DEATH-DEALING INVENTIONS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 504, 15 May 1869, Page 3

DEATH-DEALING INVENTIONS.

I A Tennessee man has invented an instrument of war which, if it does half claimed for it, will prove, the Broad Arrow affirms, more destructive than the needle-gun. It consists of a range of guns 0.76 bore and of 40 inches long, mounted on a carriage of very simple structure, to he hauled by one horse. The width of the carriage between the wheels is six feet. The gun barrels—

twelve in number—are ranged appa. rently parallel, but divergent, so that at 300 yards distant the 12 bullets sweep a line of about 30 feet. Thev are ranged at equal distances from each other, except in the middle, where there is a space of ten inches, into which is placed a telescope of considerable power and a nice arrangement for adjusting the guns in taking aim. This contrivance enables the operator to send a bullet through the bull's-eye at sixteen hundred yards nine times out of ten. The tubes or barrels are loaded at the breach, and are connected by a rod attached to a crank, one turn of which opens and shuts all the breach pieces and loads the gun. They are made ready for firing by another turn of the crank. The whole cartridge is combustible and leaves nothing behind. The bullet can be fired a distance of three miles two thousand yards, with accuracy. Forty-seven out of sixty shots fired struck a target four feet high at

a distance of fifteen hundred yards. The inventor is certain that at a distance of a mile and a-half he could shoot down a whole regiment of men in four minutes' time. The invention weighs five hundred pounds, and is intended to be hauled by one horse and worked by two men, one to drive and the other to operate. The loading of

the apparatus is so arranged that it can be detached in a moment when the other part of the deadly engine becomes perfectly useless. One of them can be finished all complete, with horse, &c.,for $] ,000. The contrivance is at once to be submitted to the War Department. Hearty old gentleman (to dyspeptic friend): "Doesn't agree with you?! Oh I never let anything of that sort bother me ! I always eat what I like, and drink what I like, and finish off with a good stiff glass o' grog at bedtime, and go fast asleep, an' let 'em fight 't out 'mong 'emselves!"