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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
America, as we have seen, also uses the Gatling—which, indeed, owes 
its origin to that country.^ 
In the kingdom of Sweden and Norway a Commission has lately 
investigated the subject, and according to their report a species of 
machine gun invented by Messrs. Winborg and Palmcrantz is likely 
to be adopted there. It seems to be superior in some points to any 
existing nature of this weapon. 
A six-barrelled machine gun, termed the “ Hotchkiss revolver 
cannon,” has lately been experimented with in Germany. It is meant 
to fire small shells weighing, when full, about 1J lbs., with percussion 
fuze. It outwardly resembles a Gatling, but has only one lock, opposite 
to which each barrel is brought in turn. 
EMPLOYMENT OF MACHINE GUNS, AND THEIR 
ADVANTAGES GENERALLY. 
When a new invention, or an old one revived, is brought to public 
notice, we invariably find that on the one hand it is unduly extolled, and 
on the other decried, without much regard to its utility. Such was the 
case with the mitrailleur. 
Some men—ardent inventors, as a rule—supposed that the introduction 
of the rifle battery gun would alter old conditions of attack and defence. 
As an example of this we may take the following passage, quoted by 
Major Fosbery, a propos of mitrailleurs :—“ Power will no longer be 
exclusively on the side of the big battalions ; but as machinery has 
rendered industry rich and prosperous, so now, whilst diminishing, or at 
least without increasing, a war expenditure, it is about to render small 
peoples and little states as powerful for defence as are the great for 
attack.” 
Mr. Gatling wrote a pamphlet about his gun, in which he urged its 
claims as compared with infantry. He considered it to be a means of 
revolutionising, in a great degree, the present modes of warfare. A few 
men, he stated, furnished with these death-dealing engines, would be 
able to defeat thousands armed with ordinary weapons, and consequently 
their use would in a great degree supersede the use of large armies. 
This reminds one of the old picture in “ Punch,” where the soldiers 
of opposing forces amuse themselves with cards and dominoes, while 
automatic fire-arms thunder death and destruction at one another. 
On the other hand, prior to 1870, many laughed at the very idea of 
using such weapons; and the Prussians, in particular, spoke slightingly 
of arms which they knew their probable antagonist, France, had largely 
adopted. While the Franco-German war lasted, it was almost necessary 
* The Secretary of State for War has proposed to Congress this year (February 1874) that 209 
additional Gatling guns he purchased, for flank defence of fortresses. 
