New Britain herald., 1918-02-28
BROWNING MACHINE
 GUNS PASS TEST
Operate Without Flaw During
 Rigorous Workouts

Washington, Feb. 2S.-Without
 single maIfunction the Browning
 automatic machine guns-light and
 heayy-Which have been adopted for
 the American army were publicly
 demonstrated and tested by the Ord
 nance department yesterday after
 noon.
 The tests occurred on the govern
 lnent rifle range at Congress Heights,
 several miles southeast of Washing ton, and were witnessed by 3oo per
 sons, including British, French, ltal-
 ian, and Belgian army officers on duty in Washington; senators. representa- tives, many army officers, and probably 50 reporters.
 After the demonstration every spec tator was impressed with the success achieved by the weapons. The light Browning rifle weighs only 15 pounds The heavy gun weighs only o4 l-Z pounds, Both these guns fired the same ammunition that the American forces in France will use in the Springfields and modified Enfields- 1 the rimless, 80 calibre, cupro nickel
 jacketed bullets, which have a pres sure of 5O,O 900 pounds to the square inch when fired The ammunition will be interchangeable between all four weapons the Springfield, the modified Enfield, the light Brown3,S automatic rifle. and the heavy Brown ing machine gun. As d matter of fact, the bullets used in the test bore fig ures "IE. A. II, 16," showing that they were made at the FrankfOrd Arsenal | in November. 1916.
 The light Browning rife demon- strated in the hands of ten enlisted men of the army. is officially de- scribed as ''the Browning machine rifle, model of 1918, air-cooled,' ana is the authorized light weight ma chine gun of the United States army. It may be fired from the shoulder or hip in bursts of 20 shots, or by single shots It is both semi-automatic and fully automatic, that is the soldier by pressing a lever on the side of the weapon may have it shoot continu- ously or semi-automatically or in single shots
 Twenty Shots in 21a Seconds. In the hands of the ten enlisted men advancing across the range hr- ing at dummy targets, the light Browning rifle was certainly a deadly weapon. It fires twenty continuous shots in 2 1-2 seconds. These shots
 
 which are attached beneath the gun just forward of the trigger. and can l be changed by the rifeman in 1-2 l seconds Advancing behind each rife 1 man was another enlisted man car- rying the reserve supply of anmGnl- ] ton, which was handed to the rifle l men in magazines each containing l 20 shots. It was evident from the tests 1 that this weapon has many tactical ] advantages and that it will be Of l great value as an offensive weapon. 1 The Browning heavy machine gun l dem monstrated is also of 1918 model ] and Water-coolcd. This gun is fed ] from a belt of 250 rounds of cart ! ridges It's features are endurance and simplicity of mechanism, render l ing manufacturing easy. In the of l ficial government test recently this 1 gun fired 39.50 shots without a 1 break At another test 10000 shots were fired in AS minutes, Is seconds, l without malfunction and only three l stoppages, each due to defective l cartridge. This gun weighs only 34 1-2 pounds with the water jacket around the barrel filled. It operates 1 from a tripod and is effective for over head, indirect, barrage and defensive l fire.
 ] Both of these guns are being man. 1 ufa ctured by machine process, and ] will reach the peak of production of 1 a large quantity basis by June, when 1 several thousands guns of each type 1 will be turned out weekly. It IS the intention Of the war department to get both of these types of weapons to ] the fighting front as rapidly as they
 can be transported for use by Gen l eral PerShngS $ men.
 1 Strictly fresh Connecticut egg's, soc