Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1914-11-02
american MADE arms
IN EUROPEAN WAR
Guns at Liege Descendants
Of Weapons That Spread
Death at Gettysburg
ARMOR PLATE
ALSO MADE HERE
BY CARLTON TEN EYCK

BY CARLTON TEN EYCK.
written for the United Press.
NEW YORK. Nov. Whether they
know it or not the European soldiers
fighting the battles OF the Kaiser, and
the Gar the President and the Kings
are using instruments of American
invention, or. at least, arms which
had their origin in the United States
and which in some cases, have been
improved abroad.
Colt, Calling, Hotchkiss, Winches-
ter and Maxim, are names familiar
to every schoolboy when applied to
revolvers. rifles and even to quick
firing guns of larger calibre. These
men, aroused to their inventive
genius by the Mexican and Civil
Wars, perfected the art of killing
men to a remarkable degree. The
guns at Liege and Antwerp are the
descendants of those first used at
Buena Vista and Gettysburg.
Each one of these inventors worked
under conditions which might be
called romantic. None Of them was
brutal enough to sit down and figure
out a way to kill many human beings
at once-which is precisely the re-
suit achieved by the terrible engines
of destruction today.
Dr. Calling, for example, had a
noble purpose in mind when he de-
vised the rapid-frer which bears his
name. II was during the Civil War.
A regiment of worn out, starving SOL
diers was passing by. Calling was
moved to compassion. He thought
that he could invent "a gun which
would make many soldiers unneces-
sary by using one weapon to do the
work of a hundred men. His ma
chine-gun was the result. It could
fire 1900 shots a minute but the
United States government was just
as slow to adopt q new military in
vention i'm 1861 as it is today and
Gatling's invention was thrown into
the discard But General Benz. f..
Butler bought twelve of them at his
own expense and the successful use
o. them in 1862 persuaded the gov
eminent to adopt the invention.
The Colt revolver had its origin on
a sailing vessel which carried Samuel
Colt, then twelve years old, to CAL
cutta. in 1926. Colt was bored to
evaporation by the voyage. To
while the monotony he started whit
ling in true Yankee fashion and fin
ally evolved the rough pattern of a
revolver. When he got back to the
States he followed up the idea. He
submitted it to the government ten
years later The authorities at
Washington laughed at him until
General Zachary Taylor-like Butler
in the Civil War-introduced a thou
sand of the weapons for his cavalry
men. to be used in Mexico Success
followed and the Colt gun became
famous in the world over.
Hotchkiss was riding in a railroad
train in 1875 when the idea of the
magazine rife which bears his name
came in his mind. Some years be-
fore he had devised the murderous
Hotchkiss shells and a revolving
cannon" But the masterpiece he
sketched i'm fifteen minutes on the
margin of the newspaper he was
/ carrying at the time. The value o.
that rifle was appreciated almost i'm
mediately for the governments of this
country, France and England adopted
| the weapon.
Although strictly speaking, not an
/ inventor, Winchester had enough me
chanical ability to see possibilities il
a volcanic" rife which some unusin.
Bay State genius evolved. Winches
/ ter founded the factory and capita
LIKED the invention until today thu
Winchester rifle scarcely needs al
/ the advertising which is given to il.
Perhaps the most versatile o
American firearms inventors is Hir
am Maxim, who is not to be confuse,
with his brother Hudson. another
genius in the inventing Of apparatus
for the fine art of killing. Hiram
inventiveness was given bump II
the right direction when he wa
bowlcd over by an old-fashione'
muzzle-loading rife. Like Newton
he profited by the blow and though
out a way to make use of the force
The Northumberland rapid-firin
gun which makes the recoil serve a
the power for reloading follOwe
from his wonderful brain. He ais
invented the world famous cordite,
powerful smokeless powder.
These are but few of the grea
names in tn history of America
military and naval inventions. On
could stretch the list indefinitely b
adding the names Of Whitehead. tn
torpedo designer; Ericsson, a ma
turalized American who invented tn
Mositor: Hudson Maxim, an author
ty on explosives and inventor {
many different kinds; Holland, III
father Of the submarine boats whio
are now doing such extensive dan
age in the North Sea, and man
others whose lives were spent
bringing the arts Of war to a hie
, degree of perfection
: Then, by that strange irony whic
seems to be revealed in striking fasl
ion during the war times. il can
proven that Americans have give
to the world the best protecuo
, against the bullets and shells
/ other Americans; the finest armC
, plate that is made anywhere.
INJURED IN GRmIRON GAME.
5 Michael Burns, son of Policema