524 



MITRAILLEUR AND GATLING GUN. 



986.78, and affords an income of $100,206 an- 

 nually. There is also a seminary fund amount- 

 ing to $108,700. 



The expenses of the State penitentiary were 

 $49,166.93 in excess of its earnings. The num- 

 ber of convicts on the 5th of December was 

 797. 



MITRAILLEUR AND GATLING GUN, 

 THE. During the last five months of 1870 a 

 considerable amount of attention was given by 

 the British "War-Office authorities to weapons 

 of the mitrailleur class, several series of ex- 

 haustive experiments having been carried out 

 at Shoeburyness in order to ascertain their ca- 

 pabilities. These experiments were compara- 

 tive, and in the commencement were confined 

 to the Fosberry mitrailleur, which is the Mon- 

 tigny weapon improved by Major Fosberry, a 

 muzzle-loading 9-pounder and a breech-load- 

 ing 12-pounder field-gun. This was in the 

 beginning of August; at the end of that 

 month the comparison was extended to the 

 Snider and the Martini-Henry rifles. Subse- 

 quently the Gatling battery-gun, the invention 

 of Dr. Richard J. Gatling, of Indianapolis, Ind., 

 was introduced and fired in competition with 

 the mitrailleur, the field-guns, and the rifles, 

 and, although last on the list of entries, it 

 stands first on the list of results. The whole 

 series of trials form the subject of an elaborate 

 report which has been made by the committee 

 to the War-Office. 



Pending the publication of this report, noth- 

 ing is absolutely known as to which weapon 

 the committee recommend for adoption in the 

 service. There is, however, every reason to 

 believe that the Gatling gun has been recom- 

 mended, inasmuch as twelve of these guns 

 have been ordered to be made and issued to 

 the troops for trial, in order to confirm the ex- 

 periments which have already been carried out 

 at Shoeburyness. The following is a summary 

 of the ultimate results of the practice made un- 

 der the committee and detailed in their report. 

 The expenditure of ammunition and the num- 

 ber of hits made by the four heavier weapons 

 are as follows: The Gatling gun, firing 492 Ib. 

 of ammunition, scored 2,803 hits ; the Fosberry 

 mitrailleur with 472 Ib. scored 1,708 hits; the 

 12-pounder gun with 1,232.5 Ib. scored 2,286 

 hits ; and the 9-pounder gun with 1,013 Ib. 

 scored 2,207 hits. A comparison of the effects 

 produced and the ammunition expended by 

 each weapon as shown by the above figures un- 

 . questionably gives the superiority to the Gatling 

 gun. But there are many other considerations 

 of equal and perhaps greater importance than 

 the results of target practice, which have to 

 be taken into account, and it would be unwise 

 to assume that the Gatling gun has been rec- 

 ommended solely because it has made the 

 greatest number of hits. From our knowl- 

 edge, however, of this weapon, and of its abil- 

 ity to stand the rough-and-ready tests inci- 

 dent to actual warfare which it did stand 

 duuing tho American "War and from a com- 



parison of the construction of the two machine- 

 guns, we may reasonably expect the Gatling 

 gun to occupy that position which at the first 

 it appeared probable the mitrailleur would 

 take. 



The Gatling battery-gun is no new weapon, 

 it is indeed perfectly clear that the Gatling 

 gun is the parent of the French and other mi- 

 trailleurs. The first Gatling gun was made in 

 1862, and was publicly exhibited in Indianapo- 

 lis, Cincinnati, and "Washington, general de- 

 scriptions of it being published in the Amer- 

 ican and European papers. In the following 

 year Dr. Gatling sent a letter of particulars to 

 the French Government through Major Maldon 

 of the French Artillery Committee. The Em- 

 peror desired the major to obtain further de- 

 tails, which Dr. Gatling supplied, at the same 

 time offering his guns for sale, which offer, 

 however, was declined. Subsequent to this 

 the mitrailleur made its appearance in France, 

 in Belgium, in Prussia, and in Austria. As 

 the mitrailleur is upon the same principle as 

 the Gatling gun, in so far as that it consists of 

 a number of barrels grouped together, and an 

 equal number of locks, circumstances point 

 strongly to the Gatling gun as the original 

 weapon. 



A general idea of the Gatling battery-gun 

 will be obtained from the perspective view, 

 engraved from a photograph of the gun. The 

 gun consists of a set of ten barrels in combina- 

 tion with a grooved cartridge-carrier and a lock- 

 cylinder, these parts being all rigidly secured 

 to a central longitudinal shaft. The grooves in 

 the carrier, the holes in the lock-cylinder, and 

 the barrels, all correspond in number. Each 

 barrel is furnished with a lock, which works 

 in a chamber formed in the lock-cylinder on a 

 line with the axis of the barrels. The lock- 

 cylinder is surrounded by an outer casing, 

 connected to a framing which is carried along 

 both sides and across the front of the gun, the 

 latter part carrying the fore-sight. There is a 

 vertical transverse partition in the casing, into 

 which the main shaft, which carries the lock- 

 cylinder, carrier, and barrels, is journaled. 

 At its front end this shaft is also journaled in 

 the front part of the framing. On the rear 

 end of the main shaft is fixed the revolving 

 gear, which is worked by a handle on the 

 right side of the breech-chamber. The rear 

 of the chamber in which this gear is placed is 

 closed in by a cascable plate, having an open- 

 ing through which the locks can be withdrawn 

 and replaced when necessary. The opening 

 is closed by a plug of special construction, at- 

 tached to the piece by a chain. In front of the 

 breech-casing, and hinged to the frame, is 

 a curved plate, which partially covers the 

 grooved carrier, and which forms a hopper 

 through which the cartridges are fed to the gun 

 from feed-cases. The cocking apparatus is fixed 

 to the framing of the gun on the right hand of 

 the lock-cylinder casing. The framing, which 

 is fitted with elevating and traversing gear, is 



