Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-12-20

TWO TYPES OF MACHINE
 GUNS USED TO WIN WAR
Lewis and Maxim Both Have Uses in Modern Methods of Trench
 Fighting.

Washington, Dec. 19.-American army officers who have visited the front tell of considerable rivalry and argument among American and Brit ish soldiers regarding the respective merits of the Lewis gun, invented by Isaac Lewis of the United States ar my, and the Vickers-M Maxim, which the British claim as strictly their own in vention, forgetting the fact that Sir Hiram Maxim was born in Maine.
 As a matter of fact, the ordnance experts do not consider the Lewis and Maxim guns as rivals. Within the past year the use of both the Maxim and Lewis guns has undergone great change. Each weapon is now working strictly within it's limitations, and ex- cept by accident one does not attempt to do the work of the other.
 The Lewis guns was not designed to be machine gun. The machine gun is now an artillery weapon, the Lewis gun an infantry weapon. Like the Vickers- Maxim it has an automatic recoil. But, apart from that, the two guns have little in common.
 The Lewis is fired like rifle; the Maxim gun is fired like a machine. The Lewis is mobile weapon, almost eoualing a rifle; the mobility of the Maxim is limited. The Lewis gun is operated by one man; the Maxim by two. The Lewis goes lover the top" in the first wave of an assault, while the Maxim waits until positions have been consolidated. The Lewis fires from a drum; the Maxim fires from a belt. The Lewis is air-cooled; the Maxim has a water-jacket.
 Once the Lewis guns is considered not as a machine-gun, but as super automatic rifle. it is recognized as a perfect weapon, and as such is honor ed in France by having a school of instruction for it's use all of itself. There gunners are taught how to mount the Lewis gun on parapet or on an aeroplane; to fire it from horse- back or from the back of another man; to use it against too-daring, low flying enemy aeroplane; to cooperate with the machine-gun or to hght alone.
 The Lewis is a rifle, a bit longer than the familiar Lee-Enfield, and with huge cylinder encasing the in ner barrel. It fires from trigger, and so long as the operator keeps the trigger pressed the Lewis will fire until the forty-seven cartridges of the drum are exhausted. It is a matter of some ten seconds to put on another drum. The gun rests on a little tripod, and is fired from the shoulder. Germans have been known to fire the same type of gun from the hip, but the pre- ferred positions is lying down straight behind the gun, thus giving the enc my about one foot of frontage to lire
 at in return. aa j.. The Lewis gun can not be used like the Maxim to form barrage when the troops of the allies are going over
 to prevent relief coming up to the en- emy position under attack: The range
 of the Lewis is change by the least
 shake of the gunner's arm, and its
 bullets might be. deflected into our own troops.
 The rate at which the Lewis gun fires at 700 rounds per minute. That is to sav. while the drum is on the bullets leave the rifle at that rate. The actual top-notch firing amounts to five drum or so per minute, with
 AZ shots to the drum.
 But both the Lewis and the Wicker Maxim are indispensables. They are comrades in arms, and not rivals. The American and British troops on the western front are trained to use both, and frequently find room for the use of the Hotchkiss in addition: The German army uses guns of both types, and so does practically every other army in the field.