Mexico Missouri message., 1918-10-03
BROWNING GUN IN
CLASS BY ITSELF
Remarkable New Tool Better
Than Anything Of Its Type.
DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER
Fired From Shoulder or Hlp In Bursts
Of Twenty Shots In TWO and One.
Half seconds--Alr Cooled,
Gas Operated.
Gas Operated.
BY JAMES X. COLLINS.
R'rom the Committee on Public Informa-
tion, Washington, d, C.)

HFom the Committee on Public Informa-
tion, Washington, d. c.
Three hundred senators, representa-
hves, journalists, and army officers
of the French, British, Italian, Bel
gian and American forces stood be-
hind a little squad of ordnance men
the other day at rife range outside
Of Washington.
Attention." commanded the officer
in charge Of the squad.
shoulder fire - one magazine
semi-automatic-Readyi LoadI AimI
FireI'
There was popping like that, say,
of half dozen packs Of giant fire.
crackers all set of at once. 1t lasted
about ten seconds, tbs time required to
fire 20 shots from what looked like an
ordinary rifle in the hands Of each
soldier. Five hundred yards away the
dirt few behind row Of small tar
gets set up to represent men.
shoulder fire - one magazine
Rutomatic-load was the next COM
mand given.
But different volley was heard at
the command "Firer 1t sounded like
B-r-r-r-r-ri and lasted only two and a
half secondsl If you want to estimate
the rapldity, listen to the ticking of
your watch, which averages about four
ticks per second, and realize that the
automatic fire of this weapon was just,
twice as fast-eight standard army
rife cartridges fred in a second with
one pull of the trigger.
And that was the new Browning
machine gun which Uncle Sam was
about to manufacture at the rate of
thousands a week, and had brought to
this rifle range for its first public exhi-
bition.
Other methods of firing were shown
with the gun placed at the hip and
with the soldiers marching toward the
target, firing as they walked. Then
the spectators crowded around and be-
gan asking questions.
'Is 1t air cooled or water cooled7
What does It weight How fast can
they be made? What do they cost?
Is 1t a better weapon than this machine
gun or thatr"
f1u WSTS OonVtnGeu.
Among those present was one men,
Der of congress who, a few weeks be-
fore, during an anxious inquiry into
our war preparations, had stated his
belief that the Browning machine gun
was only dream. And now he was
allowed to fire the weapon himself,
and planted succession of bullets In
the distant target with an accuracy
which left no question in his mind as
to the tangibillty or accuracy Of this
new tool of the American soldier.
On the following morning newspa-
pers throughout the country published
detailed description of both this gun,
known as the '1ight Browning" and
another type called the "heavy Brown.
Ing" which was also demonstrated,
being fred from q tripod, water cooled,
and fed with canvas belts Containing
250 cartridges each. 1t has fred 10000
shots In little less than 48 minutes.
Each legislator and journalist asked
his own questions, and there was an
I honest spirit Of inquiry evident. Every
American present, while admitting the
impressive nature of the test, seemed
to feel that he was personally repre-
senting the nation and bound to over
look no technical details touching the
efficiency of these new weapons. And
in that matter each American die truly
represent the nation which has been
keen to discover every part of our war
program open to question, each accord
ing to his own light and reading.
The reader of this article, too, will
want to ask his own technical ques-
tions, and fer his information all the
facts about both types Of guns have
been summarized separately, so that at
tentiOn here may be concentrated upon
another aspect of the maehine-gun pro.
grants tactical use as a tool apart
from the mere details of how much II
weighs, how fast it fires, how many
shots second, how many times 1t jaras
in a test, how 1t is cooled, how many
parts It has, how quickly they can be
taken down and put together again
etc.
One Of the first questions asked by
everybody concerning the light gun, fol-
instance, was: 'Ts 1t cooled by air OF
waterT' And the answer to that Ques'
tion is: "By air-but cooling is not O
problem with the light Browning
Naturally, statement of that sort
comes as a surprise to the man in the
street who has heard that machine
guns are subject to the terrific heat Of
smokeless-powder gases, which some
times develop the destructive tempera'
ture of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. and
that keeping a machine cool In action
Is one OF the chief problems with that
type Of weapon. But when the tactical
use Of this particular arm is under
stood. one easily understands how cool
ing may be disregarded in the light
Browning, and its design developed in
other directions forsother purposes. Sc
we will try to get the tactical point OF