Short Pattern.
This gun, which has as yet been unequalled as a mitrailleuse, finds a place in the armament of nearly all the navies of the world. Hitherto the object of the gun in naval use has been simply to aid the small-arm fire whenever the latter was made necessary, but at present it is the design to increase the calibre of the gun so as to enable it to fire projectiles of two or more pounds. What modifications will be required in the present type of gun are not as yet known; but although the Gatling and Hotchkiss guns are both American inventions, they must not in their present stages of development be considered as rivals. The Gatling is as a rule confined to the use of small-arm ammunition; on the other hand, the Hotchkiss is to be in reality classed with boat-guns.
Lock, Extractor, and Breech-Cover.
Breech Mechanism.
Chamber.
The Gatling has ten barrels grouped about a central axis. Each barrel is provided with its own separate lock and extractor, retracted by a cam, the barrels being each fired as it comes to a certain point. The speed of firing can be carried as high as between 400 and 500 cartridges a minute without much forcing. There are two patterns of this gun, known respectively as the long and the short gun, the latter being designed especially for use in ships’ tops, while the former is used in landing and long-range firing. The cartridges are fed to the gun in tin cases holding 40 each, and which are rapidly put in position and changed so that there is no especial time lost in removing one case and shipping another. In case that one barrel should become fouled or a lock be broken, the lock can be extracted very quickly and so no hindrance is offered to the working of the mechanism, as cartridges dropping into the faulty chamber are carried around and dropped out without being fired. Notwithstanding the great rapidity of the fire there is no danger of the barrels becoming too much over-heated, and the great difficulty experienced in most guns of the mitrailleuse pattern of sticking and refusing to work, through the expansion of the barrels and mechanism due to the heat of rapid firing, is either fully avoided or compensated in the Gatling.
