The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-05-07
NARROW ESCAPES.
Hudson Maxim Has Figured in Some
PerilOuS Incidents.

| the government proving SlOuuuS dI
Sandy Hook, n. j., when the United
States government was testing max
Unite before adopting it.
Near a light frame building in
| which l was filling shells with maxi
| mite, a ten inch gun was being test
ed. A number of shots had been
fired from the big gun. Just as |
had concluded my work and started
for the wharf to take the govern
ment tug for New York, the signal
was sounded for another shot. was
walking along a stretch of railway
track directly behind the gun.
At that instant l remembered that
several years before, when one of
these guns was being tested, the
breechlock had blown out, passed
through the bombproof and killed
six officers and men, but l argued
with myself that the chance was in
| fnitely remote that the breechlock
would be blown out of the present
gun on this discharge at the very
instant l was in range, but upon a
sudden impulse l ran with all my
might.
The gun was discharged. I look
ed round just in time to see the huge
breechlock pass through a building
near the one in which l had been
at work. 1t came up the track,
striking and breaking one of the
rails over which I had passed. It
ricocheted against the top of an old
granite fort, a shower of stones and
debris fell over wide area and many
fragments struck the ground close to
| me.
walked back to the scene of the
accident and found that the windows
in the little building where 1 had
been filling maxamite shells were
completely riddled with partly burn
ed cylinders of ,smokeless powder
that had been blown from the gun.
l once had another curious exper-
ience at Sandy Hook during some
trials of the Maxim automatic ma
chine gun.
Among the severe tests to which
| the gun was subjected was one in
| tended to stimulate what might oc-
cur in making a landing upon the
seashore, where the mechanism of
the gun might get filed with sand.
| The test is known as the sand
test"
The gun being tested at the time
was Of the kind using black gun
powder cartridges, for it was before
the introduction of smokeless pow
der. There was so much energy in
| the recoil of the barrel that a great
deal of sand could be thrown into
the mechanism without interfering
with the working of the gun.
The commanding officer did not ar
rive to see the gun fired until after
the board in charge had completed
the test. He then appeared and de-
manded that the firing should be
continued for his benefit. The chair
man of the experimental board de-
INJURED, saying that the gun had
passed through the test admirably
and that it was too bad to fire it
more than was absolutely necessary,
| with it's mechanism filled with sand.
| But the commander insisted.
A schooner was approaching near
| the line of fire. The commander
said he only wanted to see a few
rounds fired and that the firing would
be completed before the schooner
would come within range. Accord
| ingly a belt of 333 rounds was in
serted, and the firing begun. After
| perhaps fifty rounds were fired the
command was given "Cease firing,
| but the gun kept right on. 1t after
ward proved that the trigger was
blocked by sand, 50 that it was i'm
possible to stop the gun. The
schooner came into range and the
bullets flew over and around her.
| My assistant, who was firing the
| gun, did his best to work the trigger,
and stop it. 1t did not occur to him
on the instant, to unlimber the gun
and swing it round so as to bring
| the schooner out of range. AS the
gun fired at the rate of $50 shots a
minute the firing was all over inside
half a minute.
Fortunately no damage was done.
When the same gun was undergoing
a sand test at Annapolis, Nd, I came