100 
SHORT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
68. Mitrailleur Christophe et Montigny*. —The Mitrailleur is a machine 
gun intended to throw “ Mitraille” i. e. groups of small projectiles independently to 
distances of 1000 yards, to be used against troops under certain circumstances 
and to replace shrapnel. 
There are several types of this machine. The Fafchamps, Agar, Gatling, the 
French service gun, the Montigny and others, Russian and American. 
During the American war the Agar and Gatling guns were used with con¬ 
siderable effect. 
The French have now formed batteries of these weapons constructed on a prin¬ 
ciple almost identical with the Montigny, and expect great things from their use. 
The Montigny consists of thirty-seven rifled steel barrels hexagonally formed 
exteriorly, and fitted and soldered into a wrought-iron tube somewhat in the form of 
an ordinary piece of artillery, this has a moveable breech piece worked by means of 
a lever and containing a spring and striker corresponding with each barrel. The 
whole of the barrels can be charged simultaneously by the introduction of a steel 
plate containing the thirty-seven cartridges ; they can be fired independently and at 
any intervals of time, or the whole may be fired in one second ; reloading takes 
five seconds, and a continuous fire at the rate of ten discharges per minute can be 
maintained. 
The gun is provided with both vertical and horizontal adjustments, and may be 
made to sweep horizontally along a line by adjustment between each discharge, or 
during the discharge itself. 
As there is no recoil, the gun once laid, will continue to throw 281bs. weight of 
projectiles per minute on the same spot, or on various points of any line requiring 
the same elevation, without any further labour than that involved in the working of 
the lateral adjustment. 
The following particulars may possess interest- 
Mitrailleur Christophe et Montigny. 
Weight, 4001bs., No. of barrels 37. 
Calibre, *534 inches. 
Rifling, Metford. 
Hardened bullet, weight 600 grains. 
Charge of powder, 115 grains. 
Rapidity of fire, ten rounds = 370 shots per minute. 
Mean absolute deviation at 500 yards, 31 inches. 
Mean of elevation at 500 yards, 1° 24'. 
Mean absolute deviation, 800 yards, 51 inches. 
Angle of elevation 800 yards, 2° 5'. 
Angle of elevation 1000 yards, 2° 35'. 
69. Dogwood Charcoal. —The wood known as black dogwood, and used for 
gunpowder in this and other countries, is not dogwood (CornusJ, but is properly the 
Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula). Black dogwood is the popular name that 
has always been given to this wood in England. 
Chemists that have made experiments with charcoal from a great variety of woods 
by mixing 12 parts by weight of charcoal with 60 of saltpetre assert that this 
wood yields the greatest volume of gas in decomposition, next the willow, and then 
the alder. 
* By Major G. F. Fosberry, Y.C., Bengal Staff Corps. 
