THE MACHINE-GUN OF THE FUTURE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1953, 31 March 1885, Page 2

THE MACHINE-GUN OF THE FUTURE.

The Pall Mall Gazette hits had an interview with Mr Maxim, the inventor 1 of what he claims to be. "the machine gun of the future—an instrument which renders obsolete every machine-gun in Her Majesty's navy." Mr Maxim, who is of pure New England • Btock, descanted for some time in his own peculiar way upon the excellences of the weapon which , bears his name, and said many intercst--1 ; ng thingsabout the people who had been • to see his invention, ,and their surprise at finding that- it would not only keep on firing by itself, but .tlmt.it would load it- j , self, turn out the empty cartridges, I 'and ■ goon tiring, as long as there were car- ' tridges in tho magazine.. "The English Government," said Mr Maxim, "has the first offer of my patent rightful i meanwhile 1 cannot part with a mm i gun." Ab he spoke he was arranging^'' belt of cartridges which, when once worked into the interior of the machine by a [ hand action, an operation taking , about a quarter of a minute, makes , the gun ready for firing. "Now," [ said Mr Maxim, "we can fire this at any rate you liko up to 600. a minute, Ad- ' just the indicator at any rato of speed you ( like, from one shot per minute up to the . maximum of 600. You set her a-going , by firing the first shot yourself," and, . suiting the action to the word, ho fired a , regulation cartridge, which was imme- ( diately thrown out below the gun, by the • t automatic action of the chamber. Ho then stopped firing, and explained the way in which the.internal mechanism operated, The details need not be entered into here,. Suffice-it-to say that they are exceedingly simple, the parts being few and easy to be. understood by the most uiimechaiiical of men, of whom, no doubt, Tommy Atkins is one of the ohiof, When each cartridge is fired, the rcqoil, instead ■, of wasting on itself, instead of kiofljitho ' gun over, withdraws the empty oarwroe, ' cocks the gun, places the new cartridge' '■ in the chamber, drives it home, and firaW | it off, the whole of the series of operations I ; being executed by the momentum of the ' , ' recoil. That force is either immediately used or stored up to be utilised at any degree of speed the gunner deems neces-'" sary. down the lid, Mr Maxim set the machine going at a greater rate of ; speed than at first, and then asked our representative to fire oil' the rest, He \ complied by adjusting the indicator to ' the highest pussible speed, and the remaining 21 shots rattled off continually in about 2-|see. The empty cartridges rolled out upon the floor, apparently all in a heap. "How"long will it keep going like that, Mr Maxim f—"As long as you will find anybody ready to pay for cartridges," he replied. "I will provide the gun if anyone will provide the cartridges, which are wound into, the gun by the force generated by each explosion. When you come to the. three hundred and thirtythree you simply hook another belt <||) fp, that which is finishing in the interior of thegun,.andgoonad-«ijWiu». As long as you go on hooking belts or cartridges the gun will go on firing., It wntd&er get too hot, nor will get out of geP by firing any number -of cartridges at tho ; maximum speed. . This gun has ' some 20,000 cartridges already, and it isW ; as good as ever, showing no sign of wear. It is the nearest approach to perpetual motion that ,is to-be found in the armoury'of'civilisation.' Give it an endjess supply of cartridges anej if will go on for ever.- -If one of 'these guns. |ji(j boen ; in General {jtewjirj's square when the Arabs came on, not qhYnjan would havq reached the British line, the 'square would have been left intact, and Colonel Burnaby amongst .qthor officers would still be alive.' ,:■'■■[■'/■' n