The gun is fed by means of hoppers, each of which contains ten rounds per barrel, i. e., forty shots.
The continuous supply of cartridges, as well as the firing and extracting, are all performed by one motion of the lever, thus enabling the gunner to use his left hand to lay the gun.
A volley of four shots can be fired at the same moment, or one shot can be fired separately. Eight shots can be fired in 1-1/4 seconds; twenty, thirty, or forty shots can be fired at a rapidity of two hundred shots per minute without difficulty.
The recoil being taken up by the whole framework of the gun does not in the least disturb the aim.
The entire mechanism of the gun can be opened up without undoing a single screw, in less than 20 seconds.
All the four spiral firing springs can be taken out, without opening the rest of the mechanism, in 1-1/2 seconds.
All the parts of the mechanism are made interchangeable, so that reserved parts can at any time be substituted. The gun can be placed on half cock, so that the strikers do not act; and for further security the lever can be locked. The carrier block, without which the gun cannot be fired, is loose, and can be taken away, in case it becomes necessary to abandon a gun, which is thus made useless to the enemy.
The bullets are solid steel, weighing about 1/2 lb. At 1760 yards at right angles this gun will penetrate a 3/16 inch steel plate, which represents the thickness of the plates of a torpedo boat.
At 200 yards at right angles it will penetrate one 3/16 inch steel plate placed in front of a 1/2 inch steel plate with a space of 3 feet between them, this target representing the plates and boiler of a torpedo boat.
At the same distance, at 30° angle against the line of fire, it will penetrate a 1/2", 1/4", or 3/16" steel plate.