THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
423 
guns of the pash, and pointed out the various stages of enquiry which 
led to the introduction into our service (in 1870) of the few we possess, 
we come to the more interesting parts of our subject—-viz., the employ¬ 
ment of machine guns of the present day, the effects given by them in 
actual warfare, the reasons for and against their employment, and also 
the question of their tactical use, and the organisation necessary, should 
they be taken into the field. 
Before discussing these, it will be necessary to say a few words as to 
the several natures of this weap'on adopted by different nations.* 
The French, as we know, employed mitrailleurs in 1870 in large 
numbers, having in their armament at the commencement of the war as 
many as 190 of these machine guns. Their mitrailleurs were of the 
Montigny type generally; though, as the war progressed, and more 
arms were required for the mobilised peasants brought into the field, 
other descriptions, made principally in America, were also used by 
them.f They still keep as service armament the so-called French 
mitrailleur pattern. 
In Prussia, both Montigny and Gatling mitrailleurs were tried in the 
year 1869, in the presence of the King; but as it was thought that the 
results gained by their use were not adequate to “ the personnel and 
materiel required in serving them,” they were not approved of. 
With the exception of one battery of revolver cannon on the Feldl 
system, made during the war, J no machine guns have been made for 
this power; but we must remember that large numbers of the French 
mitrailleurs captured in 1870 are in her possession. Some of these 
were tried, indeed, at Berlin, in 1871, and pronounced superior both to 
the Gatling and Montigny guns—an admirable conclusion to arrive at 
as far as economy is concerned, but one scarcely borne out by unpre¬ 
judiced evidence. 
Russia, in 1873, had as many as 300 Gatling guns, but since that date 
has adopted the Nobel machine gun—a species of Gatling, with certain 
alterations on the plan of General Gorloff. 
The Swedo-Norwegian report, before quoted, states that these altera¬ 
tions are by no means improvements upon the original. 
Austria has adopted the system of Christophe and Montigny in her 
mitrailleuses. She has added many of these weapons to her armament. 
Turkey possesses a number of machine guns made, like our own, 
on the Gatling principle. 
* Every machine gun now made would probably be used for much the same ends, whatever the 
details of its construction; and as these details would somewhat encumber this part of the paper, 
and would affect but little the broad questions as to how and where such weapons should be 
employed, they have not been entered into here, but are given in Part II., which follows. 
f Some Gatlings were Used with General Chanzy’s army, while the army of the north, under 
General Faidherbe, had a few Claxton guns. This difference in nature of machine guns used 
accounts for certain discrepancies in evidence. 
X These are no longer in the Bavarian armament. (Vide “ RevUe de l’Artillerie,” Tom. II;, 
p. 515, September 1873). 
