Popular Science Monthly 



667 



casing that looked like the barrel of a can- 

 non. The infantry rifle cartridges used 

 were arranged in an iron plate with thirty- 

 seven holes in it, and which formed the 

 breech end of the barrels. The plate 

 carr>'ing the thirty - se\en car- 

 tridges, was slipped in 

 grooves in the movable 

 breech block, the block 

 was shoved up until the 

 cartridges entered the 

 barrels and the plate 

 fitted snugly at the 

 breech-end of the 

 barrels, and then the 

 thirty-seven shots 

 were fired by the turn 

 of a crank, which re- 

 leased one after the 

 other the little ham 

 mers in the block op- 

 posite each cartridge. By 

 giving the crank an en- 

 tire and swift turn, the 

 thirty-seven shots were ^a cndeT^d. n-.y 

 fired in one second, a 

 slower turn of the crank 

 of course fired the car- 

 tridges at a correspondingly slower rate. 

 Because of this peculiar firing rate, the 

 gun had a menacing, growling report, a sort 

 of "Gr-r-rr-ump," that the Prussians 

 quickly learned to identify. After firing, 

 the breech was 

 opened, the plate 

 carrying the thir- 

 ty-seven empty 

 shells was taken 

 out, and a fresh, 

 filled plate 

 was slipped in 

 the block. 



This was the 

 first use of a ma- 

 chine gun in war, 

 and because of 

 the French 

 Army's faulty 

 use of it, little 

 harm was done. 

 It was never so 

 effective as the 

 Gatling. 



These guns were 

 not really auto- 

 matic machine guns; they were operated 

 by hand power, the\' were heavy, and they 

 were mounted on wheels and exposed to 

 return fire. 



Army men practicing with a Colt 

 machine gun found in a Sulu store 



© ii.t. f;i 



The Maxim is undoubtedly the best known machine 

 gun. It is water-cooled and heavier than others 



The Gardner and the Nordenfelt were 

 more so-called machine guns of hand oper- 

 ated type. Not until the coming of the 

 Maxim did the machine gun become the 

 frightful weapon that it is now. 



Following is a list of the 

 modern machine guns: 



Maxim, used by England and 

 Germany and Russia — Ameri- 

 can. 



Hotchkiss, used by France 

 nd Japan — American. 



Benet-Mercie, modifica- 

 tion of Hotchkiss — Ameri- 

 can and French. 



Colt, used by Russia 

 and other nations — 

 Browning, an American. 

 Lewis, used by Eng- 

 land and France, an 

 American army officer. 

 Schwarzlose, used by 

 Austria — German. 



Those most commonly 

 used and most efficient 

 are of American design 

 from start to finish. The 

 celebrated "Pom-Pom," 

 used by the Boers against 

 the British, and re-chris- 

 tened because of its peculiar rhythmic 

 pounding noise, was a Maxim-Nordenfelt, 

 firing cartridges six inches long, twenty-five 

 to the belt, and using a one-pound high ex- 

 plosive shell. It was merely a larger 



machine gun. 



The British 

 had little use for 

 the machine gun, 

 save in the navy, 

 where it was used 

 with large caliber 

 bullets of steel to 

 repel torpedo 

 boat attacks 

 prior to the days 

 of modern quick- 

 firing navy guns. 

 But when Kitch- 

 ener took com- 

 mand in South 

 Africa he carried 

 with him plenty 

 of machine guns 

 — Maxims. At 

 Omdurman, the 

 greatest and most 

 one-sided slaughter of modern times, where 

 spears and courage were pitted against 

 modern arms — the chattering Maxims 

 proved by the piles of savage dead, to be 



