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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OE 
the motion of the lever was stopped until the striker and cock had 
been put back in their places. 
Other stoppages were caused by difficulty of extraction when the 
rapidity of fire was great; the empty cartridges not being withdrawn 
quickly enough. 
The Committee concluded— 
1. That the closing of the breech was faulty (not sufficiently close); 
and that, unless a stronger cartridge affording a sufficient gas check 
was used,* some change in the mechanism was necessary on that 
account. 
2. That the striker should be furnished with a stop, to prevent its 
being driven backwards out of the piston or plunger; and an arrange¬ 
ment made for the continual supply of the magazine. 
Though its advantages as to rapidity of fire are great, the Committee 
consider the mechanism of this mitrailleuse to be complicated, and its 
" assemblage ” long and difficult. 
On the whole, they had doubts as to' its efficiency for field service, 
which careful experiments alone could determine. 
Details . 
The system consists of a rectangular frame of cast-iron (A'A', Figs. 
1, 2, and 3), the sides of which are connected by three plates or 
transoms ( aa , Figs. 2 and 3). The frame is furnished with trunnions, 
and is capable also of lateral movement on a pivot. 
The ten barrels are placed side by side in the frame, their muzzle ends 
passing through the front transom, while the breech ends are screwed 
into the middle transom. 
Between this middle transom and the rear one there is a parallelo- 
piped box, containing the mechanism (Figs. 1 and 2), which is capable 
of movement backwards or forwards.f 
In it are ten pistons or plungers,J corresponding to the barrels. 
These are of steel, pierced with a channel in which a needle or striker 
moves freely, and are furnished with an extractor on the right side. 
Behind each plunger is a cylindrical cock of steel, with a projecting 
tenon underneath; and behind the cock, again, a strong spiral spring. 
The under surface of the box, or “ lock,” carries— 
1. A "closing cam” [e, Figs. 3 and 4), which pivots on an axis, 
and by means of two curved slits gives reciprocating motion to a 
couple of bolts (ff, Figs. 3 and 4). 
When the lock is moved up so that the breech ends of the barrels 
* It should be mentioned that in the experiments at Christiana, barrels rifled on the Remington 
system were used; while at Bourges the barrels had the Berdan rifling (used in the Russian 
service small-arm). This may account, in some measure, for the different results arrived at. 
f This box is termed the “ lock ” in description given. 
X Tlie “ plungers ” resemble very nearly the locks of a Gatling gun. 
