Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1901 — New Army Revolver That Carries 116 Shots [ARTICLE]

New Army Revolver That Carries 116 Shots

Capable of discharging 116 bullets a minute, at high initial velocity, the new automatic pistol adopted by the Board of Ordnance and Fortification for the United States army is in many respects a remarkable weapon. As a first step toward the equipment of tne army with the new arm, an order for one thousand of the pistols for the use of the cavalry has been placed with the manufacturers. Exhaustive tests by government experts have been made, which seem to indicate that the principle of the automatic field gun and the magazine rifle have been combined in practical form in a pistol no heavier than the revolvers with which the army is now equipped. Named for its inventor, George Luger, a former officer in the Austrian army, the Luger automatic pistol is made by the German Arms and Amunltion factories. This concern has manufactured about five million Mauser rifles for European nations, and has also brought out several types of automatic pistols. H. Tauscher, one of the representatives of the company who came to this country to submit the Luger pistol to the government, said recently, when seen at his hotel, that the new pistol was the result of ten years* experiment. Recent tests in Springfield armory covered accuracy of aim, penetration, velocity of projectile, speed of fire, endurance and the usual dust, rust and sand tests, and a speed of 116 shots per minute was attained, while the accuracy of alm with rapidity was shown by a score of twenty-four bull’s eyes out of thirty shots by one man, who could make only nine out of twenty-eight with the other styles of pistols in the competition.