People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1897 — TO USE MAXIM GUNS. [ARTICLE]

TO USE MAXIM GUNS.

A Change to Be Made In Small Arms In the Navy, The maxim automatic gun mechanism has been adopted by the navy department for its one pound guns, and there is every probability that it will be adopted for the two pound guns and six pounders also. The result will be in all probability to cause the establishment of another gun manufactory in the United States. The proposed mechanism will take the place of the rapid fire mechanisms now in use in the service. It will enable one gun to fire about 250 projectiles of one pound each in weight a minute, while the type of mechanism that will he discarded discharges a much less number. Captain Sampson, chief of the bureau of ordnance, is now engaged in drawing up specifications for the contract to he entered into with jthe Maxim Gun company of England. The law prescribes that all material obtained by the .government shall be of domestic manufacture, and as the contract will require the delivery of 100 guns of the one pound type it is believed that these will be manufactured by plants already in existence. If further contracts are awarded to the Maxim company, it will probably establish a foundry within the United States.