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MACHINE GUNS IN GREAT WAR Instruments of Death Used by Contending Armies in the Field FieldIn In the daily reports of the press giving the progress of the great conflict now raging in Europe probably no weapon is mentioned as often as the machine gun As a weapon of offense and defense the machine gun has gained an important place MiHtary experts make the claim that one good machine gun served by competent welltrained operators is equal to one hundred riflemen armed with the ordinary repeating rifle now in use in the various armies Some experts even give the ratio much higher A few lines on the development of the modern machine gun may be of interest to some readers who have been following war reports reportsThe The first really practical machine gun was prob ¬ ably tiie Catling the invention of the American Dr Catling of Chicago in 1862 This gun was not automatic It was operated by turning a crank handle on the side It consisted of a group of six rifle barrels mounted and fixed round a central axis at equal distances and the whole mounted on a carriage like a field gun TJie barrels were surrounded by a water jacket Some of these Catlings were used in the Civil War It never proved much of a success successAnother Another machine gun that attracted considerable attention among military men in Europe was the Montigny also called the Frencli mitrailleuse in ¬ troduced into the French army in 1869 and used by the French in the war with Prussia in 1870 The gun was manufactured in Brussels and was the invention of a Belgian officer Captain Fafschamps The mitrailleuse consisted of an assemblage of thirtyrseven rifle barrels contained in a wrought iron tube mounted like the ordinary field gun This gun was also fired by turning a handle and the whole r thirtyseven barrels could be discharged at once or singly at the will of the operator Great tilings were expected of this gun during the war but in the opinion of the military men of the time the gun proved a failure The Bavarian army also used a similar hand operated machine gun in this war It was called Felde gun This gun also did not prove a success The failure of these two guns to give a good account of themselves on the battlefield caused great prejudice against this style of arm for some time and improved hard to over ¬ come this prejudice But nevertheless Turkey China Japan and Russia adopted an improved model of the Catling gun about this time timeHOTCHKISS HOTCHKISS CATLING NORDENFELDT Another machine gun was brought out by an American engineer living in France It was called The Hotchkiss after its inventor It was copied after Catling About the same time the Norden feldt gun was brought out This was invented by a Swedish engineer named Palmcrantz and named after a Swedish banker who financed the Palm ¬ crantz undertaking Still another gun coming out about the same time was the Gardner All of these guns had a number of barrels cither placed in a circle or side by side and the action was liand operated Not any of these guns proved a success But now we arrive at the turning point of ma ¬ chine gun construction in the years 18831S84 the American engineer Hiram Maxim invented a gun which was really automatic a gun which when once loaded and fired would reload and fire Itself as long as a cartridge was left in the feeding appa ¬ ratus This Maxim invention is sure one of the greatest ever made and his system of recoilload ¬ ing has been followed by yearly all other jnyentcrs of machine guns ever since One tiling that stands out prominently in the Maxim invention is the fact that his firstworking model was perfect and proved reliable in functioning It easily performed every ¬ thing claimed by the inventor The prominence attained by the Maxim machine gun is attested by the adontion of this system by nineteen armies and twentyone navies representing just as many dif ¬ ferent nations Extensive use of the machine gun in war was first made in the Boer campaign in the year 1899 and in the RussoJapanese War of 19011903 This war gave a great impetus to the adoption of the machine gun into the various Euro ¬ pean armies in large numbers England Austria Germany France Italy aifd Switzerland all got busy and began to exploit the machine gun to as ¬ certain its possibilities The reports coming from the RussoJapanese front on the efficiency of the machine guns used forever removed the prejudice theretofore existing and at the present time enor ¬ mous numbers of machine guns are manufactured in the great armories of the world Guns of the Maxim type are the Bergmamt the Austrian Schwarzlose and the new heavy Browning the latest and best machine gun now existing existingThe The Bergmann machine gun is the invention of the German engineer Theodor Bergmann so promi ¬ nently mentioned in the development of the self loading pistol The Bergmaun gun is a recoil loader and has a waterjacket for cooling barrel The cartridges are contained in a belt holding 250 cart ¬ ridges and its operation is similar to the belt used in the Maxim and Colt guns The Bergmann was never introduced into any army in great numbers numbersAUSTRIAS AUSTRIAS SKODAMITRAILLEUSE SKODAMITRAILLEUSEIn In Austria the socalled SkodaMitrailleuse the invention of Archduke Karl Salvator and Major Dormus was introduced in the year 1893 This gun had a fixed barrel having a waterjacket for cooling It was loaded by detachable magazines and was capable of firing about 250 shots per minute The SalvatorDormus gun has been super ceded in Austria by the modern Schwarzlose ma ¬ chine gun The Schwarzlose gun excels in the small number of its parts and its light weight Tests of this gun have shown its reliability and durability As many a thirty thousand shots have been fired witiiout any serious hitch or miss in the functioning it has but one spring The barrel is fixed and is surrounded by a wuterjacket for cooling The breechbolt is operated by a toggle joint is strong and is enclosed by the receiver frame making it difficult for sand and dirt to enter the lock About 375 to 400 shots per minute can easily be fired There is also another type of machine gun now in use in which the power to operate is not derived from the recoil but from a portion of the gas generated by the explosion of the cartridge The gas being allowed to escape through a valve in the barrel before the bullet has left the muzzle and is utilized to work a piston or similar device which operates the extracting re ¬ loading and firing mechanism These guns gener ¬ ally have a system of aircooling for the barrel after each shot Guns of this type are the French Hotchkiss the old model Colt and the latest model light Browning machine rifle The Hotchkiss gnn lias a fixed barrel having a small opening in the middle of length of barrel called ga canal which ends with the gas pittKsurttcplIiiuVr that s eon nccted with Hie barrel The cartridges loaded into u metal IKU which i puslied into the gun from the side as is done in the Maxim The rapidity of fire amounts to 00 shots per minute and can be regulated by a regulator located in the gas pressurecylinder Tho Hotchkiss machino gun is also used by Holland Japan Norway ami Portugal It is said to beau ideal gun for ainlaai armament The Madsen machine gun was introduced Into England by the Rexer Arms Co in 1904 It is the invention of the Danish engineer Schouboe and was named after the Danish war minister Madsen The gun lias been Introduced into the Danish army the English army and the BenetMercier gun in use in the United States Army since 1909 seems to be virtually the same construction The Benet Mercier gun did not prove a great success in the late jilexicanVIHa campaign and has since been superceded by the new Browning machine gun and machine rifle rifleTHE THE MUCH USED LEWIS GUN GUNAnother Another new machine gun has come into promi ¬ nence during the great war It is called the Lewis gun and is the invention of the American army officer Col I N Lewis now retired The gen ¬ eral build of the gun is quite different from those mentioned above It is light in weight weighing twentysix and a half pounds The gun can easily bo handled by one man The Lewis gun is of the aircooled gasoperated tyye fed from a magazine In place of the now popular long woven lielt style of magazine used in the Maxim Colt Browning Bergmann and Schwarzlose guns the Lewis gun uses a rotating drum magazine holding fortyseven cartridges The design of the magazine is such that the loading and unloading can be done easily and quickly if necessary this can be done with one hand The gun sure is popular in England and Belgium where it has been used during the past four years in large numbers The Savage Arms Corporation of Utica X Y has acquired the right of manufacture in the United States and is working its entire plant facilities in the produc ¬ tion of the Lewis machine gun for Uncle Sams army They are filling some lsrge contracts and on this account have practically ceased to manu ¬ facture the other small Savage arms rifles and pistols during the duration of the war warThe The Italians are using a modified Maxim called after its inventor the Perino machine gun gunDuring During the first two years of the world war the Germans made the most of their machine gun and a great many of their first successes were ob ¬ tained by the correct use of the machine gun in the hands of competent and welltrained gun crews to serve them There is no doubt but that these efficient machine gun operators had a great part in saving the German army in their retreat from the Marne both times The modern machinegun in competent hands is a mighty efficient weapon weaponDuring During the past few months the American ma ¬ chine guns have been pouring into France in large numbers and the results are beginning to show ac ¬ cording to war reports of July and August AugustBROWNING BROWNING GUN IS BEST OF ALL ALLNow Now we come to the latest and best in the machine gun line and no writeup of any sorto a firearm is complete without the mentioning of the John M Browning models This certainly ap ¬ plies to the machine gun and the publicity KIWI these new guns by the press has sure reached thou ¬ sands of American homes During the year 1IG tiie United States Ordnance Department invited inventors to present models of their machine gurs for a test to take place early in May 1917 This was to be a competitive test having in view the adoption of a new machine gun model for the United States army navy and aerial service ti successful gun to become the official United Stales service machine gun The request of the Ordnance Department brought results Some twentythroe new machine gun models were entered for the trials which took place several days and were witnrs il by the board appointed for the purpose by thcord nance experts of England Italy and France who were invited and by some members of Congress The test was a severe one only a few guns were permitted to enter the final test the preliminary test having eliminated nearly all leaving the field to five or six models modelsJohn John M Browning through the Colt Patent Firearms Mfg Co had entered two models one called the heavy Browning watercooled gun and llir other the light Browning machine rifle The heavy model machine gun weighs thirtyfour and onehalf pounds and is a watercooled gun and is recoil operated the machine rifle is aircooled and is gas operated The heavy model Browning uses the well known woven belt containing 250 cartridges and thf machine rifle is loaded with detachable clips having a capacity of twenty cartridges The machine rifle weighs about fifteen pounds and can be used like the ordinary military rifle firing from shoulder or from hip hipThe The twenty shots from the magazine of this PI fits can be fired in two and onehalf seconds These two new guns in the hands of especially well trained men have not their equal in any army fpund in the world today For trench use the heavy gun is used with the watercooled jacket and for airplinu use the gun is used without the waterjacket thus making it considerably lighter and more portable portableThese These two new machine guns represent the ex ¬ perience gained by Mr Browning in years of build ¬ ing firearms of all description shotguns and rifles both handoperated and automatic as well as the many automatic pistols which are known in every part of the globe as the Browning and Colt auto ¬ matic pistols Uncle Sam was fortunate to have the genius and talent of u man like John M Brown ing at his disposal at tills time Outers Buok
