Popular Science Monthly 



79 



Taking the Staccato Bark Out of 

 the Machine Cun 



THE machine gun, properly hidden, 

 makes its presence known only by a 

 light blue vapor that is visible under 

 certain conditions during firing, and by 

 its noise, which is precisely that of the 

 common pneumatic riveter used on 

 structural steel buildings. At times the 

 roar of firing, covers up this peculiar, 

 harsh, regular, mechanical "Tat-tat-tat- 

 tat" — but unless the firing is heavy the 

 other side speedily recognizes the dis- 

 tinctive sound and looks for the gun. 

 Can't the gun be silenced? 



The most practical way of silencing 

 firearms is to use Maxim's device, which 

 consists of a steel cylinder larger than 

 the barrel, at- 

 tached to the 

 muzzle of the 

 gun. Inside 

 the cylinder 

 are steel disks 

 set at a slight 

 pitch, and 

 with a hole 

 pierced 

 through them 

 to permit the 

 passage of the 

 bullet. The 

 gases, emerg- 

 ing under 

 high pressure, 

 expand into 

 the silencer 

 and are set to 

 whirling, los- 

 ing their mo- 

 mentum and 

 much of their 

 pressure and 



entering the air without causing a noise 

 at the end of their whirling. 



While the Maxim silencer is entirely 

 efficient, it is doubtful if it could be ap- 

 plied to the machine gun, because the 

 firing of six hundred shots a minute would 

 result in loading the cylinder with the 

 gas from another charge before the first 

 had escaped, and wrecking the silencer 

 from the intense pressure. 



The Italians are said to have machine 

 guns that make merely a low, dull thud 

 instead of the revealing crackle. 



The noise of a gion, contrary to common belief, is not 

 something within the barrel, but merely the violent 

 slap of gases at high speed and pressure, impinging on 

 the air at the muzzle. A silencer whirls these gases 



An American Fortune Spent for 

 An English Invention 



THAT there is just as great an oppor- 

 tunity for the inventor as there ever 

 was, is vividly illustrated in the case of 

 Frank Hornby, of Liverpool, England. 

 Who has not seen the advertisements in 

 nearly every American periodical of the 

 mechanical toy, with which boys can build 

 structures resembling bridges, buildings, 

 derricks or ships? That toy is Hornby's 

 invention —patented by him sixteen years 

 ago and first thought of in 1899. 



Hornby has a mechanical turn of mind. 

 As a boy he was familiar with tools. It 

 was for the two boys in his own family 

 that he constructed the first early 

 models of his toy. Finally, in 1901, he 



obtained his 

 patent. There 

 was nothing 

 resembling it 

 on the mar- 

 ket. However, 

 the trade did 

 not enthuse 

 over it. Horn- 

 by was work- 

 ing on a small 

 salary in those 

 days, and thus 

 could not 

 spend money 

 for advertis- 

 ing. Fortu- 

 nately, how- 

 ever, his em- 

 ployer be- 

 came interest- 

 ed and assist- 

 ed him in 

 bringing the 

 clever, new 

 toy to the attention of the public. 



Seven years after he obtained his 

 patent, $40,000 had been expended in 

 exploiting the toy. Still a market had 

 not been created. But Hornby did not 

 lose his enthusiasm. The next year, 1909, 

 the toy came to America and thereafter 

 Hornby came into the fortune that was 

 rightly his. During the first year a 

 business of $7,000 was done in this country 

 alone. The following year it jumped to 

 $24,000. In 1911 it climbed to $49,000 

 and in 1912 it touched $114,000. 



