Military.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 32, 3 November 1894, Page 10

Military.

HOW DEATH - DEALING WEAPONS ARB INVENTED

THE DIRTS OP QUICK-FIRING GUNS

It is a curious fact that the inventors of three of tbe deadliest weapons produced are quiet, unassuming, peace-loving men. Mr Maxim, the inventor of tbe famous Maxim gun, which recently mowed down the Matabele with such a terrible effect, is essentially a man of peace, and, as readers of the papers are aware, absorbed in the projection of an aerial vessel which shall speed through the clouds. The same may be said of Dr Gatling, who was a medical man before be invented bis remarkable gun, and of Mr Nordenfeldt, whose wellknown ‘ firearm ’ bears tbe name of its inventor.

The story of the manner in which these machine guns were invented is full of interest. Mr Hiram S. Maxim, from whose brain the Maxim gun sprang, is one of the greatest living inventors, and a man of splendid intellect and marvellous energy. Long before he became famous as a, gun inventor, he had achieved distinction as an electrician, and it is well known that he was onlg narrowly anticipated by Edison in the perfecting of the incandescent light. Here is Mr Maxim’s account of his invention of the gun : “ When I went South as a soldier in the ranks many years ago,” he says “ and fired my first musket, the recoil knocked me down. Ever since I was a boy I bad experimented with tools and wood in making little cannons, and when I fell down on the field anew idea came to me. I wondered if I could not put that vigorous recoil to some good| use. When I went to London, I experimented a long while, and my gun is the result.”

Singularly enough, as in the case of Mr Maxim, the war between the North and South gave Dr. Gatling the idea for the invention of his machine gun. Dr Gatling has been a great traveller, as well as a close and careful observer. His account in his own language of the invention of the Gatling gun is very interesting. He was born in South Carolina, and received his medical training in New Tork.

“ In 1861,” lie said, “ I was living in Indianopolis. My residence was near the depot, and I often saw troops of volunteers leaving for the front. When the dead bodies were brought home for burial, I was surprised to note that the number of men killed by sickness was far greater than those killed by ball or actual battle. One day I observed that of nineteen corpses which arrived at the depot, only three hp d been killed in battle. Then the thought struck me that if a gun could be constructed capable of doing the work of 100 men, and requiring but two or three to operate it, the horrors and the duration of war would be wonderfully lessened. I set to work at once, and in a few months completed the first Gatling gun. My first guns were built in Oincinnatta, and were able to fire from 150 to 250 shots per minute. Six had been completed when the factory w r as burned down, and the guns were destroyed. Poliowing this accident, I had thirteen guns made at what is now the type foundry in Oincinnatta, and those I sent on by my partner, a rich merchant of Cinciunatta, to Washington, to persuade the Government to introduce them. He took them to Baltimore, where he left twelve, and went with the other to Washington. “ The chief of the ordnance department at the time was an old fogey. He \-eceived my partner coldly, told him he had no faith in his gun, and that he believed the flintlock muskets ■were, on the whole, the best weapons for warfare. In short, he would have nothing to do with him. My partner then left Washington and returned to Baltimore. General Butler was there with his troops. He had heard of the guns, and asked to see them work.

As soOn .as he had done so, he said he would buy them on his own responsibility, and did so, giving his voucher for £3,000 for them. My partner had this cashed, but at this time there was a great fal I of pork, and 50,000 hogs, which he had packed in Chicago with the expectation of a rise, had to be sold; In .a word, the break in the market ruined him, and my money went with him. So for the first twenty guns I had made at a great cost to myself, I received nothing. General Butler took the guns he had bought with him to the battle of Petersburg, and fired them himself upon the Southerners. They created great consternation and slaughter, and the news of them went all over the world. Now they are used by all the leading governments of Europe and also in Asia and Africa. They enabled the Prussians to conquer Austria in 1866, though the Austrians had the larger forces, and they shortened the war between Germany and France, so that it practically lasted but a short time. The Gatling guns are now made in Newcastle-on-Tyne, and at Hartford, in the States. We sell them only to governments, and the United States use many of my guns. They now play a. part in all wars.”—Selected.