flint-lock musket known as “Brown Bess,” a smooth-bore barrel 3/4-inch
in diameter, thirty-nine inches long, weighing with its bayonet over
eleven pounds. The round leaden bullet weighed an ounce, and had to be
wrapped in a “patch” or bit of oily rag to make it fit the barrel and
prevent windage; it was then pushed home with a ramrod on to the
powder-charge, which was ignited by a spark passing from the flint
into a priming of powder. How little its accuracy of aim could be
depended upon, however, is proved by the word of command when
advancing upon an enemy, “Wait till you see the whites of their eyes,
boys, before you fire!”
In the year 1680 each troop of Life Guards was supplied with eight
rifled carbines, a modest allowance, possibly intended to be used
merely by those acting as scouts. After this we hear nothing of them
until in 1800 the 95th Regiment received a 20-bore muzzle-loading
rifle, exchanged about 1835 for the Brunswick rifle firing a spherical
bullet, an improvement that more than doubled its effective range. The
companies so armed became known as the Rifle Brigade. At last, in
1842, the old flint-lock was superseded for the whole army by the
original percussion musket, a smooth-bore whose charge was exploded by
a percussion cap made of copper. [That this copper had some commercial
value was shown by the rush of “roughs” to Aldershot and elsewhere
upon a field-day to collect the split fragments which strewed the
ground after the troops had withdrawn.]
Soon afterward the barrel was rifled and an elongated bullet brought
into use. This missile was pointed in front, and had a hollowed base
so contrived that it expanded immediately the pressure of exploding
gases was brought to bear on it, and thus filled up the grooves,
preventing any windage. The one adopted by our army in the year 1852
was the production of M. Minié, a Frenchman, though an expanding
bullet of English invention had been brought forward several years
before.
Meanwhile the Prussians had their famous needle-gun, a breech-loading
rifled weapon fired by a needle attached to a sliding bolt; as the
bolt is shot forward the needle pierces the charge and ignites the
fulminate by friction. This rifle was used in the Prusso-Austrian war
of 1866 some twenty years after its first inception, and the French
promptly countered it by arming their troops with the Chassepôt rifle,
an improved edition of the same principle. A piece which could be
charged and fired in any position from five to seven times as fast as
the muzzle-loader, which the soldier had to load standing, naturally
caused a revolution in the infantry armament of other nations.
The English Government, as usual the last to make a change, decided in
1864 upon using breech-loading rifles. Till a more perfect weapon
could be obtained the Enfields were at a small outlay converted into
breech-loaders after the plans of Mr. Snider, and were henceforward
known as Snider-Enfields. Eventually--as the result of open
competition--the Martini-Henry rifle was produced by combining Henry’s
system of rifling with Martini’s mechanism for breech-loading. This
weapon had seven grooves with one turn in twenty-two inches, and
weighed with bayonet 10 lb. 4 oz. It fired with great accuracy, the
trajectory having a rise of only eight feet at considerable distances,
so that the bullet would not pass over the head of a cavalry man.
Twenty rounds could be fired in fifty-three seconds.
Now in the latter years of the century all these weapons have been
superseded by magazine rifles, _i.e._ rifles which can be fired
several times without recourse to the ammunition pouch. They differ
from the revolver in having only one firing chamber, into which the
cartridges are one by one brought by a simple action of the breech
mechanism, which also extracts the empty cartridge-case. The bore of
these rifles is smaller and the rifling sharper; they therefore shoot
straighter and harder than the large bore, and owing to the use of new
explosives the recoil is less.
The French _Lebel_ magazine rifle was the pioneer of all now used by
European nations, though a somewhat similar weapon was familiar to the
Americans since 1849, being first used during the Civil War. The Henry
rifle, as it was called, afterwards became the Winchester.
The German army rifle is the _Mauser_, so familiar to us in the hands
of the Boers during the South African War--loading five cartridges at
once in a case or “clip” which falls out when emptied. The same rifle
has been adopted by Turkey, and was used by the Spaniards in the late
Spanish-American War.
The Austrian _Mannlicher_, adopted by several continental nations, and
the Krag-Jorgensen now used in the north of Europe and as the United
States army weapon, resemble the Mauser in most particulars. Each of
these loads the magazine in one movement with a clip.
The _Hotchkiss_ magazine rifle has its magazine in the stock, holding
five extra cartridges pushed successively into loading position by a
spiral spring.
Our forces are now armed principally with the _Lee-Enfield_, which is
taking the place of the _Lee-Metford_ issued a few years ago. These
are small-bore rifles of .303 inch calibre, having a detachable box,
which is loaded with ten cartridges (Lee-Metford eight) passed up in
turn by a spring into the breech, whence, when the bolt is closed,
they are pushed into the firing-chamber. The empty case is ejected by
pulling back the bolt, and at the same time another cartridge is
pressed up from the magazine and the whole process repeated. When the
cut-off is used the rifle may be loaded and fired singly, be the
magazine full or empty.
The Lee-Enfield has five grooves (Lee-Metford ten), making one
complete turn from right to left in every ten inches. It weighs 9 lb.
4 oz., and the barrel is 30.197 inches long. The range averages 3500
yards.
We are now falling into line with other powers by adopting the “clip”
form instead of the box for loading. The sealed pattern of the new
service weapon is thus provided, and has also been made somewhat
lighter and shorter while preserving the same velocity.
We are promised an even more rapid firing rifle than any of these, one
in which the recoil is used to work the breech and lock so that it is
a veritable automatic gun. Indeed, several continental nations have
made trial of such weapons and reported favourably upon them. One
lately tried in Italy works by means of gas generated by the explosion
passing through a small hole to move a piston-rod. It is claimed that
the magazine can hold as many as fifty cartridges and fire up to
thirty rounds a minute; but the barrel became so hot after doing this
that the trial had to be stopped.
The principal result of automatic action would probably be excessive
waste of cartridges by wild firing in the excitement of an engagement.
It is to-day as true as formerly that it takes on the average a man’s
weight of lead to kill him in battle.
To our neighbours across the Channel the credit also belongs of
introducing _smokeless powder_, now universally used; that of the
Lee-Metford being “cordite.” To prevent the bullets flattening on
impact they are coated with a hard metal such as nickel and its
alloys. If the nose is soft, or split beforehand, a terribly enlarged
and lacerated wound is produced; so the Geneva Convention humanely
prohibited the use of such missiles in warfare.
Before quitting this part of our subject it is as well to add a few
words about _pistols_.
These have passed through much the same process of evolution as the
rifle, and have now culminated in the many-shotted _revolver_.
During the period 1480-1500 the match-lock revolver is said to have
been brought into use; and one attributed to this date may be seen in
the Tower of London.
Two hundred years ago, Richards, a London gunsmith, converted the
ancient wheel-lock into the flint-lock; he also rifled his barrel and
loaded it at the breech. The Richards weapon was double-barrelled, and
unscrewed for loading at the point where the powder-chamber ended; the
ball was placed in this chamber in close contact with the powder, and
the barrel rescrewed. The bullet being a soft leaden ball, was forced,
when the charge was fired, through the rifled barrel with great
accuracy of aim.
The percussion cap did not oust the flint-lock till less than a
century ago, when many single-barrelled pistols, such as the famous
Derringer, were produced; these in their turn were replaced by the
revolver which _Colt_ introduced in 1836-1850. Smith and Wesson in the
early sixties improved upon it by a device for extracting the empty
cartridges automatically. Livermore and Russell of the United States
invented the “clip,” containing several cartridges; but the equally
well-known _Winchester_ has its cartridges arranged in a tube below
the barrel, whence a helical spring feeds them to the breech as fast
as they are needed.
At the present time each War Department has its own special service
weapon. The German _Mauser_ magazine-pistol for officer’s use fires
ten shots in ten seconds, a slight pressure of the trigger setting the
full machinery in motion; the pressure of gas at each explosion does
all the rest of the work--extracts and ejects the cartridge case,
cocks the hammer, and presses springs which reload and close the
weapon, all in a fraction of a second. The _Mannlicher_ is of the same
automatic type, but its barrel moves to the front, leaving space for a
fresh cartridge to come up from the magazine below, while in the
Mauser the breech moves to the rear during recoil. The range is half a
mile. The cartridges are made up in sets of ten in a case, which can
be inserted in one movement.
MACHINE-GUNS.
Intermediate between hand-borne weapons and artillery, and partaking
of the nature of both, come the machine-guns firing small projectiles
with extraordinary rapidity.
Since the United States made trial of Dr. Gatling’s miniature battery
in the Civil War (1862-1865), invention has been busy evolving more
and more perfect types, till the most modern machine-gun is a marvel
of ingenuity and effectiveness.
The _Gatling_ machine-gun, which has been much improved in late years
by the Accles system of “feed,” and is not yet completely out of date,
consists of a circular series of ten barrels--each with its own
lock--mounted on a central shaft and revolved by a suitable gear. The
cartridges are successively fed by automatic actions into the barrels,
and the hammers are so arranged that the entire operation of loading,
closing the breech, firing and withdrawing the empty cartridge-cases
(which is known as their “longitudinal reciprocating motion”) is
carried on while the locks are kept in constant revolution, along with
the barrels and breech, by means of a hand-crank. One man places a
feed-case filled with cartridges into the hopper, another turns the
crank. As the gun is rotated the cartridges drop one by one from the
feed-cases into the grooves of the carrier, and its lock loads and
fires each in turn. While the gun revolves further the lock, drawing
back, extracts and drops the empty case; it is then ready for the next
cartridge.
In action five cartridges are always going through some process of
loading, while five empty shells are in different stages of ejection.
The latest type, fitted with an electro-motor, will fire at the _rate_
of one thousand rounds per minute, and eighty rounds have actually
been fired within ten seconds! It is not, however, safe to work these
machine-guns so fast, as the cartridges are apt to be occasionally
pulled through unfired and then explode among the men’s legs. The
automatic guns, on the contrary, as they only work by the explosion,
are free from any risk of such accidents.
The feed-drums contain 104 cartridges, and can be replaced almost
instantly. One drumful can be discharged in 5-1/4 seconds. The
small-sized Gatling has a drum-feed of 400 cartridges in sixteen
sections of twenty-five each passed up without interruption.
The gun is mounted for use so that it can be pointed at any angle, and
through a wide lateral range, without moving the carriage.
_The Gardner._--The Gatling, as originally made, was for a time
superseded by the _Gardner_, which differed from it in having the
barrels (four or fewer in number) fixed in the same horizontal plane.
This was worked by a rotatory handle on the side of the gun. The
cartridges slid down a feed-case in a column to the barrel, where they
were fired by a spring acting on a hammer.
_The Nordenfelt._--Mr. Nordenfelt’s machine-gun follows this
precedent; its barrels--10, 5, 4, 2, or 1 in number--also being
arranged horizontally in a strong, rigid frame. Each barrel has its
own breech-plug, striker, spring, and extractor, and each fires
independently of the rest, so that all are not out of action together.
The gun has a swivelled mount easily elevated and trained, and the
steel frames take up the force of the discharge. In rapid firing one
gunner can work the firing-handle while another lays and alters the
direction. The firing is operated by a lever working backwards and
forwards by hand, and the gun can be discharged at the rate of 600
rounds per minute.
_The Hotchkiss._--The Hotchkiss gun, or revolving cannon, is on a
fresh system, that of intermittent rotation of the barrels without any
rotation of breech or mechanism. There is only one loading piston, one
spring striker, and one extractor for all the barrels. The shock of
discharge is received against a massive fixed breech, which
distributes it to the whole body.
Like the _Nordenfelt_, however, it can be dismounted and put together
again without the need of tools. The above pattern throws 1 lb.
projectiles.
_The Maxim._--Differing from all these comes the _Maxim_ gun, so much
in evidence now with both land and sea service. It is made up of two
portions:--
(1) _Fixed_: a barrel-casing, which is also a water-jacket, and
breech-casing.
(2) _Recoiling_: a barrel and two side plates which carry lock
and crank.
This recoiling portion works inside the fixed.
The gun is supplied with ammunition by a belt holding 250 cartridges
passing through a feed-block on the top. Its mechanism is worked
_automatically_; first by the explosion of the charge, which causes
the barrel to recoil backwards and extends a strong spring which, on
reasserting itself, carries it forwards again. The recoiling part
moves back about an inch, and this recoil is utilised by bringing
into play mechanism which extracts the empty cartridge-case, and on
the spring carrying the barrel forward again moves a fresh one into
position. Under the barrel casing is the ejector tube through which
the empty cartridge-cases are ejected from the gun.
The rate of fire of the Maxim gun is 600 rounds per minute. Deliberate
fire means about 70 rounds per minute; rapid fire will explode 450
rounds in the same time. As the barrel becomes very hot in use the
barrel-casing contains seven pints of water to keep it cool. About
2000 rounds can be fired at short intervals; but in continuous firing
the water boils after some 600 rounds, and needs replenishing after
about 1000. A valved tube allows steam, but not water to escape.
The operator works this gun by pressing a firing-lever or button.
After starting the machine he merely sits behind the shield, which
protects him from the enemy, directing it, as it keeps on firing
automatically so long as the bands of cartridges are supplied and a
finger held on the trigger or button. By setting free a couple of
levers with his left hand, and pressing his shoulder against the
padded shoulder-piece, he is able to elevate or depress, or train the
barrel horizontally, without in any way interfering with the hail of
missiles.
We use two sizes, one with .45 bore for the Navy, which takes an
all-lead bullet weighing 480 grains, and the other with .303 bore, the
ordinary nickel-coated rifle bullet for the Army. But as the Maxim
gun can be adapted to every rifle-calibre ammunition it is patronised
by all governments.
The gun itself weighs 56 lbs., and is mounted for use in various ways:
on a tripod, a field stand, or a field carriage with wheels. This
carriage has sixteen boxes of ammunition, each containing a belt of
250 cartridges, making 4000 rounds altogether. Its total weight is
about half a ton, so that it can be drawn by one horse, and it is
built for the roughest cross-country work. A little machine, which can
be fixed to the wheel, recharges the belts with cartridges by the
working of a handle.
For ships the Maxim is usually mounted on the ordinary naval cone
mount, or it can be clamped to the bulwark of the deck or the military
“top” on the mast.
But there is a most ingenious form of parapet mounting, known as the
garrison mount, which turns the Maxim into a “disappearing gun,” and
can be used equally well for fortress walls or improvised
entrenchments. The gun is placed over two little wheels on which it
can be run along by means of a handle pushed behind in something the
fashion of a lawn-mower. Arrived at its destination, the handle, which
is really a rack, is turned downwards, and on twisting one of the
wheels the gun climbs it by means of a pinion-cog till it points over
the wall, to which hooks at the end of two projecting bars firmly fix
it, the broadened end of the handle being held by its weight to the
ground. It is locked while in use, but a few turns of the wheel cause
it to sink out of sight in as many seconds.
The rifle-calibre guns may also be used as very light horse artillery
to accompany cavalry by being mounted on a “galloping carriage” drawn
by a couple of horses, and with two seats for the operators. The
carriage conveys 3000 rounds, and the steel-plated seats turn up and
form shields during action.
It is interesting to notice that an extra light form of the gun is
made which may be carried strapped on an infantryman’s back and fired
from a tripod. Two of these mounted on a double tricycle can be
propelled at a good pace along a fairly level road, and the riders
dismounting have, in a few moments, a valuable little battery at their
disposal.
The _Pom-pom_, of which we have heard so much in the late war, is a
large edition of the Maxim automatic system with some differences in
the system. Its calibre is 1-1/2 inches. Instead of bullets it emits
explosive shells 1 lb. in weight, fitted with percussion fuses which
burst them into about twelve or fourteen pieces. The effective range
is up to 2000 yards, and it will carry to 4000 yards. An improved
_Pom-pom_ recently brought out hurls a 1-1/4 lb. shell with effect at
a mark 3000 yards away, and as far as 6000 yards before its energy is
entirely exhausted. The muzzle velocity of this weapon is 2350 feet a
second as against the 1800 feet of the older pattern. They both fire
300 rounds a minute.
The _Colt_ automatic gun is an American invention whose automatic
action is due to explosion of the charge, not to recoil. The force by
which the motions of firing, extracting, and loading are performed is
derived from the powder-gases, a portion of which--passing through a
small vent in the muzzle--acts by means of a lever on the mechanism of
the gun.
This is also in two parts: (_a_) _barrel_, attached to (_b_)
breech-casing, in which gear for charging, firing, and ejecting is
contained. The barrel, made of a strong alloy of nickel, has its
cartridges fed in by means of belts coiled in boxes attached to the
breech-casing, the boxes moving with the latter so that the movements
of the gun do not affect it. These boxes contain 250 cartridges each
and are easily replaced.
The feed-belt is inserted, and the lever thrown down and moved
backward--once by hand--as far as it will go; this opens the breech
and passes the first cartridge from the belt to the carrier. The lever
is then released and the spring causes it to fly forward, close the
vent, and transfer the cartridge from the carrier to the barrel, also
compressing the mainspring and opening and closing the breech.
On pulling the trigger the shot is fired, and after the bullet has
passed the little vent, but is not yet out of the muzzle, the force of
the expanding gas, acting through the vent on the piston, sets a
gas-lever in operation which acts on the breech mechanism, opens
breech, ejects cartridge-case, and feeds another cartridge into the
carrier. The gas-lever returning forces the cartridge home in the
barrel and closes and locks the breech.
The hammer of the gun acts as the piston of an air-pump, forcing a
strong jet of air into the chamber, and through the barrel, thus
removing all unburnt powder, and thoroughly cleansing it. The metal
employed is strong enough to resist the heaviest charge of
nitro-powder, and the accuracy of its aim is not disturbed by the
vibrations of rapid fire. It does not heat fast, so has no need of a
water-jacket, any surplus heat being removed by a system of radiation.
The bore is made of any rifle calibre for any small-arm ammunition,
and is fitted with a safety-lock. For our own pieces we use the
Lee-Metford cartridges. Four hundred shots per minute can be fired.
The gun consists altogether of ninety-four pieces, but the
working-pieces, _i.e._ those only which need be separated for
cleaning, &c., when in the hands of the artilleryman, are less than
twenty. It can be handled in action by one man, the operation
resembling that of firing a pistol.
The machine weighs 40 lbs., and for use by cavalry or infantry can be
mounted on the _Dundonald Galloping Carriage_. The ammunition-box,
containing 2000 rounds ready for use, carries the gun on its upper
side, and is mounted on a strong steel axle. A pole with a slotted end
is inserted into a revolving funnel on the bend of the shaft, the
limbering-up being completed by an automatic bolt and plug.
The gun-carriage itself is of steel, with hickory wheels and hickory
and steel shafts, detachable at will. The simple harness suits any
saddled cavalry horse, and the shafts work in sockets behind the
rider’s legs. Its whole weight with full load of ammunition is under
four hundredweight.
HEAVY ORDNANCE.
As with rifles and the smaller forms of artillery, so also with heavy
ordnance, the changes and improvements within the last fifty years
have been greater than those made during the course of all the
previous centuries.
These changes have affected alike not only the materials from which a
weapon is manufactured, the relative size of calibre and length of
bore, the fashion of mounting and firing, but also the form and weight
of the projectile, the velocity with which it is thrown, and even the
substances used in expelling it from the gun.
Compare for a moment the old cast-iron muzzle-loaders, stubby of
stature, which Wellington’s bronzed veterans served with round cannon
balls, well packed in greasy clouts to make them fit tight, or with
shell and grape shot, throughout the hard-fought day of Waterloo, from
a distance which the chroniclers measure by _paces_, so near stood the
opposing ranks to one another.
Or stand in imagination upon one of Nelson’s stately men-o’-war and
watch the grimy guns’ crews, eight or ten to each, straining on the
ropes. See the still smoking piece hauled inboard, its bore swabbed
out to clean and cool it, then recharged by the muzzle; home go
powder, wad, and the castor full of balls or the chain shot to
splinter the enemy’s masts, rammed well down ere the gun is again run
out through the port-hole. Now the gunner snatches the flaming
lintstock and, signal given, applies it to the powder grains sprinkled
in the touch-hole. A salvo of fifty starboard guns goes off in one
terrific broadside, crashing across the Frenchman’s decks at such
close quarters that in two or three places they are set on fire by the
burning wads. Next comes a cry of “Boarders!” and the ships are
grappled as the boarding-party scrambles over the bulwarks to the
enemy’s deck, a brisk musket-fire from the crowded rigging protecting
their advance; meanwhile the larboard guns, with their simultaneous
discharge, are greeting a new adversary.
Such was war a century ago. Compare with it the late South African
Campaign where the range of guns was estimated in _miles_, and after a
combat lasting from morn to eve, the British general could report: “I
do not think we have seen a gun or a Boer all day.”