AUSTRIAN INFERNAL MACHINE.

Colonist, Volume XIII, Issue 1280, 31 December 1869, Page 4

AUSTRIAN INFERNAL MACHINE.

A cOßßEsroxftEtfr of the London Times has visited the Austrian Arsenal, at Vienna, and gives some* interesting particulars of the fortress. In describing the latest inventions in small arms, he says:—" The first was the Montigny gun, named after a Belgian who had worked in the French Imperial factory at Meudon, and, having learnt the secret of the French mitrailleuse inaide some slight alterations, and took out a patent for his invention. The gun looks likeaßmall howitzer, except that op inspecting the muzzle you see a plate before it perforated by thirty-seven holes, just large enough to let a rifle ball of the Werndl calibre through it. The breech opens by a lever behind; and in the open breech an iron framework containing thirtyf.even rifled cartridges is placed, a pressure on the lever closes the breech, and a turn at another handle on the side fires off the charge; according as the turn is more or less rapid, the cartridges can be fired off at once or in succession, the apparatus being so arranged that the percussion is effected gradually. A slide behind also enables the marksman to take a broader range so as to scatter the bullets. Eleven shots were fired in one minute, and so 407 balls were fired, of which about three-fourths hit the target. The secong model is that of the Gattling gun, an American invention, something like the original revolver enlarged, with six barrels. The mechanism is simple enough. A simi-circular framework containing the cartridges is placed above the breech, and as the handle is turned, one after another, the cartridges drop into their places, fall into the barrel that is uppermost, and are ex_plode.d. As the cartridges of one framework are exhausted it is replaced by another framework. The inconvenience is that the cartridges do not always fall quite into their places, and thus block the apparatus; still, in spite of this blocking, which occurred several times, about 370 balls were fired successively in a minute. Almost more interesting were the experiments with the breech loaders. The first tried was the Werndl, of which so much has been said and written. Certainly, for simplicity of mechanism it seems superior to any other breech loader. By the pressure of a button on the left of the breech, the latter turns and opens put to receive the cartridge; the reverse turn closes the breech, and the arm is ready to be fired. Fourteen shots were fired in a minute, but it was under favorable circumstances, for an officer standing by held the cartridges. Still, rapid as the firing was, it left time enough for the artilleryman to lodge, at 300 yards, seven shots out of the fourteen into the body of the man marked out on the target. The experiments with the old rifle converted on the Wenzl system gave almost the same result—fourteen shots in a minute, and almost the same accuracy. This is important, as the whole army is now armed with this weapon, the Werndl rifle being as yet only served out to the rifle corps. The system is something like the Mont Storm, the breech opening on a hinge forward.