A Gun Without a "Kick" 



It fires a shell weighing from 12 to 14 pounds 

 at a muzzle velocity of 1175 feet per second. 

 The recoil action is overcome by discharging 

 a charge of shot and vaseline from the rear 



A BULLET in a gun, being lighter than 

 the weapon, gives way first when the 

 powder is fired, and travels faster; 

 but the gun of which the breech-block is a 

 part, travels the other way just the same. 

 The nearer the weight of the gun is to the 

 weight of the bullet or shell, the faster it 

 travels, and the heavier, therefore, is the 

 "kick" of the gun. In theory, if the gun 

 were the same weight as the bullet they 

 would fly in opposite directions at the same 

 rate of speed. 



' Now if you put a charge of powder in 

 the middle of a gun barrel, and put a bullet 

 of the same weight at one end of the charge 

 as a bullet placed at the other end of the 

 charge, then touch her off, the gun won't 

 kick at all. The two bullets will merely go 

 off in opposite directions. The expansive 

 force of the gas has operated in both 

 directions as usual, but there was nothing 

 to move the gun itself. So much for a 

 principle well known in gunnery for a 

 hundred years. 



The recoil of a cannon is taken up by 

 cylinders of air or liquid precisely as the 

 slam of the spring-impelled door is taken 

 up by air cylinders. The barrel slides on 

 ways under the back- 



It is based on the theory that 

 action and reaction are equal 

 and in opposite directions 



By Edward C. Grossman 



thrust of the gas, and its motion is checked 

 by the cylinders and the perforated pistons 

 within. Old types of guns ran back every 

 shot, and the naval crews had to tail on 

 to the tackle and run the gun back into 

 battery after reloading, just as the field 

 artillerymen used to run back their pets 

 after each shot. This was slow, and neces- 

 sitated resighting — termed "relaying" in 

 gunnery parlance — for every shot. The 

 use of recoil cylinders stopped all this. 



Presently there arose the need for a 

 bigger gun for aeroplane fighting, both for 

 the other planes, and for the things of land 

 and water the planes didn't like. Planes 

 are cranky things so far as stability is con- 

 cerned, and it was obvious that you 

 couldn't have a gun kicking around in one 

 of them without disturbing things. It was 

 equally obvious that you couldn't put a two 

 or three hundred-pound gun and recoil 

 mechanism in a plane in which the last 

 ounce of weight was figured, because that 

 meant cutting down speed and raising plane 

 area. 



Then came the man who could apply a 

 wellknown 'principle to a wellknown need. 

 He is Commander Cleland Davis, U. S. N., 

 Retired. If, he figured, a gun with a 



The throw of a lever rolls the rear barrel and exposes the breech end for the reception of the 

 ammunition. Another throw of the lever returns the rear barrel to its former position and locks it 



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