The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-21
AMERICAN DESIGN
A POPULAR Gun
u. S. Ingenuity Appreciated
BY French Experts
of Ordnance
MACHINE GUN FACTOR
IN MODERN WARFARE
New American Type of This Weapon
Makes Favorable Impression With
Those of Other Countries When Com
pared Behind western Front.

CENTRAL FRANCE, Sept. 90 Cor |
respondence of The Associated Press). |
American ingenuity is fast making
itself felt in the construction of field |
guns in the vast workhouse of the ord
nance branch of the American army
here.
One of the American designs which
has won strong favor with the French
experts is the "'split trailer which ex-
| tends back of the gun from the wheels
down to the ground. From the earliest
| DAYS of eunnery this trailer has been a
| single piece. But the Americans have
| split it in two from the ground up, so
that two great legs spread backward
| from cannon.
The results have been astonishing,
| permitting an ordinary field piece to
| be elevated to 50 degrees, or almost
| straight mp.
The American design has now been
| adopted as the standard French model,
i and it is going into all the new guns
| made at French arsenals. Official pho
i tographS made by the ordnance branch
are now going forward for public exhi-
/ bition in America showing this split
| trailer firing at an elevation of 73.40
degrees.
Here could be seen also every form
Of the dcath-dealing machine gun which
became such formidable weapon in
the present war.
.'This IS an age of mechanical war
fare said the officer as he pointed
out the different types, French, Eng
fish. American. as well as German and
II Austrian .'There were no machine
Il guns used in the civil war, only few
in the Spanish American and Boer wars:
more in the Russo-Japanesc and Balkan
wars; and now they have developed to
a foremost place as an effective and
deadly means of warfare
Most of the nations are making two
forms of these machine guns, the heavy
type weighing about 80 pounds, mount
cd ON a tripod and drawn bv a mule,
and the lighter automatic rifle, weigh
ing about Is pounds, fired from the
shoulder like an ordinary rifle, and ear
ricd by hand as it is not much heavier
than the standard l0-pound rife. Both
types of these guns fire steady streams
of lead as the belts of bullets are fed
into the reservoirs. the only limit being
the amount of ammunition which can
be carried. With each automatic rifle
are three men, one to fire and two to
keep up the steady feeding Of ammuni-
4 ton.
4 The new type Of American machine
I gun makes a favorable appearance in
! this array from all of the nations. It
is coming over in large quantities now
4 and most of the American divisions now
arriving come with their machineeuu
sections equipped wtt the new Amer
can model At the training camps the
tests have given the best results. but
the real test of battle action i still L
come as most of the divisions on til,
u fighting line obtained their maehin,
: gun equipment before the new mode
was ready.
4 in the same arsenal one could com
] pare the rifles and bayoncts of all tn,
2 conbatant troops The American bay
I onet looked ike ? long. sLarp-cd get
1 knife. But the French bavonct wa
I more like slender raper two fee
1 long and without cutting edge, mean
4 FOR stabbing. The Russian bayonet ha
l no sharp point but is like a screw
l driver with fiat edge, cutting an
\ stabbing at the same time
And besides the guns of all kinds i
the ammunition stored in vast quaint
/ ties in arsenals and warehouses and i
/ huge parks and ammunition dumps a
the way from the coast up to the fight
ing front. The great stacks of shell
are very orderly in arrangement, cac
stack representing a carload and eae
J graded by caliber and lot number Fac
I lot of shells differs slightly in powe
| ard the only way to insure uniform ~
4 curaev in the fire of a battery is |
/ keen it supplied with the same lot
! shells
I Separate from the shells are Il
/ fuses and erenades kept in small d
| ached lots owing to their highly e
/ plosive character. In one of these or
made dumps there were Is differel
Kinds of gas, hand and life erenades
There are now some s,400 men, 70
- mcrlv skilled mechanics in large Amer
- can factories, who are enlisted soldie
~ carving on this huge work of keepil
II up the supply of guns and ammunitio
II Realizing the need of highly skills
II men for this work in France, a speci
II recruiting campaign was carried on
III panE Oh inc American INDUSTRIAL &c
II tiers last winter. The result is show
H in the equipment of the ordnan
II branch with a staff of skilled workm
comparing with the best factory SC
II tons.
1t Is largely a patriotic service
| which skilled mechanics have given
large wages to accept the soldiers p
of $50 a month. The foreman of o
of the extensive Detroit automob
II Factories, who received 5000 week,
now a volunteer among these enlist
men receiving $50 a week. There {
scores of cases of this kind.
On the way from the seacoast to &
great center of American ordnaI
supply, one sees. along the way not
ly vast stocks of material and gu