The Favorite Weapon of Assault 



The difference between the automatic rifle and 

 the machine gun is merely a matter of size 



Bv Edward C. Crossman 



..,. - . -HEHDOfnfy^B'or.gatC'f 



BifiCk }<. :<. , AJ:«NA7EU IotSnG S LOWIHNG \ 

 rrDUM»GITS3M3(W*.RI>SFORW>JU)TSAVIL. ' _ 

 T«E UN WRKS THROUGH A S1jOT*C'1N CARRIBC^V. 



One of the many types of automatic rifles recently evolved to meet modem conditions. It 

 weighs about twenty pounds and is operated much like an American self-loading sporting rifle 



THERE is no dividing line between a 

 machine gun and an automatic rifle. 

 Both types load, fire, eject the empty 

 shell and load again by virtue of the recoil 

 or the gases of the gun operating clever 

 mechanism in the breech portion. They 

 fire just as fast as the mechanism will 

 operate as long as the trigger is held back, 

 and the supply of ammunition is kept up, 

 the speed varying from three hundred to 

 six hundred shots per minute. 



The American Benet-Merci^ and the 

 British-American Lewis gun represent the 

 common idea of the automatic rifle, both 

 being light and rifle-like in outline. The 

 weightier Maxim is the typical machine 

 gun, water-cooled and rather ponderous. 



The gun illustrated is even more rifle-like 

 than either the Benet-Merci6 or the Lewis. 



This gun is merely another modification 

 of the light machine gun idea, and is not 

 utilike our own Benet-Merci6. But where 



the mechanism of the Benet-Mercie is 

 operated by gas borrowed from a tiny hole 

 bored in the barrel and admitted into a 

 regular gas-engine sort of cylinder with 

 piston operating the gun, the weapon 

 shown is operated much like a well known 

 make of American sporting self-loading 

 rifle. A backward movement of the sliding 

 barrel unlocks the breech-bolt and permits 

 the recoil of the powder gases in the 

 chamber to open the breech block, eject the 

 empty shell, cock the striker, bring a fresh 

 cartridge into position, and compress the 

 spring that serves to close the mechanism. 

 Then the gun instantly fires itself again. 



In both this gun and the Benet-Merci4 

 the cartridges are fed in by means of a flat 

 clip holding twenty-five or thirty cart- 

 ridges. The Lewis uses a drum with 

 several layers of cartridges, the Maxim and 

 Colt use a webbing belt holding two 

 hundred and fifty rounds. 



917 



