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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 1307.PDF
DECEMBER 6, 1913. kept in perfect condition to function indefinitely, and particularly must it be kept from getting even moderately hot, for spring steel is permanently affected at 2700 F. A coiled spring lying along the stem of the piston is thus out of the question, and in the Lewis gun use is made of a " clock spring," S, of special and peculiar design, which is contained in a small oil- and dust-tight case of its own just in front of the trigger. The spring drum has a toothed periphery engaging with a toothed rack on the operating rod, R, and in this way the spring alternately controls and is controlled by the piston rod without being subjected to the temperature of the forward part of the rod itself. To overcome the trouble often experienced through the jamming of the mechanism for feeding the cartridges, through derangement, t/OCHT] When the expanding gases emerge as a conical blast from the muzzle, they impinge with very high velocity against the inner surface of the tubular steel casing of the cooling system. For a distance of at least two inches the gases are in contact with the metal surface, and the friction thus set up is sufficient to diminish the recoil by more than one-half. In other words, the recoil of the Lewis machine gun is less than one-half that of any other machine gun of equal weight. It is, in fact, possible to fire the gun while holding it in the hands at arm's length, which is a very good test of its steadiness, and this quality, it need hardly be emphasised, is another advantage of first-class importance, particularly in respect to the use of armament on aircraft. The tests to which the gun was subjected included firing from a Plan View- Receiver and Magazine. I rigger. Spring Case and Ejector Opening. Ejector Action. OroM Section. Barrel and Jacket a defect to which the belt form of feed is susceptible, or by the introduction of a little dust or sand, a balanced rotary magazine of circular form is employed, by means of which the cartridges and feeding mechanism are protected, and it becomes possible to fire the gun in any position. The cartridges are arranged radially as seen in the illustration, and are retained in a permanent circumferential position by flutes pressed on the outer casing of the magazine, and by slots in the interior, but the nose of the bullet rests in a coarse threaded ring clipped to the pivot about which the magazine turns. Thus as the magazine rotates, the cartridges are forced to descend along this groove until they pass into position for firing. The construction adopted in order to reduce the recoil is another unique feature of this gun, and operates in the following manner. Grahame-White biplane rigged up with an emergency seat below the pilot in flight, and from the 200 and 500 yards ranges at stationary targets. For the former, the target was about 25 ft. square, and from a height of between 400 and 500 ft., in a strong wind, Lieut. Stillingwerf of the Belgian Army scored 11 hits out of about 24 shots ; and equally satisfactory results attended another attempt later in the afternoon, when a full magazine was discharged. At the 200 and 500 yards ranges some excellent work was done, and at the latter, out of 470 shots at full speed, more than 280 hits were found to have been made, during the subsequent examination of the targets. In every respect, the claims made by the Birmingham Small Arms Co., Ltd., for the Lewis gun were well substantiated. ® ® ® ® THE COMING AIRSHIP. By Capt. C. M. WATERLOW, A.F.Ae.S. THE subject of my paper is the airship of to-morrow, and if I look at it rather from the point of view of military requirements, you must bear in mind that it is these requirements which have made it what it is. Commercial needs and even Naval needs have played a very small part hitherto in its development, though they may be expected to exert considerable influence on its progress in future. Looking back over the past few years, we find an extraordinary prejudice against airships in this country, fostered in the most amazing manner by the Press, both lay and technical. This did not begin to dissipate until the autumn of IQ12, just over a year ago. As late as October, 1912, the Times wrote a leading article on the folly of spending money on airships, taking as its text the accident to " Gamma" after the manoeuvres of that year, when the steering gear jammed while over Salisbury Plain and it became necessary to rip the envelope. The design of the cords actuating the ripping panel was faulty and in consequence the panel did not open properly and the envelope took a great time to empty. While emptying it bumped the car along the ground and naturally did great damage. The lesson to be learnt was, I need scarcely say, that our arrangements for ripping were faulty ; and when the ship was repaired they were greatly improved. And then again within the past few weeks we have the Standard leader writer telling us that after the two recent catastrophes in Germany the rigid type of airship ought to be abandoned. He says:—" The inflated balloon with a rigid framework and elastic envelope is clearly not strong enough to stand the strain to which it is exposed in a high wind." And again :—" A row of silk or canvas gasbags, with tons of heavy machinery attached to them, * Read before the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain on December 3rd, 1913. are too fragile to bear the stress of air pressure when driven by an 800 h.p. engine at 50 or 60 miles per hour." There is nothing to support either of these theories in the accounts of the accidents, absolutely nothing, and yet the public are thus gulled into a dis belief in airships. Could not the Aeronautical Society's Committee take action in cases like this and wiite to the papers to point out their errors ? It is most important that public opinion should not be misled. Going back once again to the autumn of 1912, we suddenly had a most remarkable change of opinion ; the very writers who a month or two previously had been declaring the airship to be useless now painted lurid pictures of England's ruin unless a big airship programme was immediately forthcoming. It is scarcely to be wondered at their thunderings had little effect ; people were naturally sceptical. The cause of all this excitement was the alleged "scare ship" over Sheerness and elsewhere; and it would seem that it is to this—possibly phantom airship—that we oweithe present activity in airship construction, such as it is. Even now you will find writers on aeroplanes declaring roundly that any airship is at the mercy of any aeroplane which chooses to assail it ; but to make their point they invariably describe the aeroplane of the day after to-morrow as operating against the airship of yesterday ; in other words, they give full play to their imagination or knowledge in describing the aeroplane of the future while denying any possibility of development to the airship, of which they know but little. I don't think it is generally realised that the airship has by no means reached such an advanced stage of development as the aeroplane ; the possibilities and probabilities of the future are very rosy and very wonderful. The case of the airship v. aeroplane is rather outside the scope of 1333
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