MACHINE GUN 



3563 



McKEESPORT 



the Maxim is 750 shots per minute, but under 

 war conditions 300 per minute is a good aver- 

 age. The gun is mounted on a tripod, the rear 

 leg of which supports a seat for the operator. 

 The latest pattern Maxim gun used by the 

 British weighs thirty-six pounds, and is easily 

 transported from place to place. For use with 

 mounted troops the German army is supplied 

 with a Maxim weighing sixty-one pounds, 

 which is mounted on a carriage weighing 110 

 pounds. The German infantry are provided 

 with machine guns which weigh thirty-eight 

 pounds, with a carriage of seventy-five pounds 

 weight. Maxims and all other machine guns 

 are built to fire cartridges similar to those used 

 in the rifles of the army to which they are at- 

 tached. 



The Hotchkiss. The Hotchkiss gun, named 

 from its inventor, Benjamin Berkley Hotchkiss 

 (1826-1885), uses the gas formed by the pow- 

 der to operate the mechanism. The gas es- 

 capes through a small hole in the barrel to a 

 tube underneath, and pushes back a piston 

 which operates the mechanism. This gun was 

 in general use in the armies of the leading 

 nations until replaced by more recent inven- 

 tions. 



Other Machine Guns. Practically every ma- 

 chine gun now in use is a modification of the 

 original invention of Maxim. The Benet-Mer- 

 cie gun, in use in the United States army, has 

 no water jacket for cooling purposes. It has 

 a barrel of about an inch in thickness and can 

 be fired continuously for some minutes before 

 becoming too hot to operate. Its capacity may 

 be as high as 400 shots per minute, but under 

 average conditions it shoots only about 250 

 times a minute. The gun weighs twenty-seven 

 pounds and the tripod weighs fifty pounds. In 

 1915 the United States army began experiment- 

 ing with the Vickers machine gun, a water- 

 cooled implement, with a jacket similar to the 

 Maxim. Its rate of firing is about the same as 

 the Benet-Mercie, and in tests it has fired 6,000 

 shots without stopping. 



The Hotchkiss gun, referred to above, is 

 very highly favored by the French military 

 authorities. It is one of the most efficient of 

 all guns for use in military aeroplanes. The 

 French term mitrailleuse refers technically to 

 an old-style, rapid-firing gun used in the Fran- 

 co-German War in 1870, and it is still applied 

 to machine guns of all patterns in France. 



The various kinds of machine guns have an 

 effective range varying from one-third to seven- 

 eighths of a mile. L.R.G. 



Consult Handbooks of Automatic Machine Rifle 

 and Maxim Automatic Machine Gun, published by 

 the War Department of the United States. 



MACKAY, makay', JOHN WILLIAM (1831- 

 1902), a man who began his career as a poor 

 boy in New York, but during his life amassed 

 a great fortune, the result of a strong character 

 and perseverance. He emigrated to America 

 from Dublin, Ireland, and settled with his par- 

 ents in New York, where his father soon died. 

 When the rush to the California gold fields 

 began, Mackay was learning the trade of ship- 

 building, but with others he left for the West, 

 where he learned thoroughly the business of 

 mining and was ready for his great oppor- 

 tunity when it came. He was one of the dis- 

 coverers of the famous "Bonanza" mines of 

 Nevada. With five other men he gained con- 

 trol of these mines, Mackay having twice as 

 much stock as all the others. From one mine 

 alone $150,000,000 in gold and silver was taken 

 out. Mackay also became a partner of the 

 firm which owned the Bank of Nevada. In 

 1884, in company with James Gordon Bennett, 

 he organized the Commercial Cable Company 

 and the Postal Telegraph Company, and was 

 successful in a fight with the old cable lines, 

 which sought, by reducing their rates, to force 

 him out of business. The cable company suc- 

 ceeded in laying two lines across the Atlantic. 

 One of Mackay's many public gifts is the Ro- 

 man Catholic Orphan Asylum at Virginia City, 

 Nev. His son, Clarence H. Mackay, suc- 

 ceeded to his business interests. 



McKEES'PORT, PA., a city of Allegheny 

 County, fourteen miles southeast of Pittsburgh, 

 in the heart of the bituminous coal and nat- 

 ural gas fields of the state. It is situated on 

 the Monongahela River, at the mouth of the 

 Youghiogheny, and on the Baltimore & Ohio, 

 the New York Central, the Pennsylvania and 

 the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railroads. The 

 rivers are crossed at this point by eight bridges. 

 Electric lines extend to Pittsburgh and to other 

 cities and towns in the Monongahela Valley. 

 Population in 1910, 42,694; in 1916, 47,521 

 (Federal estimate). The area is nearly four 

 square miles. 



McKeesport is the center of a vast iron and 

 steel industry. It has been called the "Tube 

 City," because of its largest concern, one of 

 the greatest tube works in the world, employ- 

 ing nearly 8,000 men. Among the principal 

 manufactures are sheet and tin plate, tool 

 steel, projectiles, glass, coke and coal-tar prod- 

 ucts. There is an important trade in locally- 



