The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

94 THE LOCOMOTIVE [Juke
however, to the two-foot rule and scales. AVe are now able to provide armor-plates lor
the Maxim guns which ^vill stop the small-bore projectile, and which weigh 7 pounds to
the square Coot, and this I think all scientific men would he willing to back against all
other substances, weight for weight. I hear from Germany, on pretty good authority.
that Ilerr Dowe's armor-plate is a piece of very hard aluminum bronze ; but this, as we
all know, is never quite as strong as good steel. The amount of abuse which I have
received for giving away this little trick is simply wonderful. Had I been a pirate and
sunk half the ships on the Thames it could not have been worse.
Yours truly,
June 6, 1894. Hiram 8. Maxim.''
In connection with this letter we have interviewed Dr. Richard J. Gatling, the in-
ventor of the famous machine-gun that bears his name. Dr. Gatling said that although
he does not know the actual construction of Herr Dowe's cuirass, he is inclined to dis-
believe in the theory that it consists simply of plates of aluminum bronze, or even of
steel. He said that he has often fired lead bullets through steel plates a quarter of an
inch thick, and that it is quite easy to penetrate boiler plate that is §" thick. He added
that the rifle musket about to be adopted by the United States navy will penetrate steel
plates that are half an inch thick. In view of these facts it would seem that a cuirass
made of solid steel plates would be quite ineffective, when struck by a bullet squarely,
unless it were half an inch thick, at the very hast. Furthermore, he could see but little
advantage in wearing such a cuirass, if it were in contact with the body; for a bullet fired
from a good modern rifle musket, he said, will strike as heavy a blow as a sledge hammer
in the hands of a muscular laborer; and a good solid blow with a sledge-hammer,
against the pit of one's stomach, would hardly be calculated to stimulate one's ardor for
more fighting. Dr. Gatling thought that if the ideal bullet-proof clothing were ever
invented, it would consist of a woven fabric, tough, heavy, and flexible, and probably
metallic, which would hang out from the body at a considerable distance. A bullet,
striking against this sort of a yielding substance, would transmit a considerable part of
its momentum to the armor, and the force of the blow sustained by the wearer would
be greatly lessened. The soldier might be knocked down by the shock, and he would
very likely be bruised, and he might jxissibly have some bones broken; but in most
cases he would probably escape with a severe shaking up. In order to secure penetra-
tion, the high velocity of the projectile must be preserved up to the time of striking the
body. If the armor is movable, the bullet will set it in motion; and although the total
momentum will be unchanged, it will be distributed through a comparatively large mass,
and hence the velocity will be greatly reduced, and the penetrating power will be lost.
These are the properties of the ideal "bullet-proof coat"; but it does not appear that
they have yet been realized in practice.
While interviewing Dr. Gatling, we could. not resist the temptation to ask him how r
it came about that so non-belligerent and peace-loving a citizen as himself should invent
such an infernal engine of destruction as the Gatling gun. "My dear sir," he said, " my
gun is an instrument for the preservation of peace. I have many letters in my possession
describing the moral effect of the gun. Howling mobs, ripe for any sort of violence,
melt away into nothingness at the mere sight of it, the men suddenly remembering do-
mestic matters that require immediate attention at their own firesides; and streets filled
with the shouts of the multitude speedily become transformed into desert wastes, so far
as any sign of man is concerned. I will tell you how I came to invent the gun, though
I have seldom spoken about this point. I was living at Indianapolis at the time of the