interesting novelty--an “Automatic Jeweler"--which, with arm and hand,
operated an ordinary machine which turned out perfectly made collar
buttons of which thousands were sold within the Exposition Grounds.
A most marvelous contrivance was his four-spindle
[Illustration: BANGERTER’S AUTOMATIC FOUR SPINDLE WATCH CHAIN MACHINE,
Composed of Over Three Thousand Parts.]
automatic watch chain machine composed of over three thousand parts.
This machine made from wire of four different metals, namely, gold,
silver, nickel and German silver, being fed into the machine at the same
time would automatically make four watch chains of four different
patterns completely and properly finished. The chain itself, an
invention of Mr. Bangerter, was called the Bangerter Chain. Patent sold
in France.
BANGERTER’S POWDERLESS GUN.
Invention which THE LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH calls the Bangerter Gun, a
marvel and masterpiece for war.
NEW YORK HERALD:--
Automatic Invention Operated by Secret Mechanical Power Is Tested
at Stapleton, S. I.
A working model of an automatic machine gun which, it is said, will
discharge bullets over a range of a mile or more at the rate of one
million an hour, with a muzzle velocity of more than 3,000 feet per
second, and operated by a secret mechanical power, was demonstrated
yesterday by the inventor, Friedrich Bangerter.
The model, which was built to shoot a three-eighth-inch bullet, was
mounted behind a partition in the factory at 79 Broad St.,
Stapleton, S. I. All the motive parts were covered by a tarpaulin,
and the machine was run by an electric motor, connected with the
gun by a belt.
The muzzle was pointed through a hole in a partition, and the
observers having gathered behind a screen, the motor was started.
The target, a pine board, was placed sixty feet away. As the motor
began to hum the operator turned a little wheel and a steady stream
of bullets poured from the muzzle of the gun like a stream of water
from the nozzle of a hose. The target seemed to melt before the
eyes as all the missiles struck it, and in about 10 seconds the
entire centre of the board had disappeared. This model was built
for round bullets, but the inventor says that on a standard make
gun, which will have a half-inch bore, conical bullets will be
fired and the barrels, of which there will be two, will be rifled.
The principal use of the new gun, according to the inventor’s
claim, will be for operating against airships, and, as there is no
recoil, he says, the gun can be pointed toward any point of the
compass.
NEW YORK TIMES:--
A Wonderful Gun.--A million bullets an hour can be fired without
powder.... It really does shoot.... Reporters see wooden targets
torn to bits, but the inventor won’t let them see the works.
A gun that can shoot one million bullets per hour at a cost of $20,
that uses neither powder nor compressed air, and that fires bullets
that do not require shells, was shot for the enlightenment of a
delegation of New York reporters yesterday afternoon. The reporters
saw the gun shoot, but they were not permitted to see that part of
the gun out of which the little steel bullets came with such
rapidity. The exhibition was in the factory building at No. 79
Broad street, Stapleton, S. I. In a little room adjoining that in
which were placed the reporters was the gun. There were targets
made of a series of big boards arranged about a foot behind one in
front of it. There were four targets.
At 4 p. m. the shooting began. The first of the targets was dragged
into position. A moment later the motor started up, then the
bullets started to fly. They riddled the target into a pile of
splinters a foot high, and they did it in less than a minute. All
in all, it was estimated that 15,000 bullets pierced the targets.
Not only the first of the targets was riddled into a shapeless
mass, but each of the other three as well.
The reporters were permitted then to enter the gun-room. They saw a
motor, from the wheel of which a belt was operated. The belt
connected the motor with another wheel, which was a part of the
mechanism of the gun, on top of which was a covering out of which
the bullets came. They also saw the hoppers on either side of the
gun into which the bullets are poured as they are needed. The
reporters asked to see the gun in operation. The inventor ordered
another target swung into position. There was another whirl and a
second storm of bullets struck the target. The fusillade lasted
about ten seconds. Again was the target demolished. The
[Illustration: BANGERTER’S DOLL WRITING, DESIGNING, TALKING AND SINGING.
A Great Combination of Cams and Levers.]
inventor refused to say anything about what was under the covering
in the little gun-room.
Wall Street brokers had offered Mr. Bangerter the necessary capital
to build a standard size gun, but Mr. Bangerter soon found out that
their plans were to get the secret of his invention and take it
from him. He therefore separated from these brokers and has had
nothing to do with them since. He has kept his secrets and has
remained true to the words he declared which were published in the
New York World of March 1st, 1908, that if he does not make money
out of his invention nobody else shall.
Army officers and scientific men marvelled at the great results of
Bangerter’s model gun. Before the tests no one believed in its
success, declaring it impossible. Mr. Bangerter has never applied
for a patent for this invention, as he intended to sell the secrets
to a government, and therefore kept the plans carefully.
Naturally everyone was still skeptical as to the outcome of a
standard-size gun, and to show to those who kept an eye on him that
impossibilities of yesterday are made the realities of to-day, he
centered his mind on another impossibility--his Perpetual
Clock--while apparently forgetting his gun for a year.
“Perpetual Motion the Folly of All Ages” has become an eloquent
reality.
A crowning result of his strenuous labor on this marvelous clock
was the outcome of three other inventions which the studies in a
large field of problems have brought to life as his anniversary
self-winding clock, his fire alarm and sprinkler apparatus. These
inventions and others not here mentioned, owing to lack of space,
stamp Friedrich Bangerter as a most unusual and fertile-minded
inventor.
His crowning achievement in inventing that marvel of marvels--
BANGERTER’S PERPETUAL TIME CLOCK
has therefore a background of brilliant accomplishments, profound
studies and many natural abilities behind a work that shall ever
establish his fame as inventor of The Perpetual Clock.
[Illustration: BANGERTER’S AUTOMATIC JEWELER.
This Automatic Jeweler Making Collar Buttons at the Belgian World
Exposition, 1905, Often Mistaken for a Living Man. Thousands of
Collar Buttons of His Make Were Sold Within the Exposition Grounds.]
[Illustration: BANGERTER’S AIRSHIP, THE STAR.
Mr. Bangerter conceived the plans of his airship in 1898 and deposited
the plans in France in March, 1905.
By his principles the basket, engine and traveler being about fifteen
feet below the planes, it is an absolute impossibility for it to turn
turtle, either by wind or storm. The four planes automatically acting as
parachutes in case of descending. This airship can rise vertically and
keep steady at any height, permitting the dropping of explosives with
accuracy after having aimed and regulated its position.]
[Illustration: BANGERTER’S POWDERLESS GUN.
View of Targets Which Thousands of Bullets Have Pierced.
Thickness of the Targets, 2½ inch. Time, 20 seconds.]
THE McCONNELL PRINTING CO.
NEW YORK