A SILENT MAXIM.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9091, 10 March 1908, Page 7

A SILENT MAXIM.

London, January 31. A remarkable apparatus has been invented by an Indina official, which seems likely to revolutionise machine gun fire. The object of the invention is to telltale noise of the machine gun, thus rendering its value in the field far greater than that of companies of infantry. The inventor is Mr Alfred Thompson, who is serving on the Indian Establishment as Chief Examiner of Machine Guns. The discovery has been known to the military authorities for some time, and although Mr Thompson has been working for years at the process he has only recently brought it to a state of perfection warranting extensive trials.

The “silencer” is an apparatus which is attachable to a gun, the inventor having given all his time to making it adaptable to the Maixm. The insistent crack of the Maxim is reduced by the invention to a slight detonation, which is indistinguishable beyond a range of 500yds. At present machine gun fire can be thousands of yards off, and, no matter how good or rapid it may be, the field batteries discover the guns and rout them before they can become a danger. The role of the machine gun is, therefore, one of secret opportunity to strike a body of troops by surprise with 000 shots per minute, as in the case of the Maxim, aud®then lie low. But if the gun can operate in silence its possibilities are sensibly widened, not only by reason of its demoralising effect, but because a steady, non-overheating discharge of 100 a minute can be maintained from time to time throughout an action. Mr Thompson’s apparatus can be attached to a Maxim in a couple of minutes. It weighs Kilb, and is less than'a foot in length. The Indian authorities have submitted it to the Home Government.