Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/719

 Popular Science Monthly

��visable to discontinue the manufacture of the ser\ace model of machine-gun and has adopted the gun made by the Vickers Company of London as the better weapon. Of the old model — Gatling and Colt automatic guns — there were 1,380 in December, 1914, but many were obsolete and only i ,000 could be counted upon as serviceable. The former estimate of 1,801 machine-guns required by the Army has within the past year been cut down to 1,361, on the basis of four per regiment. This is mani- festly far too low, as the French among others have increased the number of machine-guns per regiment to more than forty during the present war, owing to their great power of destruction. Only 125 machine-guns were manufactured

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the old Krag-Jorgensen rifles. During the preceding year, 25,545 Cnited States rifles, caliber .30, model of 1903 (or Springfield) were manufactured, which is at the rate of about 82 per working day, whereas that one small-arms fac- tory has a capacity of 500 rifles per diem. The Chief of Ordnance declared that a reserve of 800,000 small-arms was de- sired, which would be sufficient to arm any force such as the country would be likely to need for the first months of war. It will, however, be necessary to increase the last appropriation — which was only $250,000 — if the remaining 100,000 rifles are to be secured within several years.

Only Four Days' Supply of Ammunition For the Infantry

The reserve supply of small-arms am- munition in December, 1914, was only 195,000,000 rounds. Our Field Service Regulations prescribe 1,360 rounds for each infantryman — that is, 100 in his

The heaviest United States field piece is

a pop-gun as compared with the German

42 -centimeter, the largest mobile piece of

artillery yet constructed

���THE. UNITED STATES HAS NOTHING LARGER IN CALIBER. THAN THE 6-INCH HOWITZER

��for the American Army during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, and the sup- ply of ammunition for them is fixed at 21,400 rounds per gun.

A more satisfactory condition is found in respect to infantry rifles, of which the United States possessed on June 30, 1914, slightly less than 700,000 of the most modern Springfield pattern, as well as between 300,000 and 400,000 of

��belt, 120 in the combat train which goes with the troops, 120 in the ammunition train which follows behind the supply trains, 340 rounds in the advance depot from which it can be sent forward to the troops, and 680 in the depot at the base of supplies. In other words, 195,000,000 would not be sufiicicnt to supply an army of 145,522 infantrymen with 1,360 rounds each. The 1,360 rounds

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