The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-08-23
THE BROWNING MACHINE GUN
USED BY OUR MEN IN FRANCE
Invention of Mormon from Ogden,
Utah-0ne of the Most De-
structive Guns in Use

John Browning, a Mormon, from
Ogden, Utah, is the inventor of most
of the modern repeating and auto
matte machine rifles, shot guns and
pistols in use in the world today.
! The story of the invention of his
guns. their adoption by the United
States and use by our men in
France, is one of the interesting
articles in the September Sunset
Magazine, by Edward Crossman.
War has shown the need for two,
if not for three, distinct types of
machine-guns. One, with tripod and
with water-cooling to keep the gun
from burning up during long
stretches of automatic fire, to use
on the defensive A pair of guns
of this sort may chatter the night
through, firing trough the darkness
on line of sight fixed by daylight,
and spraying with deadly bullets a
road used at night by the enemy,
maybe two thousand yards away.
Only the heavy tripod mount and
weight of the gun can ensure hold
ing the line of fire accurately
against the vibration of the recoil.
Only the water cooling can keep
down the heat evolved by the con-
tinuous blast of 4000-degree white
hot fame through the barrel. Or
the gun may be called on to lay a
barrage of bullets on an enemy
trench from which it is suspected
an attack will start One authority
alleges that ninety per cent of the
casualties of modern warfare are
from machine guns.
The other type is the light auto
matte rife carried in the front wave
of advancing troops. 1t can be fired
readily from the shoulder, one shot
at a time like the ordinary rifle, or
by the throw of a latch it will fire
with the rapidity of a pneumatic
riveter hammering together the
plates of a steel ship. The French
use their nineteen pound Chauchat
to spray the trench of the Hun in
the fatal interval between lifting
their own barrage and their arrival,
bomb-preceeded, at the edge of the
trench. If the French automatic
rifleman finds the Hun resistance
sitter than he expected, he snuggles
into a handy shell hole and proceeds
to pop off Fritz whenever a head
comes up into sight Beside him the
two men who brought along the am
munition packed in magazines slip
him the crescent-shaped containers
as fast as the gun shoots itself
empty. 1t does this at the rate of
from $50 to 200 shots a minute
when set for automatic fire.
John Browning brought to the
government machine-gun testing
board two weapons that proved to be
so good that they were forthwith
adopted.
Following the adoption of these
two Browning guns, Browning was
asked to re-design the water-cooled
gun for air-plane use, leaving off the
water jacket and using air cooling.
because the rapid motion of the
plane makes this feasible. The re-
docinDaJ Y1ona ,r,,r ,,,o;cI- o;crI4oa,.
pounds and it is belt fed. The gov
ernment feels that when the flying
fighter has fired two hundred and
fifty rounds he is either hors du COM
bat or victor. He has no magazine
to bother with, nothing to take away
his attention from operating the
plane. He points the plane at the
foe and presses the trigger The
gun does the rest for two hundred
and fifty shots.
So they put two such guns on the
plane, mounted to fire at practically
common center, and they arrange
them to fire together at the pres
sure of handily placed trigger.
They put non-magnifying tubular
lens sight between them, with a
large lens at the eye end, and a
cross hair at the aiming point at the
other end. The fighter waits until
the cross-hair touches the enemy
plane. then he presses the trigger
and two man-killers spout twelve
hundred bullets a minute until he
lets go the trigger.
The success of the great Brown
| ing guns-now triplets; water
cooled, air-plane and light rife-is
due merely to Browning's under
standing of machine-gun problems
and his mastery of them. The vio-
lent hammering action of the parts
of a gun operating six hundred shots
minute produces quick crystalliza-
ton of the parts and breakage. SO
Browning arranged his operating
mechanism to start the opening