The new gun weighs only nine pounds, half a pound more than the present standard rifle. It will fire from 165 to 200 shots a minute, Mr. Sweeting said, ninety shots consecutively without being taken from the shoulder. He says the velocity is 2,700 feet a second.
“By holding the trigger back,” Mr. Sweeting said, “ninety shots are fired. The ejector is on the under side. The sight is only three inches from the eye, giving a quicker and more accurate aim than in the present rifles,[Pg 64] in some of which the sight is thirteen inches from the eye.
“My gun has only one-third as many working parts as the present rifle. There is not a flat spring in the gun, and all the parts are inclosed, which protects them from the weather. It has safety locks which make it impossible to fire after the gun misses fire, and a self-cleaning device. Give me the gun to bring down a man a mile away who is six feet from a tree and I will get him before he gets to the tree. If I should fail, I can shoot him through the tree, if it is not more than eighteen inches in diameter.”
The inventor has been working on the invention for more than a year. His thirty-eight pages of specifications are registered with the Patent Office.
Dollar a Year is His Salary.
At a salary of one dollar a year, Frederick W. M. Burmeister has been appointed custodian of the cut-off channel front and rear-range lights in the Patapsco River, near Baltimore, Md.
Custodian Burmeister has but few duties to perform. In addition to his salary, he has the free use of a home on the lighthouse reservation. He could not be carried on the government pay rolls without a specified salary, and to give official importance and responsibility the salary of one dollar was agreed upon.
It was not stated whether he would be paid monthly, as is the department’s custom, or let it accrue to the end of the year.
Big Eagle Drops Baby.
About two weeks ago a posse of farmers scoured Will County, Illinois, for two huge eagles, which were killing hundreds of chickens and young turkeys. One of the pair was killed. The other disappeared, and the hunters finally abandoned the hunt.