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| Fig. 5.—Nordenfeldt Machine-Gun. | |
1-10, Parts of frame; 11, Breech plug; 12, Striker; 13, Extractor; 14, Cartridge receiver; 15-18, 23-31, Lock and trigger parts; 19-22, Locking action; 32-35, Loading action; | 36-39, Cartridge receiver; 40, Cover; 41-44, Parts of hand-lever, 45-49, Traversing action, 50-55, Elevating and trailing action; 56, 57, Hopper and slide. |
The Gardner was another type which had a certain vogue[5] and was used by the British in savage warfare. But, next to the Gatling, the most important of the hand-operated machine guns was the Nordenfeldt, which was principally designed for naval use about the time when torpedo-boats were beginning to be regarded as dangerous antagonists.
In this weapon the barrels are placed horizontally, and have no movement. A box containing the locks, bolts, strikers and spiral springs, one of each corresponding to each barrel, moves Nordenfeldt Gun. straight backwards and forwards when worked by the handle of the lever on the right. When the box is drawn back the cartridges fall from the holder on the top into the carriers simultaneously. When the box is pushed forward the bolts push the cartridges into the barrel, cocking-catches compress the spiral springs, the lever releases the catches one after the other at very minute intervals of time, and the cartridges are fired in rapid succession. In this piece, careful aim can be taken from a moving platform, and at the right moment the barrels can be fired at the object almost simultaneously.
Present Day Machine-guns.
Hitherto we have been dealing with weapons worked by hand-power applied to a lever or winch-handle, the motion of this lever being translated by suitable mechanism into those by which the cartridges are loaded, fired, extracted and ejected—the cycle continuing as long as the lever is worked and there are cartridges in the “hoppers” which feed the gun. In the modern “automatic” machine-gun, moreover, the loading, firing, extracting and ejecting are all performed automatically by the gun itself, either by the recoil of its barrel, or by a small portion of the gases of explosion being allowed to escape through a minute hole in the barrel near the muzzle. The following details of the British Maxim, Hotchkiss and Colt types are reproduced from the article “Machine-guns,” Ency. Brit. 10th ed.
The idea of using the recoil, or a portion of the gases of explosion, for the working of the breech mechanism is by no means new, the latter system having been proposed and patented (certainly in a very crude and probably unworkable form) by (Sir) Henry Bessemer in 1854; but whatever might be discovered by a search in old patent and other records or in museums, there can be no doubt that (Sir) Hiram S. Maxim was the first to produce a finished automatic gun of practical value. His patents in connexion with this particular class of weapon date back to 1884, and his gun on the recoil system was, after extensive trials, adopted into the British army in 1889 and into the navy in 1892. It is very possible that Bessemer’s idea did not bear fruit earlier because the fouling left by the old forms of “black” or smoky powders was apt to clog the moving parts and to choke any small port. With modern smokeless powders this difficulty does not arise.
| Fig. 6.—Maxim Gun on Wheeled Carriage (1900). |
| Figs. 7 and 8.—Mechanism of Maxim Gun. |
The Maxim gun,[6] as will be seen from figs. 7 and 8, consists of two parts, the barrel casing (a) and breech casing (d), secured firmly together. The former (a), which is cylindrical in form, contains the barrel (b), and the water surrounding it Maxim Gun. to keep down the very high temperature attained by rapid fire, and the steam tube (c), which by the action of a sliding valve allows of the escape of steam but not of water. The barrel has asbestos packings at its front and rear bearings in the casing, which allow of its sliding in recoil without the escape of water. The breech casing (d) is a rectangular oblong box, and contains the lock and firing mechanism. At its rear end it has handles (e) by which the gun is directed, and the thumb-piece (m) by which the trigger is actuated. Its top is closed by a lid, hinged at (i). At its front is a recess holding the feed-block (f) through which the belt of cartridges (g) is fed to the gun.