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Show uu SIMPLICITY OF THE BROWNING GUNS. In the last issue of Scientific American, Amer-ican, an entire pago is devoted to a description of tho light and heavy Browning machino guns with tho concluding con-cluding paragraph by way of editorial comment: "It is still too early to pass judgment judg-ment on the workability of the weapons wea-pons under actual battle conditions. But as far as convincing tests are concerned, con-cerned, tho guns have produced a most favorable impression. Furthermore, their design reflects the years of experience ex-perience of the inventor in firearms of all kinds. As a quantity-production problem, moreover, both guns aro ideal in every respect, permitting the maximum employment of automatic machinery, interchangeable parts, rap-Id rap-Id assembly, and all those Other features feat-ures which go to make tremendous production possible" "The light weight Browning gun is practically an automatic rifle," says Scientific American, "weighing 15 pounds, while the latter is a machine gun very much along the lines of the Maxim in appearance, weighing but 34 pounds. Both guns handle the same ammunition that the American forces in France will use In their Springfields and modified Enfields, namely, tho rimless .30 caliber, cupro-nlckel cupro-nlckel jacketed cartridge, which develops devel-ops a pressure of 50,000 pounds to the square inch at tho moment of discharge. dis-charge. Thus the ammunition will be interchangeable between all four weapons, wea-pons, which is an important consideration considera-tion at tho battle front. "Taking up first the light Browning gun, this weapon may be described aa a rifle with automatic and semi-automatic action. That is lo Bay, it can be employed for continuous fire, emptying empty-ing its entire magazine in rapid order at the command of the trigger, or it can be employed as a self-loading and self-cocking rifle, in which case the rifleman pulls the trigger for each shot. In tests the gun has discharged its 20 rounds In 2 seconds. "The Browning light gun or machine rifle, as it Is designated by the army officials, is of the air-cooled, gas-operated design. It may be fired from the shoulder, the rifleman finding his target tar-get over sights identical wtih those used on the new United States rifle, model of 1017, or from the hip, the rifleman ri-fleman finding his target by his general gen-eral sense of direction, the latter being be-ing a knack quickly acquired through practice. "The principle of gas operation is simple. The gun is cocked with an easily operated handle for' the first shot. The bullet is expelled by gases, which, as already stated, exert a maximum maxi-mum pressure of 50,000 pounds to the square inch. A small portion of this powder gas is taken off by the gun mechanism to act as power to operate the gun automatically. A bullet discharged dis-charged from this gun has approximately approxi-mately the same energy as that fired from the United States rifle, model of 1917, or from the Springfield' service rifle. Cartridges are fed from a detachable de-tachable magazine containing 20, or for special purposes 40, service cartridges. cart-ridges. The magazines may be detached de-tached by merely pressing a button and a new magazine attached by one motion, this changing operation requiring re-quiring about two and a half seconds. "The gun may be operated as an automatic au-tomatic or as a semi-automatic arm by the manipulation of a conveniently-located conveniently-located lever. By putting the lever in tho first position, the gun is made to fire single shots by trigger release; by putting the lever in the second position posi-tion the gun becomes an automatic and will fire 20 shots in from two and a half to three seconds; the third lever lev-er position is the "safe" or locking device. de-vice. It is said by the military authorities author-ities that the designer intended the gun to be used more as a semi-automatic than as an automatic arm. '"Powder gases create terrific heat, sometimes developing the destructive temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Fahren-heit. An air-cooled automatic gun, therefore, has its limitations. The Browning rifle has an open and very simple construction and cools remarkably remark-ably quickly. The rifleman may fire 350 continuous shots from it without having to stop and cool the weapon. "The chief characteristic' of the gun is its extreme simplicity of construction, construc-tion, rendering the manufacturing problem correspondingly simple. It has fewer than twenty principal parts and possesses the great advantage of standardization, being easily and quickly taken apart and reassembled by the ordinary soldier. From the manufacturing man-ufacturing viewpoint, the gun possesses pos-sesses the great advantage that it may be promptly produced in large and increasing in-creasing volume as shop machinery is multiplied and operating personnel developed. de-veloped. "Used cartridges are ejected from the side of tho gun, never crossing the sight of tho rifleman, and coming out with sufficient force to clear themselves them-selves beyond his notice. A feature of the rifle is that the cocking handle remains re-mains stationary when the gun is in operation and is so arranged that it will in no way -hamper the gunner, thus eliminating a danger common to many guns. "The gunner may operate the gun at all times without aid. Only one tool, a small wrench, is needed to care for the gun, as most of the operations of taking it down and reassembling may be performed by use of a cartridge as a tool. "As Ihe gun is intended for the use of charging infantry, the problem of ammunition is naturally an important one. In this connection wo aro told that the gunner carries approximately 120 rounds of ammunition in his belt or bandolier and his two assistants carry 400 and 240 rounds, respectively, loaded in magazines. The loaded magazine maga-zine weighs one pound seven ounces. Thus it is possible for a gunner to go Into battle wtih a supply of about 800 rounds of ammunition. "Equally interesting is the heavy Browning gun, which is of the water-cooled, water-cooled, belt-feed design, and is operated operat-ed by means of the power creatod by the recoil action. It Is fed from a cotton cot-ton belt which contains 250 rounds of service cartridges. The belts may be rapidly loaded by means of a machine which is a development of the one which Mr. Browning devised some 20 years ago in connection with tho Colt gun. "Like-the light-gun, tho heavy-dutj' Browning piece is marked for its simplicity sim-plicity of construction, rendering manufacturing man-ufacturing problems easy and giving it a high degree of endurance. In the government test 20,000 rounds were fired from this gun with only three stoppages, one being due to a defective cartridge. In a further test firing was continued with the same gun to 39,500 shots, when the gear gave way. A duplicate dup-licate gun fired 20,000 shots in 48 minutes min-utes 16 seconds without a malfunction, and with only three stoppages, these being due to defective cartridges. "The light weight but sturdy tripod of the Browning heavy gun permits the ready laying of the gun on Its target. tar-get. The cartridge belt is held in a wooden box fastening on the left side of the gun, as in the case of the Colt machine gun; this and the pistol grip of the new gun are reminders of the earlier gun of Mr. Browning's conception. concep-tion. This samo gun, with certain mod-ifications mod-ifications including the stripping of its water jacket, weighs but 22 pounds and should prove satisfactory for aviation avia-tion service." |