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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 80, 5 April 1871, Page 3

The Mitrailleur Outdone. — A farmer in Victoria professes to have invented a gun which ia to eclipse the mirrailleur. Mr. William Cron, of Windermere, near Ballarat, writes as follows to a Melbourne paper: —An ingenious, farmer from Windermere has iuveuted a gun capable of discharging 177 steel bullets, half as heavy again as the ordinary rifle bullet now in use by the English troops, in two seconds, or 900 within five minutes, including re-loading, and would take the enemy's lines at a distance of one mile, while the ordinary rifle would not.reach that distance. The gun is placed on a four-wheeled guncarriage, and ia calculated not to exceed 25cwt complete, and to be drawn by four horses, and can be removed one mile within six minutes, carrying men and al! ammunition required. A steel shield is placed at the breach to protect men and horses from the enemy's muskets. Four men and one driver can work the gun at the speed I name, and in case of retreat tlie gun can' be removed, delivering shot

as the horses gallop. The gun can be extended to fortress purposes, would then weigh about eight tons, and would deliver bullets from 2oz to 41b weight over two miles distance, at every poiut of the compass, in less than two minutes, and deliver 1000 shots in less than ten minutes.