526 MITEAILLEUK AND GATLING GUN. 



MONTALEMBERT, COUNT. 



by Dr. Gatling's revolving drum-feed, which 

 is mounted on one of the three guns at Shoe- 

 buryness. By this arrangement one man only 

 is required to work the gun and adjust the 

 feed, with an assistant who simply charges the 

 empty drum with cartridges, while the one 

 previously filled is being used on the gun. 



Besides the Gatling gun, we have a perspec- 

 tive view of the Fosberry-Montigny mitrail- 

 leur, which is likewise engraved from a pho- 

 tograph. This will enable a fair comparison to 



THE FOSBERKY MITKAII.I.KIK. 



be made between the two machine-guns as far 

 as external appearances are concerned, while 

 the relative merits of their constructive details 

 can be readily determined by comparing the fol- 

 lowing brief description with that of the Gat- 

 ling gun. The question of their relative mer- 

 its in practice has already been settled by the 

 statement of the ultimate results of the firing 

 previously given. The Fosberry mitrailleur 

 consists of a compound barrel composed of 37 

 rifled tubes, formed hexagonally on the out- 

 side, the whole being rigidly connected togeth- 

 er in a cluster, and encased in an outer metal 

 cylinder. The barrels are open from muzzle 

 to breech, and the group is closed in the rear 

 by a breech-block, which carries 37 firing- 

 locks. To load the piece the breech-block is 

 drawn back by a lever, and a plate which is 

 seen in the hands of the gunner in our engrav- 

 ing carrying 37 cartridges, is inserted verti- 

 cally in the space thus formed. The breech- 

 block is then pressed forward, by which 

 means the cartridges ought to be, but are not 

 always, forced forward into the chambers of 

 the barrels. In closing the breech-block the 

 springs of the strikers are placed in tension, 

 and are released by means of a serrated shutter 

 which is actuated by a firing-lever. By bring- 

 ing this lever down rapidly, the whole 37 car- 

 tridges are exploded almost simultaneously, 

 while, by operating it slowly, single shots may 

 be fired. It is at once apparent that with the 

 mitrailleur it is not possible to maintain such a 

 continuous, steady fire as with the Gatling gun, 

 nor can any reliance be placed upon the proper 

 insertion of every cartridge in its chamber. 



The vertical feed-drum consists of a metal 

 framing of cylindrical shape, and having 16 



divisions or slots around its circumference, and 

 radiating from the centre. Each of these slots 

 contains 25 cartridges, placed one above the 

 other in vertical line. A hole in the centre of 

 the drum fits over a pin on the outer casing of 

 the gun,'in front of which is the hopper through 

 which the cartridges are fed. The latter pass 

 to the hopper through an aperture in the bot- 

 tom of each division in the drum. On the 

 face of the casing, to the left of the hopper, is 

 a rib which projects beyond the edge of the 

 feed-drum when in position, and the drum has 

 a series of thumb-lugs formed on its lower pe- 

 riphery. In firing the gun, the gunner, with 

 his left hand, brings one of the lugs on the 

 bottom rim of the revolving feed-drum coinci- 

 dent with the rib on the hopper face, while 

 with his right he turns the firing crank. The 

 cartridges fall into the hopper from one divis- 

 ion, and, as soon as the gunner sees that 

 one division is empty, he revolves the drum 

 jV part, bringing the next lug over the rib, 

 and at the same time the next batch of car- 

 tridges in the drum over the hopper. The 

 feed is thus continuous until the whole 16 di- 

 visions in the drum have been emptied, when it 

 is removed, and replaced by a charged drum. 

 On the right of the drum is a locking arrange- 

 ment for keeping it in position when not actu- 

 ally being fired. There is also a highly-inge- 

 nious automatic continuous traversing motion 

 for giving the gun lateral play against an ad- 

 vancing body of troops. 



MONTALEMBEET, CITAELES FORBES EE 

 TYEON, Count de, a French statesman and 

 publicist, a theologian and man of letters, an 

 ultramontanist and republican, born in Lon- 

 don, May 29, 1810; died in Paris, March 13, 

 1870. His father was a French nobleman, an 

 adherent of the Bourbons, who went into exile 

 with them, and returned to France at the Res- 

 toration. His mother was the daughter of Mr. 

 James Forbes, F. G. S., an English author and 

 manufacturer. Young Montalembert was care- 

 fully educated as a strict Catholic, and, though 

 he adopted the ultramontane religious doctrines 

 of his father, he did not incline to his absolutist 

 politics. His studies and principles early led 

 him into intimate relations with Guizot, and 

 subsequently with Lacordaire and the Able 

 Lamennais. Associated with the two last 

 named he founded in 1880 a democratic jour- 

 nal under the title of VAvenir. The doc- 

 trines of this publication were condemned 

 a year later by Pope Gregory XVI., the ar- 

 guments for the separation of Church and 

 State giving great ofience to the ecclesias- 

 tical authorities. On discontinuing their jour- 

 nal, the three leaders, strangely enough, adopted 

 other and changed views. Lacordaire (see 

 LACOBDAIEE, J. B. H., ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA, 

 1861), on the condemnation of his paper, at 

 once acquiesced in the Papal decision, retired 

 into the privacy of his order, and devoted the 

 rest of his life to his religious duties, and the 

 interests of the Dominican order. Lamennais, 



