FRANCE'S WONDERFUL NEW RIFLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1729, 7 December 1887, Page 3

FRANCE'S WONDERFUL NEW RIFLE

The Libel rifi?, the new arm with wh''ch the French iofautry will beßupplied before next eprirg, Ja according to all account, r wonder, and teveral raodela of the gun which have been received here have excited great lntorost. The new rifla ia known by the came of the Inventor, Libel, and la smalJer and lighter than the rlftaa now m use ; tho Frenoh soldier call it "the little gun." The mOBt anthentic descriptions given of the gun agree In attributing to it a carrying power beyond that of any rffli heretofore m uae. The models received In New York are not known to be accurate copies of tho Libel gun, and experiments with them are impossible, owing to the fact that t^o power 039(3 is a seoret compound of wh : ch the French Government haa the monopoly. According to all accounts the Libel gun will cirry its bullet more than a v i!e and A half, with a m>ro oartaln aim than haa baen possible with ordinary r flss. Tha bora of tho gun ia vory small, and the ball, which la of ateel and pointed at one end, (a eaid to revolve at a speed of a thousand revolutions a second . Ia the testß nude by tho Frenoh Government the bullet haa penetrated a brick wall eight inches thick at a diatanoe of 500 yards ; it will go through any kind of armor that can be^ worn by soldlero, and at a distance of more than a mile will pasa through a man aa eially aa at ten paces The gun has no recoil under fire, and the powder j gives out no emoke whatever. It haa been slid that tha powder U3ed must be a type of smokeless hunting powder already m the market ; but this ia denied by the Inventor, who aaya that be ueoa an entfrely nevr compound. The Libel gun is, of course, a repeater, and the cartridges are bo small that each soldier catrlea 220 rounds of ammunition, aa against 116 rounds, formerly considered the maximum. The French Government I* now making Iheee guns »t the rate of 500 a day at Saint-Ktionne, and ia preparing to tarn out double that number. Four factories, those at Ohatelleraulfc, Talle, and SaintEtienne, will soon be at work upon them. — u New York Evening Post."