Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-12-15

capable Of Arine 500 to 500 rounds q
minute. 10 to b carried BY an tnfan-
|tryman," says the ofacer. 'No horses
|or mules arc needed. as with the Max.
i'm. This gun weighs only twenty.six
and a half pounds, or less than half q
soldiers normal equipment Think
what that means! One infantryman
can carry Q gun, and his comrade can
carry the ammunition. Every compa-
ny Of 100 men could carry seventy-hve
guns. A single company would have
10 destructive power equal to q whole
regiment ct present
MY opinion b that tho new gun Il
bound 10 Aisplace Maxim's, for It takes
ivs mules4 and ten men for, every
Maxim a against no mules and two
men for the Lewis gun. Another thing
10 that Il VIII do away with the neces-
sity Of having cavalry escort for wag-
on trains. A machine gun could be
mounted OF every wagon"
The scene which the correspondent
witnessed ct the Bisley tests was q
tremendously impressive one. Tho
new weapon, which to . laynnan look
Cd more like IN oversrown rife than
10 machine gun. was mounted on Z
small iron tripod on the 200 yard
range The inventor. Colonel Lewis,
was visibly nervous 40 he gave flnal
Instructions to tho civilian operator.
while grouped behind in an interested
and silent semicircle stood Major Gen.
eral vondoneph, master general Of
ordnance: Mater General Allenby. in
spector Of cavalry. and many other
high English army officers, representa-
tives Of the admiralty. military men
from South Africa. New Zealand and
Australia; the Bulgarian minister,
Colonel Squier, the American military
attache. the Belgian, Austrian and
japanese attaches and representatives
Of nearly all the other foreign govern
ments.
Some idea Of the interest aroused
may be gained from the fact that a
Russian colonel. who was present. had
been ordered from %Sebastopol to Eng
land on two hours notice BY the Rus.
sian minister Of war.
After several thousand rounds had
been fred in what seemed only . few
moments. the whole company of a hum
dred went to inspect the riddled target.
Other tests were made at the 500
yard range. then the officers present
had an opportunity to fire the gun
themselves from the 200 yard range.
Fired From Altitude Of coo Fest.
Then the word passed that an aero
plane was coming. The company has
tened to the watch tower in time to
see q heavy numbering ark OF q BIZ
plane climb slowly into the cold gray
sky against the brisk and t~reachefous
head wind. In = special seat fastened
uader the pilot seat sat an sf1cer with
Z machine gun mounted before him.
Az the biplane swung. toward the
target at an altitude Of 600 feet h6
fred the whole magazine OF forty
seven rounds In less than ave minutes,
scoring q high percentage OF hits.
Dvea to the laymen the demonstration
was impressive.
II offered the inveation tree Of
charge to the United States govern
ment," Colonel Lewis said, 'but Il
would not touch It at the tdme.
ALREADY the Gpn mas been subjectsd
to preliminary Official firing trials In
Russia, Belgium. Italy. Austria and
SWEDEN, and II nov under full omcial
tr1Als BY I special board aof omcefs In
the United States. AZ q result Of the
tests trlsl orders have already been
placed BY several governments."