860 ANDREW HOWLAND RUSSELL. 



Arizona. In 1874-1876, at the Military Academy at West Point as 

 instructor in Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Ordnance Mineralogy 

 and Geology. 



As an Ordnance Officer, he served from time to time at Watertown, 

 Rock Island, Benicia, Fort Union and Frankfort Arsenals, at Van- 

 couver Ordnance Depot; as Inspector of Ordnance in Boston, Provi- 

 dence and St. Paul, as Chief Ordnance Officer of the Department of the 

 Columbia and of the Philippines, and as Assistant to the Chief of 

 Ordnance in Washington, D. C. At the Centennial Exposition of 

 1887-1888 at Cincinnati, he had charge of the War Department 

 Exhibit, in that of 1892-1893 at Chicago, of the Ordnance Exhibit. 



All of this service was in many respects congenial, and favorable to 

 the natural bent of his disposition. His transfer to the Ordnance 

 gave him a good opportunity to exercise his ingenuity ; and there was 

 scarcely a branch of the work of that department in which he did not 

 suggest useful improvements, some of which were adopted by the 

 government at the time, and others after their \alue had been demon- 

 strated in action by the armies of foreign nations. 



In 1875, while still a Lieutenant of Cavalr\-, he invented an h^•draulic 

 buffer for checking the recoil of a gun on its carriage, afterwards 

 known throughout the world under the name of Vavasseur. Colonel 

 Russell not only antidated Vavasseur in this matter, but appears to 

 be the pioneer in the field of modern gun carriage recoil systems. He 

 obtained patents at home and abroad for a great number of ingenious 

 devices relating to guns and their auxiliary appliances, which make 

 the artillery of to-day so much more eifective than before. 



But the object to which he devoted the most labor and study was 

 the improvement of small arms. His ingenuity suggested devices 

 by which one musket could be made to do the work of several. In 

 1876, he invented dcA-ices for loading and firing rapidly, and made 

 wooden models to illustrate their action; but they found little favor 

 with "practical" military men who regarded them as more curious 

 than useful, and most objectionable from sound military considera- 

 tions. Soon after, he met Capt. W. R. Livermore who showed him 

 designs and models so nearly like his own that at Russell's suggestion 

 they decided to combine their efforts. 



In 1878, a Board was convened at Springfield to test Magazine 

 Guns. By that time the prejudice against magazines was so far 

 modified that many officers were willing to try them provided the 

 magazine was reserAcd for the final charge. The Hotchkiss Gun 

 operated by a bolt, and with a tubular magazine in the breech was 

 most favored. Russell and Livermore presented to the Board a 



