University Missourian., 1915-08-04
Inventor of Death-Dealing
Weapon Tells of Meet
ing With Emperor.
PLACED BIG ORDERS
Thin Line of Germans Can
Now Hold Back French
and English.
BY Wilbur =. Forrest

LONDON, July 80 (By maiD.-How
Emperor Wilhelm foresaw twenty
years ago the possibilities of the
Maxim gun, now so prominent in war
reports, and ordered vast quantities
of this death-dealing weapon, was
told here today for the first time by
Sir Hiram Maxim, the aged American
inventor
Today the German army has APP
proximately $4,000 of these machine
guns and the British government and
other governments are making them
as fast as they can, all of which
proves that the day of the single shot
rife is past in modern warfare, says
Sir Hiram.
1t was Albert Edward, Prince of
Wales, later King Edward who call
ed the Kaiser's attention to the Max
i'm gun, says the inventor. The King
ew, whe shrdtaord ahrdltaordl aoinn
was on a visit to his imperial
nephew, when one day he inquired
casually of Wilhelm if he had chanced
to notice the Maxim gun. The Kaiser
acknowledged he had not but imme-
diately declared his interest when told
it could fire bullets at the rate of
600 a minute.
Kaiser Inspected New Gun.
There happened to be one of the
newly invented Maxims on a range
not far from the palace and together
with his guest the Kaiser went to the
range to watch it perform. Sir Hiram,
who was present, adds:
Orders were sent to have every
thing ready, and when the Kaiser and
the Prince visited the grounds they
found four machine guns and four big
targets at a distance of 200 metres.
The old Gatling gun was first fired.
1t was very heavy and had six bar
rels The Nordenfeldt five-barreled
relied Gardner. 1t required four men
to serve each gun and when they at
tempted to work the guns too rapid
ly they seemed to jam. They got
through with $50 to 200 rounds min
ute. One man. an experienced gun
ner, then sat on the tail of the little
Maxim gun, carefully adjusted the
sights, pulled the trigger and 333
rounds went off in slightly more than
a half minute. (The Maxim gun is
loaded and fired by its own recoil)
The Kaiser and the Prince then walk
ed down and examined the targets.
The hits made by the hand-worked
machines were scattered all over the
place. These guns had been dis
turbed by the working of the cranks
and levers, whereas the Maxim, not
being interfered with by an external
force, had made nearly all hits in the
bullseye or close to it.
when the Kaiser returned, he
placed his finger on the Maxim gun
and said, That is the gun, there is no
other He then caused orders to be
given to turn these guns out very
rapidly and in vast quantities, and
they are now making history very
much to our cost.
Began on Gun in 1881.
"If we wish to beat the Germans at |
their own game, 1t is necessary to be |
supplied with a great number of au-
tomato machine guns"
Sir Hiram first began work on the |
automatic gun in 1881, when he was
chief engineer and electrician of the /
United States Lighting Company of
New York. He later exhibited his in
vention before officials in France and
England and after more perfect ma
chine had been made he took it to
Germany where the Kaiser was the
first to recognize its value.
In his statement, Sir Hiram says.
I'm the war between Russia and ia
pan, two-thirds of all the casualties
among the japanese were caused by