The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-12-16

preliminary tests, could "stind the
grueling of actual service.
Equal to a Regiment.
"For the first time a machine gun,
capable of firing 500 to 800 rounds a
minute, is to be carried by an infan-
tryman,' says the officer. "No horses
or mules are needed, as with the Max
I'M. This gun weighs only twenty-six
and half pounds. or less than half
soldiers normal equipment. Think
what that means! One infantryman
can carry a gun. and his comrade can
carry the ammunition. Every compa-
ny of 100 men could carry seventy-five
guns. A single company would have
"a destructive power equal to a whole
regiment at present
My opinion is that the new gun is
bound to displace MaXim's, for it takes
five mules and ten men for every
Maxim as against no mules and two
men for the Lewis gun. Another thing
is that it will do away with the neces-
sity of having cavalry escort for wag-
on trains. A machine gun could be
mounted on every wagon
The scene which the correspondent
witnessed at the Bisley tests was a
tremendously impressive one The
new weapon, which to a layman look
ed more like an overgrown rifle than
machine gun, was mounted on a
small iron tripod on the 200 yard
range. The inventor, Colonel Lewis,
was visibly nervous as he gave final
instructions to the civilian operator,
while grouped behind in an interested
and silent semicircle stood Major Gen
! eral Vondonoph, master general of
ordnance; Major 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
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 fired in what seemed only a few
moments, the whole company of hun
dred went to inspect the riddled target.
Other tests were made at the 800
yard range, then the officers present
had an opportunity to fire the gun
themselves from the 200 yard range.
Fired From Altitude of 600 Feet.
Then the word passed that an aero
plane was coming. The company has
tened to the watch tower in time to
see a heavy numbering ark of BIZ
plane climb slowly into the cold gray
sky against the brisk and treacherous
head wind. In a special seat fastened
under the pilot seat sat an officer with
n machine gun mounted before him.
AS the biplane swung toward the
target at an altitude of 600 feet he
fired the whole magazine of forty
seven rounds in less than five minutes,
scoring a high percentage of hits.
Even to the laymen the demonstration
was impressive.
81 offered the invention free of
charge to the United States govern
ment," Colonel Lewis said, "but it
would not touch u at the time.
ALREADY the i'm has been subjected
to preliminary official firing trials in
Russia, Belgium, Italy, Austria and
Sweden, and is now under full official
trials by a special board Of officers in
the United States. AS a result of the
tests trial orders have already been
placed by several governments"