The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-02-18
THE SOUNDLESS FIRE ARM
HIRAM MAXIM SHOWS HIS IN
VENTION AT WORK.


VENTION AT WORK.
Will Fit on Any Gun and Practically
Deadens All Noise of Discharge
of Weapon.
The New York Sun gives very
interesting account of test of Hiram
Maxim's invention for deadening the
sound of guns:
A merry party opening many bot
ties of champagne was what Hiram
Percy Maxim's demonstration of his
new gun silencer sounded like yester-
day afternoon in the Potter building,
at 38 Park row. Now and again,
however, there came a report several
degrees louder than the puffy pops
and the audience understood that
Mr.. Maxim was just showing the diff
ference between the old and the new
way. But for the most part it was
just that little puff-popping, and Mr..
Maxim said that most of the noise
came from the impact of the bullet
against the sand in the target.
It was the first public demonstra-
ton which the inventor has given OF
the silent gun, which with smokeless
powder leaves the marksman inaudl-
BILE as well as invisible.
He held it in the Offices of his at
torneys, Redding, Greedy & Austin,
and in the next room a stenographer
kept pounding the keys just in line
with the course of the bullets. But
Mr.. Maxim's target did not let any OF
them pass. The guns which he USED
ranged all the way from a little ~
repeating Winchester to the new
5000 Springfield army rifle, and
took in the high power Mausers and
Mannlichers which European armies
use.
The silencer is little black tube
which screws on at the muzzle OF the
gun and has about twice the diane
ter of the barrel. The size and weight
vary according to the calibre and
power of the arm. For a 20 callbre
rife the tube is about four inches
long and less than al inch and a half
in diameter. For a 1890 rlne, on
the other hand, the silencer ls TWO
inches longer, but it has the same
diameter. The weight varies from
six to nine ounces.
First Mr.. Maxim snapped his lit
tie Winchester repeater at the target
without one of the tubes on the END.
The noise wasn't pleasant to near.
Then he put on the silencer. You
heard the hammer come hard against
the cartridge, a little puffup, and
that was all. He tried a short and a
long rifle cartridge and the noise was
net appreciably different.
Then he worked up little by little
to the high power guns. He let a
winchester .30-30 go without the lit
tie black tube on the end of it, and
after that came for shot without tue
silencer. With it in place the noise
was Just the same as champagne
bottle popping. Mr.. Maxim explained
that even that noise came from the
passage of the bullet through the air
and then from the impact against the
target. He had made special KIND
of target arranged on the same prln-
ciples as the silencer itself, but III
didn't catch quite all of the sound.
Finally he picked up Springfield
20. which he described as the best
rife in the world. 1t is the new
United States army rifle and the
most powerful military gun In use:
The bullet has an initial velocity OF
about 2,700 feet second and wnen
you hear it start on lts course
under normal conditions the impact
upon the ear drums is something tnat
they don't readily recover from. And
vet with that little black tube IN
Mace the sound is scarcely audible.
By way of showing that the air at
the muzzle of the gun is disturbed by
the passage of gas he held a card In
front of the silencer. The bullet pass
ed cleanly through as though 1t had
been shot from q distance. But Wnen
he tried the same trick with the 81
lencer off the card and the thing that
held it was reduced to shreds.
The theory upon which the sllencer
works Mr.. Maxim described as being
identical with that of the negative
turbine. The powder gases as soon as
thew enter the silencer from the bar
rel of the gun meet the spiral cham
hers in the interior of the tube ana
are set to whirling very rapidly. The
tendency of whirling bodies is to ny
out from the center, and inasmuch as
the only means of exit from the 81
lencer is near the center OF its fur
ther extremity the gases are unable
to escape until they have slowed
down. The expulsion of the gas is
therefore at very much reduced We
locity as compared with its speed un-
der the normal conditions of gun hre
and the shock to the atmosphere ana
the consequent shock to the ear drum
are relatively less.
The course of the bullet lies along
a line somewhat above the center OF
the tube, and the noise which the bull
let makes in cleaving the atmosphere
is the only sound, except that OF the
bullet striking against it's target. II
the target is at a great distance the
only sound is that of the shrill ping
as it passes through the air. Ihus
the invention compliments the utility
hot m