"SILENT FIREARMS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

"SILENT FIREARMS."

ALLEGED INVENTION

Mr. Hiram Percy Maxim, son of Sir Hiram Maxim, claim. l ! to haw, invented a " silent firearm," which, used with smokeless powder, may, lie thinks, revolutionise warfare.- With ft silent rifle, of course, skirmishers could shoot down pickets without their presence, lining noted, and possibly, with an extended front, an entire aimy, carefully masked by underbrush or natural formations, could get into action and operate molt successfully before its position could be accurately defined by the opposing force. Burglars armed with silent revolvers would also be doubly redoubtable. Sir Hiram's son has been granted a patent for his silent firearm, but it is advisable to wait a little before accepting all that the inventor and his friends claim in its behalf. Tins is not the first time the announcement has been made in the United States of the discovery of a silent gun which will "revolutionise warfare" and give hunters of big game their. most treasured and\ effective weapon. It is possible, of course, that young Maxim, like his distinguished father, now a British citizen, who invented the Maxim machine-gun, may be an inventive genius, but experts that have been consulted are not disposed to accept silent lirearms as accomplished facts until full scientific tests have been imposed. The inventor says he stumbled across the silent gun idea while engaged in perfecting a muffler to silence the explosions of motorcars. The device consists of a silencing arrangement that can be applied, it is said, to the barrel of an ordinary firearm. In the usual form of rifle the "bullet, when it emerges from the muzzle, liberates highpressure gases, which, by striking the air suddenly, cause the loud explosion. In the now gun the gases are shut off just before the bullet passes. This valve is actuated entirely by the gas-pressure in the gun-bar-rel, and is free from all mechanism. After the bullet has passed out of the barrel the gases are allowed to escape gradually through small holes. This annuls all noise, except a slight hissing sound. The pistonvalve is arranged to return to the open position when the gases have all escaped, and a safety device, working in connection with the firing mechanism, prevents the firing of a new cartridge, unless the valve is in place. The construction is extremely simple, the gun having the appearance of the usual rifle, with a small cross-piece in the barrel, about five inches from the end. Several newspapers in New York recently devoted much space to the silent gun, and one journal described young Maxim's invention as " terrifying in Its possibilities, leading possibly to the re-equipment of all the armies of the world and a new system of warfare."