Battery Gun

A gun capable of firing continuously a great number of shots in a short time. Applied to guns mounted upon tripods, stands, swivels, or carriages. A magazine cannon in contradistinction to a magazine small-arm. Also called machine gun and mitrailleur . Guns of this kind existed as early as the 14th century. From the arrangement of the barrels they were called killing organs . They have always been used in various forms, but were comparatively inefficient till recent times, when the introduction of the metallic cartridge gave the subject a new importance. Puckle’s revolver , 1718, was ingeniously mounted upon a tripod with good elevating and traversing arrangements. It had one barrel and a movable rotating breech containing nine charges. These were fired in succe ion, and a new breech, ready charged, was slipped on. Two kinds of bullets were used,—round bullets against Christians and square ones for Turks. Winans’s steam gun , invented about 1861 by the celebrated American inventor and engineer Thomas Winans, of Baltimore, was a battery gun of large calibre. The shot fell from a hopper into a breech-chamber, and were projected through the barrel by the sudden admi ion behind it of steam under enormous pre ure. The infernal machine with which Fieschi killed Marshal Mortier and a large number of others in his attempt to a a inate Louis Philippe, in 1835, was a crude form of battery gun, consisting of a row of gun-barrels fired by a train of powder. Many battery guns are of this type. The Requa battery —American—used in the civil war, 1861-65, consisted of a row of 24 barrels on a wheel-carriage, so arranged as to give either parallel or divergent fire. It was breech-loading, the cartridges being forced into the barrels by a transverse bar worked by levers. It was capable of seven volleys a minute. One of the forms of mitrailleur used in the Franco-Pru ian war was very much the same. The loading-bar was rotating, and had two sets of chambers. One set was fired while the other was being loaded. The Abbertini gun used in Europe has 10 barrels arranged as in the Requa battery. It is worked by a crank. The cartridges are conveyed by mechanical devices from a box magazine to the rear of the barrels. The form in which a cluster of barrels is used was probably first introduced in France, and was made by inserting 25 gun-barrels into the bore of a bra field-piece, into the breech of which a slot was cut, the open rear ends of the barrels being flush with the front wall of the slot. A cylinder-case containing cartridges being placed in the slot, a set of plungers pushed the cartridges into the barrels. The case was then replaced by a firing-block containing a lock and pin for each cartridge. This was improved by mounting the barrels (37) without the casing and replacing the cartridge-case by a steel block in which the cartridges were fired without being pushed into the barrels. The first succe ful gun in which the cluster of barrels was made to revolve was the Gatling. (See Gatling Gun .) In this both the barrels and the locks revolve. The Gatling gun in its various forms is used by all the leading nations of Europe. It is used in a variety of ways for field service, mountain service, flank defense of fortifications, in the main-tops of ships, etc. It has been mounted upon the backs of camels, on tripods, swivels, and field-carriages. In Europe its principal rival is the Nor den felt , in which the barrels are stationary and the breech mechanism works horizontally. It is probably superior to the Gatling in the amount of metal thrown in a given time. In mechanism and accuracy it is inferior. Its principal claim to superiority is that it fires either volleys or single shots. The recoil, which is always great in volley-guns, requires a very heavy stand, making it clumsy and unwieldy compared to the Gatling. Accidents have also happened in its use from defective mechanism. Among other American battery or machine guns are the Lowell and Gardner , both of which have won enviable reputations. A late form of the Gardner consists of two barrels fixed in a bra casing, giving it the external appearance of an ordinary field-piece. It has le rapidity of fire (its maximum being about 357 shots a minute) than some other guns, but it is simple, strong, and efficient. The Taylor gun was something like the Nor den felt in principle, having a fixed cluster of barrels and a sliding breech mechanism, firing volleys or single shots at discretion. A later form of Taylor gun has the barrels in a horizontal row. The improvement consists in rapidity of loading. The cartridges are carried in the ordinary paper or wooden cases, exposing the heads. The gun has a number of upright pieces at the breech with grooves between them. By drawing the cartridge-case downward over these uprights the cartridges are caught in the grooves by their flanged heads. They fall by gravity, and are conducted by suitable devices in grooved channels to the barrels. This gun, it is believed, fires more shots a minute than any other, but its mechanism is not so perfect as several of its rivals. The Hotch ki revolving cannon has the largest calibre of the modern machine guns. It differs from the Gatling in having but one lock for all the barrels. It is worked by a crank like the Gatling, but the mechanism is such that during a part of the revolution of the crank the barrels are stationary. It is during this time that one cartridge is fired and another case extracted. The rapidity of fire is much le than the Gatling and most others, but in perfection of mechanism, accuracy, and other qualities, it is unsurpa ed. A peculiar form of brake is fitted to the wheels of the field-gun to prevent the recoil from moving the carriage. For the larger sizes both shells and canister are used. The metallic cartridge-case is of bra . This gun is the invention of B. B. Hotch ki , an American, now residing in Paris. His guns are made at the Hotch ki Works, near that city, and have been adopted for flank defense of fortifications and for naval use by several of the continental powers.