Gardner's five-barreled mitrailleus on a wheeled carriage.
So William Gardner proposed such a mitrailleus design, which at that time had a higher rate of fire than all other models, but at the same time it was extremely simple and distinguished by high reliability. In addition, it was also quite technologically advanced, and was serviced by a crew of only two people!
Double-barreled mitrailleuse Gardner.
She is in the Danish Royal Arsenal Museum.
Back view.
Gardner received a patent for his "machine gun" in 1874. This sample of it had two barrels, firing in turn. The drive was mechanical, from the rotation of the handle located to the right of the box, in which the shuttle-type gates were located. A number of sources report that both sections were placed in a casing, into which water was poured. So it was also the first example of a water-cooled multi-barreled rapid-fire weapon. Moreover, the rate of fire for Gardner's mitraille was quite decent - 250 rounds per minute. The advantage of the system was that it could be installed on a variety of carriages, both land and ship, which made it a universal weapon. The biggest drawback was the complexity of targeting. That is, one of the shooters had to aim it, and the other twisted the handle. Theoretically, one person could do this, but then the accuracy of the fire turned out to be not very high.
William Gardner with his invention.
The device of the mitralese was practically the same as the mitraillese of Palmcrantz, only now it was born earlier. There were two locks in the box, which alternately opened and closed. At the same time, they, like shuttles, moved strictly in a straight line. In general, the rate of fire of such a "machine gun" depended only on the speed of rotation of the handle and also on the training of the crew - which had to reload it very quickly. Theoretically, he could fire 800 rounds per minute, but then his barrels would instantly overheat, and the water in the casing would boil.
Diagram of the Gardner mitraillese device.
Diagram of the mechanism in action together with the trunks.
Since in the United States at that time the Gatling mitrailleuses were already in service, the designer managed to sell only a few hundred of his "machine guns", and this did not bring him large profits. He decided to seek his fortune in England, where he moved, and where he continued to improve his invention. And the British decided to use his development, so he, in general, achieved success. But it often happens that, having invented something perfect, the author of this creation can no longer come up with anything. Rather, he improves his invention in a quantitative aspect, but he fails to move to a new qualitative level. So, for example, his next development was a five-barreled mitrailleuse, which gave 700 rounds per minute with air-cooled barrels. That is, the rate of fire of this "manual machine" was higher than that of the fully automatic machine gun "Maxim", but how could you shoot from it if the shooter's field of view completely covered the bulky and very heavy magazine containing cartridges for five barrels ?!
Massive flywheels in the Gardner mitrailleis box ensured smooth operation.
The bronze used in the manufacture of the "machine gun" gave it an elegant look!
And the weight of the "machine" of the 1874 model, even in the version with two barrels, was still somewhat large: 98.9 kilograms, with a total length of 1193 mm and a barrel length of 763 mm. He fired.45 caliber cartridges, which allowed him to fire at a distance of up to 1800 meters. Well, then there were further improvements to its system and mass production by Nordenfeld.
Gardner's double-barreled "machine gun" on a wheeled carriage.
By the way, this company decided to produce its own machine gun on the model of the Maxim machine gun and even found the person who designed it in 1897, while introducing the required element of novelty into its device. This was the captain of the Swedish army, Theodor Bergman, and he is better known as the creator of a number of automatic pistols, but he was also involved in machine guns. And this is what kind of design he came up with in the end: with a short rollback of the barrel, the latter retreated and pushed the massive bolt carrier coupled to the bolt. And she retreated until the shutter and the frame were disengaged by a special cam mechanism. At the same time, the accelerating lever also worked, which threw the shutter exactly four times faster than the frame itself continued to move. At the same time, the cartridge case was removed from the chamber and extracted to the right. In the feeder, equipped with a six-spoke sprocket, a spring was provided, which this frame compressed and thus accumulated in it (and in the feeder) enough energy to feed the tape. Then the bolt carrier moved forward, fed the cartridge into the chamber and firmly adhered to the bolt.
Bergman-Nordenfeld machine gun.
That is, the main advantage of this design was the improved supply of cartridges to this machine gun, because of which it was distinguished by increased reliability, which could only be approved. But the higher labor intensity of manufacturing and the overall complexity increased the price of this machine gun, so the Bergman machine gun of the 1897 model did not endure the competition with the "maxim" in the end!
It is interesting that in the same 1897 in distant Nepal, a double-barreled "machine gun" was also created, structurally similar to Gardner's mitraillese, but assembled according to the principle of everything at hand!
Mitraleza "Bira".
Here it should be noted, first of all, that at the end of the nineteenth century Nepal was one of the poorest and most backward countries in the world (although now its position is not much better). There were an abundance of semi-handicraft workshops and forges in it - hoes and famous kukri were forged in them. But there was not even a trace of something else! But the British fully and completely armed a small Nepalese army in gratitude for the Gurkha - Nepalese mercenaries who served in the British colonial troops. But they also refused to supply mitrailleuses to Nepal, believing that such a super-modern weapon at that time could easily turn their heads. Well, the Nepalese never had enough money to buy them in other countries.
Modern layout of "Bira", issued by one of the American firms involved in the manufacture of copies.
Box "Bira". The store has been removed. The drive gear cover has been removed.
It was then that Colonel (later General) Gahendra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana (not the longest name yet!), Educated in England, decided to use the simplicity of Gardner's design to create his own “Nepalese model”. And he created, although in the end he got a product, very little similar to the original sample. The first Nepalese mitralese was given the name "Bira" in honor of the then king of Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah and tried not to be limited to one model.
Box "Bira" with an installed magazine and drive gear cover.
The mechanics of Bahadur Rahn's mitraillese were similar to those of Gardner, and it would be strange if this were not the case. Then she would hardly have earned. The shop was fundamentally new in it. We can say that the Nepalese colonel was the first in the world to use a horizontal disc magazine in his weapon, rotating when firing, and very similar to the one that was then used on the Lewis machine gun. Moreover, the store turned out to be very capacious. In it, 120 cartridges were located in two rows, and this is what led to the fact that it came out very heavy. Empty weighed 14 kilograms, and filled with cartridges - 20.
Two barrels of "Bira".
Bohadur Rana did not use water-cooled barrels on the Bir either. He also refused the bronze body of the "Gardner", which was first cast in Europe, and then its blank was milled, ground and polished. Nepalese craftsmen "riveted" it from iron sheets, connecting them with screws and bolts. The result is a very original outwardly design, downright in the style of post-apocalyptic dieselpunk.
The markings for Nepalese mitrailleuses were hand engraved, so each one is completely unique and of great value to military collectors.
Work on "Bira" began in 1896, and finished in 1897. During the tests, it turned out that despite the "homemade" mechanism, its mechanism worked quite reliably, and the magazine did not jam when the cartridges were fed. The success inspired the Nepalese people, and they put the production of the "novelty" on stream, that is, they continued to manually make every detail and customize it in place. Therefore, interchangeable parts in each of these mitrailleuses were absent by definition. Even the shops and those differed from each other and could only be used with "their" mitrailleza!
Montigny mitralese in the arsenal of Nanjing.
And nevertheless, even with such "production", they managed to make 25 mitrailleuses, which until the middle of the twentieth century guarded the country's capital, Kathmandu, and the royal palace. In battles, it was never used, frightening the enemies of Nepal with its mere appearance. But among the collectors of weapons, this "miracle of technology" is highly valued, in any case, the last of the sold went from the auction for 50 thousand pounds!
