Evening star., 1918-02-28
OFFICIALS SEE TEST
Of BROWNING GUNS
Demonstration of Automatic
Rifle and Machine Gun Given
at Congress Heights Range.
STANDARD FOR U. S. ARMY

Many members of Congress. high
Army officials and q score OF ofhcers
from the British, French. italian and
BELGIAN missions watched with keen
interest a practical demonstration OF
the Browning automatic rifle and
machine gun at the Congress Heights
range yesterday afternoon. For more
than two hours the air was filled with
the snarl and crash Of the firing. sena-
tors and representatives operating the
new weapons for themselves under the
direction of a squad of soldiers from
the Machine Gun School at Springfield.
Mass.
AS to the performance of the guns
used. there was not a stoppage or NAL
function, despite the fact that hum
dreds of rounds were fired, and the
SQUAD from the school had never seen
the. gun before last Saturday Inc
demonstration was completed with an
exhibition of the simplicity OF con-
struction, one OF the guns being as
mounted taken apart and reassem
hled reneatedly in few minutes
time. - = --------- - -.
These two guns have been selecteo
by the ordnance bureau OF the war
Department as the weapons with whlcn
the Army is to be equipped.
output Of Thousands Weekly.
Within a matter of Weeks hundreds
will be delivered every day ana tnouo
sands every week. They are 70 We ~ ~.
.oyer the top" guns of tomorrow as tne
French Chauchat is used by French anu
American troops today. A non-com-
missioned officer of the demonstrating
detachment, who, with his associates;
has been drilled with every type OF
weapon used by the allied troops. m
cluding the Chauchat, the only proIo-
type of the new rife, spoke LOT tne
whole squad when he said:
That's the finest gun in the wo,io,
Representative Caldwell Of New
York was the first member of Congress
to try the rifle. He fired forty rounds'
both semi-automatic and automatic.
He was was followed by senators
Wadsworth. Sutherland. Frelingnuysen
and Reed and Representatives Selley of
Michigan. and Sisson of Alabama. Tne
dirt few about the targets as the con-
gressmen banged away.
The gun has no kick, Repfesenta-
tive Caldwell said. '1t feels when you
are firing it as though something were
pushing steadily at your shoulder.
There is no kick at all"
Adopted as the Standard.
The demonstration was ordered to
make it clear to members of Congress
why the ordnance bureau put aside all
other makes of machine guns as the
standard weapon for the American
army, although no Browning guns had
been built except the model weapons
when the order was given. Ordnance
officials are satisfied that no member
Of Congress who witnessed the firing
now doubts the wisdom of that decis-
ion
The Browning heavy machine gun
works on a tripod The most remark
able features claimed for this type are
simplicity of construction and endur-
ance. The testing board said this gun
il superior to any other of the So
called heavy water-cooled type known
to the board" q e
These guns are the inventions Of
John NJ. Browning, inventor of a num-
Der Of Winchester rifles, automatic
pistols, repeating rifles. the Colt ma
chine gun which was adopted by the
United States Army and Navy, aqd nu-
merous other arms.