668 



Popular Science Monthly 



Photos © lut. Film Sen' 



the most frightful of modern weapons. 



But when the Japanese and Russians 

 learned to use machine guns as they should 

 be used — in touch with the infantry at all 

 times, civilized Europe woke up to the 

 possibilities of the chattering demons. 



When the great war broke out, the 

 Germans had more than fifty thousand 

 machine guns of Maxim type, aside from 

 those used specially for fortress defence. 



The modern 

 machine gun 

 ranges from the 

 automatic rifle 

 form, such as the 

 Lewis and Benet 

 of our service, 

 weapons weigh- 

 ing thirty lbs. or 

 less — to the 

 weightier water- 

 cooled Maxims 

 and kindred 

 guns, such as the 

 Germans use. 

 All of them ope- 

 rate the same 

 way. They fire 

 at the rate of 

 from three hun- 

 dred to six hun- 

 dred shots a min- 

 ute so long as the 

 ammunition sup- 

 ply is kept up — 



and all of them use the ordinary infantry 

 cartridges of the army operating them. So 

 long as the trigger or firing bar is held back, 

 the gun continues to fire. Most of them 

 can be used as single shots, a shot to each 

 pull of the trigger. 



The Colt, Maxim, and Schwarzlose, feed 

 their cartridges by means of webbing belts 

 holding usually two hundred and fifty 

 shells, and refilled by a special machine. 

 As a rule each gun has several thousand 

 rounds of shot loaded in these belts, car- 

 ried with each gun. 



The Benet-Mercie and Hotchkiss of 

 older type, feed their shells through flat 

 clips of steel, holding thirty cartridges 

 in each one. 



The Lewis feeds by means of a drum 

 of fifty shells, which when emptied can 

 be replaced in an instant with a filled one. 



No machine gun is fired continuously. 

 It will not stand it, and the damage is worse 

 when the gun is of the air-cooled variety 

 instead of water-jacketed. The air-cooled 



British troops using a Lewis machine gun in the 

 trench fighting in the Balkans. It fires fifty shells 



A Lewis machine gun taken apart. The maga- 

 zine (shown in photograph above) is missing 



gun of Benet type is ruined in five minutes' 

 continuous firing, which means without any 

 more pause than enough to insert filled 

 clips. Each shot develops a temperature 

 of five thousand degrees. 



Any of these machine guns, fired until it is 

 good and hot, which does not mean neces- 

 sarily for five minutes, or more than one, 

 will fire a cartridge inserted into the barrel, 

 from the heat alone. The Colt gun when 



firing at a lower 

 rate than four 

 hundred shots to 

 the minute, has 

 an unpleasant 

 habit of firing 

 the shell being 

 inserted into the 

 barrel, from the 

 heat and before 

 the action is en- 

 tirely closed , pro- 

 ducing discon- 

 certing eff"ects on 

 the mechanism 

 and gun crew. 



Machine gun 

 fire is by short 

 bursts of shots, 

 ten to thirty; 

 then thefirestops 

 and the gunner 

 relays the gun 

 onthemark. The 

 Germans use 

 them in pairs, alternating their fire, one 

 backing up the other in case of a jam. 

 The German front is solid with machine 

 guns. The British tear to bits their 

 trenches and make a waste of their en- 

 tanglements, but after the fire has lifted 

 and the British start forward. 



A machine gun 

 fitted with seat 

 and pedestal for 

 horizontal firing 



