall. some of the most effective fighting in the Boer war was to be olassed with Indian warfaren-- that is, fighting from ambush with fine craftsmanship rather than assaults ot thousands in battle array. The part played by the mine, the inclosed gallery and the craftsmanship in the Russo Japanese war is il memory as of yes- terday.
 Coincident with this progress, ahd each to great degree nterdependent on the CT, has been the amazing irhorovements in engines of war --n;,- chine guns, invention for loading and firing them automatically. revolving turrets, the range and deadly effect of projectiles and new combinations in explosives.
 The rapid-fire machine rifle, on which the new English innovation is an irn- movement Is one of the most famil- far. Whether of the Calling, Colt or Maxim type, the layman knows tine gen eral principles of the numerous rifle barrels bound together in one machine, the automatic devices for loading from a magazine and discharging the empty i SnellS, d1u tne ueduly tlSCI Ol q ioPiN fire combined fire.
 The new English gun marks an ad- vance on this in five particulars. It's barrels are not bound together in 1 nest, but arranged in two tiers and are i open at the breach. The tiers can be fired alternately or separately. The gun can be 1 fired vertically from it's carriage, ,vheth = l CT down the side of a ship or trench, or l up the walls of building. 1t has i'm 1 proved attachments for aiming. There l is no necessity for water jacket or i similar device for keeping the barrels cool.
 1 The unusual range of the English i gun is probably it's most interesting i feature. The rapid-fire machine guns ], used by the armies of this country and ! Europe can be trained to fire nearly 1 vertically, up or down, but to do so they l must be mounted on tripods. Remov- l ing them from their carriage and noun 1 ting them in this way makes them more l or less unwieldy It becomes difficult matter to move them quickly from place 1 to place.
 <. With the English gun the range to l the vertical Is obtained from its per manent mounting. The features of this 1 gun carriage are made clear by the ae- i companying picture. It is said to De ] much superior to anything else of US i kind. As the illustration also shoWs' 1 the superiority of the invention lies ] chiefly in its lightness. The gun, made ] in nickel plate, does not weigh more
 than 75 pounds. This Tact makes It i possible to take the gun at Agaliop
 over rocky ground or up steep inciihes l with safety.