FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES.
THE CANNON THE MOST ANCIENT OF FIREARMS--MUZZLE AND BREECH LOADERS
OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--THE ARMSTRONG GUN--THE RODMAN, DAHLGREN
AND PARROTT GUNS--BREECH LOADING ORDNANCE--RAPID FIRE BREECH LOADING
RIFLES--DISAPPEARING GUN--GATLING GUN--DYNAMITE GUN--THE COLT AND
SMITH & WESSON REVOLVERS--GERMAN AUTOMATIC PISTOL--BREECH LOADING
SMALL ARMS--MAGAZINE GUNS--THE LEE, KRAG-JORGENSEN, AND MAUSER
RIFLES--HAMMERLESS GUNS--REBOUNDING LOCKS--GUN COTTON--NITRO-
GLYCERINE AND SMOKELESS POWDER--MINES AND TORPEDOES.
Strange as it may appear, the evolution of an enlightened civilization
and the deadly use of firearms have developed in parallel lines. What
relation there may be between the adoption of the teachings of Christ to
men to love one another, and the invention of increased facilities among
men for killing one another, is a problem for the philosopher. Is it
because killing at long range is less brutal, or does the deterrent
influence of this increased facility operate as a check appealing to the
fear of the individual, or is the cannon one of God’s missionaries in
working out the great law of the survival of the fittest? Whatever it
may be, there does seem to be some relation of cause and effect between
the two factors, and doubtless all three of the causes have exercised a
contributory influence. In the olden days the wage of battle was almost
universally decided by the strength of brawn, and the higher qualities
of mind were subservient. The advent of firearms has changed all this.
It has made the weakest arm equal to the strongest when supported by the
same or a superior mental equipment, and this has made a great step
toward the supremacy of the intellectual against the attack of the
physically strong. In the fifth century the great civilization of Rome
fell under the ruthless attack of the northern barbarian. Could such a
thing have been possible with the gates defended by Gatling guns,
magazine rifles, and dynamite shells? On the contrary, we find to-day a
handful of trained soldiers equipped with modern firearms putting to
flight a horde of ignorant savages. The history of modern wars is filled
with illustrations of the shifting of the contest among men from an
issue of brute force to a contest of brains, and of the support rendered
the latter by firearms. But is war really necessary, and may we not
hope that it shall cease? We can only say that the ideal sentiment of
beating the sword into the plowshare is as yet the dream of the
optimist, for man has gone right along in perfecting the arts of war and
raising the execution of firearms to such a deadly efficacy, that the
Nineteenth Century in a paramount degree has been conspicuously notable
for its advances in this art. Invention after invention has followed in
such rapid succession, even to the last years of the Nineteenth Century,
until war now assumes the conditions of suicide and annihilation.
No coherent history of firearms and explosives is possible in any short
review. The cannon, bombard or mortar, musket, pistol and petard, all
belong to former centuries, and in one form or another extend back to
the most ancient times, but they have grown in the Nineteenth Century
into such accuracy and distance of range, into such rapidity of action,
into such multiplied efficiency in repeating systems, into such energy
of explosives, and such convenient embodiment and penetration of
projectile, that these subjects must needs be considered in separate
divisions.
[Illustration: FIG. 265.--MUZZLE LOADING CANNON OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.]
_The Cannon_ is the most ancient of all firearms, and, like gunpowder,
is believed to have had its origin with the Chinese. In the Eleventh
Century the vessels of the King of Tunis, in the attack on Seville, are
said to have had on board iron pipes from which a thundering fire was
discharged. Condé, in his history of the Moors in Spain, speaks of them
as used in that country as early as 1118. Ferdinand, in 1309, took
Gibraltar from the Moors by cannon, and in 1346 the English used them at
the battle of Crécy, and from that time on they became a common weapon
of warfare. In the first cannon used the balls were of stone, and some
of them were of enormous size. The bronze cannon of Mohammed II., A.
D., 1464, had a bore of 25 inches, and threw a stone ball of 800 pounds.
The _Tsar-Pooschka_, the great bronze gun of Moscow, cast in 1586, was
even larger, and had a bore 36 inches in diameter. Early in the history
of the cannon the breech-loading feature was introduced. In Figs. 265
and 266 are shown illustrations from the Sixteenth Century, Fig. 265
representing a muzzle loader, and Fig. 266 a breech-loader.
[Illustration: FIG. 266.--BREECH LOADING CANNON OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.]
Passing through various stages of development, the cannon came down to
the Nineteenth Century, and was known generally as ordnance or
artillery, and specifically as cannon or heavy guns, mortars for
throwing shell at a great elevation, and howitzers for field, mountain,
or siege, and which latter are lighter and shorter than cannon, and
designed to throw hollow projectiles with comparatively small charges.
The feature of importance in the cannon which contributed most to its
efficiency was the rifling of the bore with spiral grooves. This, by
giving a rotating effect to the projectile, caused it to maintain a
truer flight by taking advantage of the law of physics that a rotating
body tends to preserve its plane of rotation. The rifling of the barrels
of firearms is, however, of very ancient origin. The British patent to
Rotsipen, No. 71, of 1635, is an early disclosure of this art. The
patent was granted him for
“Fourteen yeares if he live soe long.” * * * “To draw or to shave
barrells for pieces of all sortes straight even and smooth, and to
make anie crooked barrell perfectly straight with greate ease, and
to _rifle cutt out_ or screwe barrells as wyde or as close or as
deepe or as shallowe as shalbe required, with greate ease.”
The rifle grooves, however, were first made spiral or “screwed” by
Koster, of Birmingham, about 1620, while straight grooves are said to
have been in use as far back as 1498. In Berlin there is a rifled cannon
of 1664 with thirteen grooves. Rifled cannon were first employed in
actual service in Louis Napoleon’s Italian campaign of 1859, and were
first introduced in the United States service by General James in 1861.
About the middle of the Nineteenth Century a great impetus was given to
the development of artillery by the Crimean War, followed by the Civil
War of the United States.
In England the Armstrong gun was introduced about 1855, and was covered
by British patents No. 401, of 1857; No. 2,564, of 1858; No. 611, of
1859, and No. 743, of 1861. This originally consisted of an internal
tube of wrought iron or gun metal, with cylindrical casings of wrought
iron shrunk on. It was afterwards improved in what was known as the
Fraser gun. In Germany the operations of Krupp as a gun maker began to
be notable about this period. In the United States, Colonel Rodman
devised a means of casting guns of large calibre, by having a hollow
core through which water was circulated to rapidly cool and harden the
metal in the vicinity of the bore, and to relieve the unequal strain in
cooling. He obtained patent No. 5,236, August 14, 1847, for the same.
The Dahlgren gun was patented August 6, 1861, Nos. 32,983, 32,984, and
32,985, by Admiral Dahlgren, U. S. N. The improvement covered the
adjustment of the thickness of the metal at the breech of the gun to the
varying pressure strains along the bore. These guns were distinguishable
by the smooth bulbous breech of great thickness and curvilinear contour.
The Parrott gun, patented October 1, 1861, No. 33,401, and May 6, 1862,
No. 35,171, comprehended a form of hooped ordnance in which the breech
was re-enforced by an encompassing hoop or sleeve, which was shrunk on.
[Illustration: FIG. 267.--THE KRUPP BREECH MECHANISM.]
_Breech-Loading Ordnance._--While the breech-loading cannon is several
centuries old, and was, in fact, one of the first forms of that firearm,
it is to this principle of action that the rapid fire and great
execution of the modern weapon are chiefly due. The earliest of existing
forms of breech mechanism is that which comprehends the channeling of
the breech transversely to receive a tapered plug, which permits the
charge to be placed in the open rear end of the gun in front of the
channel, and the transverse plug then closed behind the charge. This is
described in Hadley’s British patent No. 577, of 1741; was first
patented in the United States in a modified form by Wright and Gould,
No. 22,325, December 14, 1858, and afterwards came to be known as the
Broadwell system, being developed by him and covered in patents No.
33,876, of December 10, 1861; No. 43,553, July 12, 1864, and No. 55,762,
June 19, 1866. This general principle is still employed by Krupp in
some of his guns, and as used by him is shown in Fig. 267. The
transverse channel through the breech is tapered, and the sliding breech
block X is slightly wedge-shaped to fit tightly therein. When the breech
block is withdrawn for loading, as shown, a sleeve S, shown in dotted
lines, is temporarily arranged in alignment with the bore and gives
smooth passage way to the charge to a position in front of the breech
block. This sleeve is then withdrawn, the breech block forced in, and is
there locked by a turn of the threads of a locking screw _b_ into the
corresponding recesses _a_ in the breech. A detachable wrench _e_ may be
applied either to the screw _d b_ to turn it to lock or unlock, or to
the traversing screw _c_, which, by engaging with a nut (not shown),
runs the breech block in and out.
[Illustration: FIG. 268.--INTERRUPTED THREAD BREECH MECHANISM.]
By far the most popular principle of the breech block, however, is that
of the interrupted thread, shown in Fig. 268, in which the plug, when
closed, has its axis in alignment with the axial bore of the gun. Its
threads are interrupted by longitudinally arranged channels, and the
breech of the gun has corresponding threads and channels. When the plug
is pushed into the gun, the screw threads of the plug enter the channels
of the breech, and a rotary turn of the screw plug then locks its
threads into those of the breech. The screw plug is supported by a
carrier hinged at one side to the gun, and arranged to swing the plug
into axial alignment with the bore, or be thrown to one side to admit
the charge. The patents to Chambers, No. 6,612, July 31, 1849 (re-issue
No. 237, April 19, 1853), and to Cochran, No. 26,256, November 29, 1859,
are the earliest American examples of this principle of action, and are
believed to be the original inventions of the same.
In one form or another this construction enters into most all modern
breech mechanisms. Among the forms used by the United States are the
Driggs-Seabury, the Dashiell, and the Vickers-Maxim. To prevent the
expanding gases from driving through the crevices of the breech block,
expanding or swelling rings, known as gas checks, are arranged on the
front of the breech block. De Bange’s patent, No. 301,220, July 1, 1884,
covers the most popular form.
[Illustration: FIG. 269.--SIGHTING A SIX-INCH RAPID FIRE GUN.]
The elements of efficiency of the modern rapid-fire breech-loading rifle
are to be found in the following features: First, in the increased
length of the gun, which, for a 6-inch gun is now as much as 25 feet,
the increased length lending a longer period of expansion for the
explosion of the powder charge, and imparting a correspondingly higher
momentum; secondly, in the fixed ammunition, which means a cartridge
case in which a metallic shell encloses the powder charge, and is
connected with the projectile, and third, in the great improvement and
rapidity of action of the breech mechanism, which permits as many as
eight rounds per minute to be fired. In Fig. 269 is shown a 6-inch
rapid-fire gun of the United States Navy, loaded, and being sighted for
fire. Rapid-fire guns of this class represent the most effective form of
modern ordnance. It was largely such rapid fire batteries of Admiral
Dewey’s squadron that swept the Spanish fleet out of existence at
Manila, and that demolished the fleet of Cervera at Santiago by the
awful hail of shells poured into his ships. These relatively small guns
throw a shell six miles, and the striking energy of their projectiles at
the muzzle is equal to the penetration of iron plate 21 inches thick, or
16 inches of steel. When the gun is loaded, it is held in the forward
position by coil springs, inclosed in cylinders and holding a recoil
seat for the trunnions, and also has two pistons traveling in cylinders
filled with glycerine. When the gun is fired, the recoil causes it to
slide back, carrying the pistons, and the recoil is checked by the
resistance of the glycerine traveling through an opening past the
pistons. After full recoil, the gun is automatically returned to its
forward position by the action of the coil springs, which are compressed
during the recoil. The gun crew is protected by Harveyized steel plate 4
inches thick, and the gun is so delicately mounted on ball bearings that
its great weight of 7½ tons responds readily to the slight pressure in
training the same.
[Illustration: FIG. 270.--RANGE OF SIXTEEN-INCH GUN.]
Powerful as these guns appear to be, their big brothers in the revolving
turrets are far more so. While not so nimble in action, the great power
of these guns of the main battery, and the elaboration and completeness
of mechanism for operating them, for supplying them with ammunition, and
for rotating the turrets, constitute a complete world in ordnance in
itself. As the gun increases in size, its cost both in construction and
service increases in a greatly disproportionate ratio. A 6-inch
breech-loading rifle costs $64.40 for each discharge, while a 12-inch
gun costs $458 for each discharge. The largest guns of our battleships
are of 13 inch calibre, and about 40 feet long, but larger ones are
employed for sea coast defenses. The great 16-inch 126-ton gun, now
building for the United States at the Watervliet arsenal, is 49¼ feet
long, over 6 feet in diameter at the breech, and it will have an extreme
range of over twenty miles. Its projectile will weigh 2,370 pounds, and
it will cost $865 to fire the gun once. The accompanying view, Fig. 270,
will give graphic illustration of the range of this gun. If fired at its
maximum elevation from the battery at the south end of New York in a
northerly direction, its projectile would pass over the city of New
York, over Grant’s Tomb, Spuyten Duyvil, Riverdale, Mount St. Vincent,
Ludlow, Yonkers, and would land near Hastings-on-the-Hudson, nearly
twenty miles away, as shown in our map, Fig. 271. The extreme height of
its trajectory would be 30,516 feet, or nearly six miles. This means
that if Pike’s Peak, of the Western Hemisphere, had piled on top of it
Mont Blanc, of the Eastern Hemisphere, this gun would hurl its enormous
projectile so high above them both as to still leave space below its
curve to build Washington’s Monument on top of Mont Blanc, as shown in
Fig. 270.
[Illustration: FIG. 271.--RADIUS OF ACTION OF SIXTEEN-INCH GUN.]
_The Disappearing Gun._--The importance of secreting the location of the
battery in coast defences, and the better protection of the gunners,
have suggested a species of gun carriage which would permit the gun to
be normally hidden behind and under the protection of the parapet, and
be only temporarily elevated to a position above the parapet while
firing. Various forms of this have been devised. General R. E. De Russy,
Corps Engineers, U. S. A., devised such a carriage in 1835. Moncrieff,
of England, was one of the first to put in practice such a form of
carriage. United States patents covering this invention were granted him
as follows: No. 83,873, November 10, 1868; No. 115,502, May 30, 1871,
and No. 144,120, October 28, 1873. Its principle of operation was to
utilize the force of the recoil as a power to raise the gun into firing
position. The gun is fulcrumed in a lever frame provided with a
counterpoise which more than balances the gun. When the gun is fired the
recoil raises the counterweight, and the gun descends and is locked in
its lower position. When loaded and released the counterpoise raises the
gun again to firing position.
Among later gun carriages of this type of American construction may be
mentioned those devised by Spiller, Gordon, Howell, and others, but the
one most generally known is the Buffington-Crozier, covered by patents
No. 555,426, February 25, 1896, and No. 613,252, November 1, 1898. This
carriage, sustaining the 8 and 10 inch breech-loading rifles at Fort
Wadsworth for the defence of New York harbor, is shown in Figs. 272
and 273, Fig. 272 representing it in its lowered position, and Fig. 273
in its elevated position for firing. The trunnions of the gun rest in
bearings at the upper ends of the pair of levers, which latter are
fulcrumed near the middle to horizontally sliding carriages connected to
hydraulic cylinders that move backward as the gun recoils. These
cylinders move over stationary pistons which have orifices that allow
the liquid to pass from one side of the piston to the other. As the gun
recoils and the levers turn to the horizontal position, the forward ends
of the levers are made to raise vertically an immense leaden
counterweight, weighing 32,000 pounds, which ordinarily over-balances
the weight of the gun on the levers. This cylindrical counterweight is
seen raised on the left of Fig. 272. In firing, the energy of the recoil
is absorbed partly by raising the counterweight, and partly by the
resistance of the hydraulic cylinders, and when the gun reaches its
lowest position it is caught and retained by pawls. After loading the
pawls are tripped, and the greater gravity of the counterweight raises
the gun to firing position again. Ten shots from an 8-inch gun on this
carriage have been fired in 12 minutes 21 seconds.
[Illustration: FIG. 272.--BUFFINGTON-CROZIER DISAPPEARING GUN, LOWERED.]
[Illustration: FIG. 273.--BUFFINGTON-CROZIER DISAPPEARING GUN, ELEVATED
FOR FIRING.]
_The Machine Gun._--During the Civil War a gun made its appearance
which, although of small calibre, rivaled in its deadly effectiveness
the wholesale slaughter of the cannon. It was a new type, and was known
as the machine gun, or battery gun, in which balls of comparatively
small size were discharged uninterruptedly and in incredible succession.
It was the invention of Dr. R. J. Gatling, and was covered by him in
patents No. 36,836, November 4, 1862, and No. 47,631, May 9, 1865, and
in many subsequent patents for minor improvements, and is now
universally known as the Gatling gun. It consisted of a circular series
of barrels mounted on a central shaft, and revolved by suitable gears
and a hand crank. The cartridges were automatically and successively fed
into the chambers of the barrel, and its several hammers were so
arranged in connection with the barrels that the whole operation of
loading, closing the breech, discharging and expelling the empty
cartridge cases was conducted while the barrels were kept in a
continuous revolving movement by turning the hand crank. In Fig. 274 is
shown a modern example of the Gatling gun equipped with the Accles feed.
Ordinarily the gun has ten barrels, with ten corresponding locks, which
revolve together during the working of the gun. When the gun is in
action there are always five cartridges going through the process of
loading, and five empty shells in different stages of being extracted,
and many hundred shots a minute can be fired. Many modifications of this
gun have been made by Hotchkiss and others. Maxim, Nordenfelt, and
Benet have each made valuable inventions in machine guns of a somewhat
different type, some of which utilize the force of the exploding charges
to react on the feed and firing mechanism, and thus furnish the power to
continue the consecutive operation of the gun, so that no hand crank is
required, but the gun works itself with an incessant hail of balls until
its supply of cartridges is exhausted.
[Illustration: FIG. 274.--GATLING GUN ON UNITED STATES ARMY MODEL
CARRIAGE.]
_The Dynamite Gun._--Most impressive to the layman, and most
demoralizing to the enemy, is this latter day form of ordnance. The
first efforts to hurl dynamite shells from a gun were made with
compressed air for fear of prematurely exploding the sensitive dynamite
in the gun, which would be more disastrous to the gunners themselves
than to the enemy. The Zalinski dynamite gun was of this class, and the
first which attained any notoriety. Foolhardy as it might appear, Yankee
genius was led to believe that dynamite shells could be fired with
powder charges, and this is now done in a practical and safe way in the
Sims-Dudley Dynamite Gun. This is manufactured under the fundamental
patents of Dudley, Nos. 407,474, 407,475, 407,476, of July 23, 1889,
which cover a method of exploding a charge of powder in one gun barrel,
and causing it to compress the air in front of it, and force it into
another barrel behind the dynamite shell, so that this relatively cool
body of air is interposed between the hot powder gases and the
dynamite. Fig. 275 represents Dudley’s patent drawing. C is the powder
charge in barrel A, and H is the dynamite shell in barrel G. The front
of barrel A is connected to the rear of barrel G behind the dynamite
shell by the tube F. When the powder C explodes, all the air in barrel A
and tube F is driven out and acts on the dynamite shell H to discharge
it without allowing it to come in contact with the hot powder gases. A
frangible plate D closes the end of barrel A, but blows out above a
certain pressure to avoid bursting strain in the gun. The Sims patent,
No. 619,025, February 7, 1899, covers a more simple and practical form
of constructing a gun on this principle, and the gun as used in the
United States is constructed in accordance with this latter improvement.
[Illustration: FIG. 275.--DYNAMITE GUN, DUDLEY’S PATENT, JULY 23, 1889.]
_Small Arms._--Pistols and guns are the two classes into which the
layman divides small arms, although in latter years this classification
has been much disturbed by the western frontiersman, who calls his
pistol a gun, and by the artillerist, who also calls his cannon a gun.
_The pistol_ may be defined as a small arm held in one hand to be fired.
It is an ancient weapon, but had attained no special importance or
popularity prior to the Nineteenth Century. The duelling pistol, with
its long barrel, its hair trigger and inlaid stock, and the derringer,
with its short barrel of large bore, were the popular forms. Not until
the revolver made its appearance did the pistol attain any importance.
Colt is popularly credited with having invented this, but it is really a
very old principle. In the Alte Deutscher Drehling Der Ruckladungs
Gewehre, by Edward Zernin, 1872, Darmstadt and Leipzig, is shown an
ancient form of match lock revolver, said to belong to the period
1480-1500. It is probably the same as the match-lock revolver in the
museum of the Tower of London, which is also credited to the Fifteenth
Century. In the British patent to Puckle, No. 418, of 1718, is shown and
described a well-constructed revolver carried on a tripod, and of the
dimensions of the modern machine gun. The inventor naïvely states that
it has round chambers for round balls, designed for Christians, and
square chambers, with square balls, for the Turks. The first revolving
firearm in the United States was made by John Gill, of Newberne, N. C.,
in 1829. It had fourteen chambers, and was a percussion gun, but was
never patented. The first revolver patented in the United States was
that to D. G. Colburn, June 29, 1833. The revolver of Col. Samuel Colt
was patented February 25, 1836, (re-issue No. 124, October 24, 1848),
and again August 29, 1839, No. 1,304; September 3, 1850, No. 7,613, and
September 10, 1850, No. 7,629. It was the first practical invention of
this kind, and it embodied as a leading feature the automatic rotation
of the cylinder in cocking by a pawl on the hammer engaging a ratchet on
the end of the cylinder.
[Illustration: FIG. 276.--SMITH & WESSON REVOLVER DISCHARGING SHELLS.]
Various types followed, such as the old pepper box, patented by Darling
April 13, 1836; the self-cocking pepper box, patented by Allen, No.
3,998, April 16, 1845; the four sliding barrels of Sharp, No. 6,960,
December 18, 1849, and many others. The most popular and successful,
however, of the succeeding types is that of Smith & Wesson, shown in
Fig. 276, and covered by many patents. One of its most important
features is the simultaneous extraction of the shells by an ejector,
having a stem sliding through the cylinder. This was the invention of W.
C. Dodge, patented January 17, 1865, No. 45,912, re-issue No. 4,483,
July 25, 1871. In Fig. 277 is shown Smith & Wesson’s latest pattern of
Hammerless Safety Revolver, with automatic shell extractor and
rebounding lock.
[Illustration: FIG. 277.--SMITH & WESSON SELF ACTING HAMMERLESS
REVOLVER.]
The latest development in this class of arms is the _automatic magazine
pistol_, designed for the use of the officers of the German army, and
adapted to fire ten shots in as many seconds. Only a slight pressure on
the trigger is necessary, as it is not required to perform the work of
turning any other part by the trigger, as is the case in the
self-cocking revolver. The pressure of gas at each explosion does all
the work of pushing back the closing piece of the breech through the
recoil of the shell, extracts and ejects the shell, cocks the hammer,
and also compresses recuperative springs, which effect the reloading and
closing of the weapon, all of these functions being performed in proper
sequence at each explosion in a fraction of a second. The act of firing
thus prepares the pistol for the next shot automatically. In Fig. 278
are shown two makes of pistol of this type. No. 1 is known as the Mauser
(United States patent No. 584,479, June 15, 1897); No. 2 shows it with
an extemporized stock, to be used as a carbine in firing from the
shoulder. This stock is hollow and forms the holster or case for the
pistol. At No. 3 is shown the Mannlicher pistol (United States patent
No. 581,296, April 27, 1897), which is another form of the same type. In
the Mauser the breech moves to the rear during recoil. In the Mannlicher
the barrel moves to the front, leaving space for a fresh cartridge to
come up from the magazine below. The calibre of this pistol is 0.3
inch, and the initial velocity 1,395 feet. At 33 feet the ball passes
through 10¾ inches of spruce, at 490 through 5 inches, and its extreme
range is 3,000 feet, or more than half a mile. When empty it is quickly
re-charged with cartridges, which are made up in sets of ten in a case
and inserted in one movement.
[Illustration: FIG. 278.--AUTOMATIC PISTOLS.]
_Breech-Loading Guns._--Although the breech-loading principle was well
known prior to the Nineteenth Century, it remained for this period to
give it effective development. The first United States patent for a
breech-loading gun was to Thornton and Hall, May 21, 1811. It was a
flint lock, and many of these arms were made at Harper’s Ferry Armory in
1814, and issued to the troops, one being given by order of Congress to
each member of Congress to take home with him to show to his
constituents. The present style of break-down gun was invented by Pauly,
in France, and is to be found in his British patent No. 3,833, of 1814.
Lefaucheux, of Paris, however, made this form of gun practical.
Minesinger, in United States patent No. 6,139, February 27, 1849,
supplied the important improvement of making the front edge of the
metallic cartridge shell thinner than elsewhere, so as to expand by the
pressure of the exploding charge, and swell to a tight fit of the
barrel. The Maynard rifle, first patented May 27, 1851, No. 8,126, was
one of the earliest practical forms of breech-loaders.
_Magazine Guns._--Walter Hunt’s United States patent No. 6,663, August
21, 1849, was the first on a magazine firearm of modern type. It had a
sliding breech block carrying the main spring and firing pin. The
Spencer rifle was one of the early ones that came into use. This had a
row of cartridges in the stock, and was first patented March 6, 1860,
No. 27,393. It was this weapon which in the Civil War gave proof of the
deadly efficacy of the breech-loading magazine gun, and its superiority
to the old style military arm. Another type of magazine firearm which in
the last half century has gained great prominence and popularity is the
so-called “Winchester.” This has its cartridges arranged in a tube below
and parallel with the barrel, and they are fed in a column to the rear
by a helical spring as fast as they are used up at the breech. The
pioneer of this type is the arm patented by Smith & Wesson February 14,
1854, No. 10,535, re-issued December 30, 1873, No. 5,710. This was
subsequently improved as to the extractor by B. F. Henry in patent No.
30,446, October 16, 1860, re-issued December 7, 1868, No. 3,227, and was
manufactured and favorably known for many years as the _Henry rifle_.
This rifle was also used in the Civil War. O. F. Winchester subsequently
re-organized it in patent No. 57,808, September 4, 1866, and the arm in
late years has taken his name.
_The Needle Gun_, of Prussia, represents an early form of breech loader,
and may be considered the prototype of the modern bolt gun. The needle
gun has in the place of the swinging hammer a rectilinearly sliding
bolt, carrying in front a needle which pierces the charge and ignites
the fulminate by its friction. Its construction permits the fulminate
to be placed in advance of the powder, which thus burns from the front,
and is entirely consumed in the gun, instead of being partially blown
out of the gun, as may occur when ignited in the rear. The needle gun
was invented by Dreyse in 1838, was first introduced about 1846, and
gave effective service in the Prusso-Austrian war of 1866. The
_Chassepot_, brought out in 1867, United States patent No. 60,832, was a
French development of the Prussian needle gun.
About 1879 two forms of magazine guns appeared which have become types
for most all subsequent guns of this class. Both of them employed the
bolt system as previously embodied in the needle gun, but added to it
the magazine principle and changed the method of supplying and feeding
the cartridges. One was the invention of James Lee, and the other was
the joint invention of Colonel Livermore, of the Corps of Engineers, and
Major Russell, of the Ordnance Department, U. S. A. In the Lee, whose
name has been much in evidence in late years, there was a relatively
small detachable box (see Fig. 279) capable of holding five cartridges
and designed to be filled and then placed in a slot opening centrally
under the gun, below the receiver, and directly in front of the trigger
guard. A spring within the magazine fed the cartridges up into alignment
with the barrel. Lee’s first patent was No. 221,328, November 4, 1879.
[Illustration: FIG. 279.--LEE’S MAGAZINE RIFLE, PATENTED NOVEMBER 4,
1879.]
The Livermore-Russell gun, patented October 28, 1879, No. 221,079, had a
magazine opening transversely in the upper edge of the stock behind the
bolt, and the cartridges were fed to the barrel beneath the bolt. The
important feature of the gun, however, was a cartridge case slotted on
its side and detachable from the gun, and each bearing a group of five
cartridges, which were to be thus made up in small packets and carried
in the belt or cartridge box of the soldier. This idea was subsequently
developed by Livermore and Russell in patent No. 230,823, August 3,
1880, and this feature, viewed in the light of the importance
subsequently attained by the “clip” in the Mauser and Mannlicher guns,
may be fairly considered the pioneer of this idea of grouping cartridges
in made-up packets for bolt guns. Its great advantage is the large
number of shots that may be fired in a short space of time without an
excessive weight in the gun itself.
Subsequent patents for improvements were taken by Lee as follows: No.
513,647, January 30, 1894, and No. 547,583, October 8, 1895, and the gun
used by the United States Navy is modeled along the lines of Lee’s
invention.
[Illustration: FIG. 280.--KRAG-JORGENSEN MAGAZINE RIFLE.]
_The Krag-Jorgensen Magazine Rifle_ was patented June 10, 1890, No.
429,811, and February 21, 1893, No. 492,212. It is the arm adopted by
the United States infantry service, and is seen in Fig. 280. The fixed
magazine chamber, shown in the cross section, passes through the breech
laterally below the barrel, and is filled with cartridges on one side of
the gun, which cartridges pass through the breech laterally, and,
turning a curve, enter the barrel from the opposite side. When the bolt
is drawn back by the knob handle a cartridge is fed up into position to
enter the barrel, and when pushed forward the cartridge is forced into
the bore of the gun, and at the same time a spiral spring is put under
tension to set the hammer of the gun, which carries a firing pin at its
front end. When the trigger is pulled the hammer and firing pin plunge
forward to explode the cap in the cartridge, and when the handle of the
bolt is drawn back again to extract the empty shell, a fresh cartridge
rises to take its place.
_The Mauser Rifle_ is shown in Fig. 281. This is the arm of which so
much was heard during the recent war with Spain, and against which our
soldiers had to contend. Five cartridges are carried in a magazine
immediately in front of the trigger, and are fed up by a subjacent
spring, one at a time, centrally through the breech into line with the
barrel, as the bolt with the knobbed handle is worked back and forth.
The cartridges are carried by the soldier in groups of five in a “clip,”
which is a simple strip of metal with inturned parallel edges, which
enclose the flanged heads of the cartridges as they project at right
angles to the clip. To transfer the cartridges to the magazine, the
clip with its cartridges is placed above the barrel, and the cartridges
forced down out of the clip into the magazine. In the Mannlicher gun,
adopted by the German army, the clip which holds the cartridges is
itself inserted into the magazine, along with the cartridges.
[Illustration: FIG. 281.--THE MAUSER RIFLE AND CLIP.]
The modern trend of development in firearms has been toward the
reduction of calibre, the standard for small arms being 30/100. The lead
bullets are covered with a seamless jacket of harder metal (Geiger’s
patents, No. 306,738 and 306,739, October 21, 1884), which prevents the
“leading” and fouling of the gun, and the distortion of the bullet.
Modern magazine guns permit twenty-five to thirty shots a minute as
single loaders, and besides they hold in reserve five cartridges. They
have a killing range of a mile, and the cost of the cartridge is 3.2
cents. At a trial at the Washington Navy Yard a few years past a steel
projectile 1.07 inches long and 32/100 calibre penetrated solid iron
1.15 inch thick, fired at an angle of 80°. It also penetrated 50 inches
of pine boards, and its range was estimated at three miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 282.--THE GREENER HAMMERLESS GUN.]
_Hammerless Guns._--Among improvements in shot guns the so-called
“hammerless” feature is a noteworthy departure. This hides the hammers
in the breech and cocks them by the act of breaking down the gun. In
Fig. 282 is given a section and plan view of the Greener mechanism,
which was patented July 6, 1880, No. 229,604, and was one of the first
guns of this kind put on the market. The hammers A are constructed as
elbow levers. Their upper ends have each a round point adapted to strike
through a small hole in the breech onto the cap of the cartridge. The
lower front portions of the hammers are extended forward and curved
inwardly toward each other, so that their inner ends nearly meet. C is a
pendent hook jointed to the barrel, and when the latter is tilted, as
shown in dotted lines, the hook acting upon the forwardly projecting
arms of the hammers turns them backward to the cocked position, in which
they are retained by the dogs B engaging with their notches. As the
hammers move back the mainspring is compressed, and when the dog B is
removed from the notch by pulling on the trigger, the hammers are
released and the gun fired.
_The rebounding lock_, now universally applied to shot guns, is another
comparatively recent improvement. This promotes safety by causing the
hammers to be normally and automatically held away from the firing pins.
The first practical form of this lock was patented by Hailer, July 26,
1870, No. 105,799, in which a single spring serves to deliver the blow
of the hammer and also withdraws the hammer from the firing pin. A
marked tendency in shot guns in late years is toward a reduction in
bore, many sportsmen now using a 28 gauge in preference to the old
regulation 12.
Nearly 5,000 patents have been granted in the United States for
firearms, and about 2,400 for projectiles. The most important of the
latter is the torpedo, of which the Whitehead, or fish torpedo, which
supplies its own means of propulsion, is the best known and most used.
It was first brought out in 1866 by Whitehead, at Fiume, a port of
Hungary. The Gathmann aerial torpedo, weighing 1,800 pounds and carrying
625 pounds of wet gun cotton, is designed to be fired from a gun 44 feet
long and 18 inch bore, and is supposed to have a range of ten miles.
Tests are about to be made under special appropriation of Congress, and
if its claim can be substantiated, it may become the most destructive
engine of warfare known.
_Explosives._--The invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese,
and at a period so far back that its origin is buried in antiquity. It
is believed to have been known since the time of Moses, something very
like it being mentioned in the ancient Gentoo laws of India 1,500 to
2,000 B. C. For many years it was thought that Roger Bacon invented it
in 1249, but it is now known that he was only a factor in its
development. Most likely the saltpetre of the plains of China came first
in accidental contact with the charred embers of a prehistoric fire, and
to the observant man the oxygen-giving saltpetre furnished the charcoal
with its means of energetic combustion for the first time.
Gunpowder consists of about 75 parts of saltpetre (nitrate of potash),
15 of charcoal, and 10 of sulphur, the proportions varying somewhat with
the use to which it is to be applied. In ordinary combustion the air
supplies the necessary oxygen. In gunpowder the presence of the air is
not necessary, as the saltpetre has imprisoned in its composition a
large quantity of oxygen which furnishes to the carbon and sulphur the
means for its combustion, gasification and enormous expansion.
Originally, gunpowder was pulverulent, like that used in fire works, and
had but little propelling force. The making of it in grains (“corned”)
is ascribed to Berthold Schwarz, a German monk, about 1320, and this, by
promoting the rapidity of its burning, added greatly to its effective
force, and gave a new impetus to firearms.
In the early part of the Nineteenth Century there were but few
improvements in either the composition or manufacture of gunpowder. The
introduction of the percussion cap, which exploded the charge by a blow,
in the place of the old flint lock, was, however, a notable advance.
Alexander John Forsyth, a Scotch clergyman, was the first to apply a
percussion or detonating compound, as set forth in his British patent
No. 3,032, of 1807. The embodiment of such compounds in the little
copper caps was made about 1818, and has been claimed by various
parties. Manton’s British patent No. 4,285, of 1818, describes a thin
copper tube filled with fulminate and struck sidewise by the hammer to
explode it. Joshua Shaw took a United States patent on a percussion gun,
June 19, 1822, and the copper percussion cap was said to have been
introduced in the United States by him in 1842. The embodiment of the
charge of powder and ball in brass and copper shells was done in France
by Galay Cazalat as early as 1826. Drawn metallic shells were made by
Flobert and Lefaucheux, in 1853, and Palmer, in 1854. Drawn copper
cartridges with center fire were introduced in the United States, and
patented by Smith & Wesson August 8, 1854, No. 11,496, and solid headed
shells by Hotchkiss, August 31, 1869, No. 94,210.
[Illustration: FIG. 283.--SUBMARINE MINE. CHARGE, 250 POUNDS DYNAMITE.]
In 1846 a new and distinct development in explosives was made in the
discovery of gun cotton by Schönbein, and of nitro-glycerine in 1847 by
Sobrero. The former is made by the reaction of nitric acid, aided by
sulphuric acid, on ordinary raw cotton, which, while changing the
physical aspects of the cotton but little, gives to it a terrific
explosive energy. Nitro-glycerine is made in a somewhat similar way by
treating glycerine with nitric and sulphuric acids. At first it found no
practical applications, except as a homœopathic medicine for headache,
but about 1864 Nobel commenced its manufacture for explosive uses, and
since that time nearly all the great blasting operations have been
performed through its agency. Its most familiar form is _dynamite_, or
giant powder, Nobel’s patent, No. 78,317, May 26, 1868, which is simply
nitro-glycerine held in absorption by some inert granular solid, such as
infusorial earth, and is thus rendered safer to handle and more
convenient to use. A suggestive application of the terrible power of
these explosives is in submarine mines. The instantaneous and dastardly
destruction of our battleship, “The Maine,” with 250 of her crew, in
Havana harbor, February 15, 1898, by one of these agencies, is a
harrowing illustration. Fig. 283 represents one of these submarine mines
carrying 250 pounds of dynamite, and Fig. 284 is an instantaneous
photograph at the moment of explosion.
[Illustration: FIG. 284.--EXPLOSION OF A MINE. BASE OF WATER COLUMN, 100
FEET WIDE, HEIGHT, 246 FEET.]
_White gunpowder_, or wood powder, was invented by Captain Schultz, of
the Prussian army. It is made by treating granulated wood with a mixture
of nitric and sulphuric acids, which, acting upon the cellulose of the
wood, convert it into an explosive something of the nature of gun
cotton. The grains are afterward saturated with saltpetre. This was
patented in the United States June 2, 1863, No. 38,789, and in Great
Britain, No. 900, of 1864. Dittmar’s powder is another of the same
general nature, covered by United States patents No. 98,854, January
18, 1870; No. 99,069, January 25, 1870, and No. 145,403, December 9,
1873.
Among the high explosives of more recent date may be mentioned:
_Tonite_ (gun cotton and barium nitrate), British patents No. 3,612,
of 1874, and No. 2,742, of 1876.
_Rack-a-rock_ (potassium chlorate and nitro-benzene), United States
patent No. 243,432, June 28, 1881; British patent No. 5,584, of
1881.
_Bellite_ (ammonium nitrate and nitro-benzene), United States
patent No. 455,217, June 30, 1891; British patent No. 13,690, of
1885.
_Melinite_ (picric acid and gun cotton), British patent No. 15,089,
of 1885.
_Lyddite_, not patented, but believed to be substantially same as
melinite, and containing for its active ingredient picric acid,
which is a compound formed by the reaction of nitric acid on
carbolic acid.
_Cordite_ (nitro-glycerine, gun cotton, and mineral jelly or oil),
British patent No. 5,614, of 1889; United States patent No.
409,549, August 20, 1889.
_Indurite_ (gun cotton and nitro-benzene, indurated), United States
patent, No. 489,684, January 10, 1893; British patent, No. 580, of
1893.
In recent years smokeless powders have largely superseded all others.
These contain usually nitro-cellulose (gun cotton), or nitro-glycerine,
or both, made up into a plastic, coherent, and homogeneous compound of a
gluey nature, and fashioned into horn-like sticks or rods by being
forced under pressure through a die plate having small holes, through
which the plastic material is strained into strings like macaroni, or
else is molded into tablets, pellets, or grains of cubical shape.
Prominent among those who have contributed to this art are the names of
Turpin, Abel and Dewar, Nobel, Maxim, Munroe, Du Pont, Bernadou and
others.
In the recent years of the Nineteenth Century great activity has been
manifest in this field of invention. In the United States more than 600
different patents have been granted for explosives, the larger portion
of them being for nitro-compounds, which partake in a greater or less
degree of the qualities of gun cotton or nitro-glycerine. The influence
exerted by them has been incalculable. Subtile as is the force
imprisoned in inter-atomic relation, it has been the power behind the
boom of the cannon; it has lent itself to the driving of great tunnels
through the solid rock; it has lifted the coal and ore from the solid
embrace of the mountain, and the building stone from its sleep in the
quarry; it has opened up channels to the sea, canals on land, and in
both war and peace has been one of the great agencies of civilization.