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Thank you Neville - hopefully I will never get them mixed up again!

Do you know why the barrel was offset in the water cooled jacket & even more so in the .303? I would have thought even cooling was desirable.

Amery after listing the good points of the Pom-Pom then rather damns them: "But a gun which has marvellously little killing power, and the effective range of which is but little over 3,000 yards, with a weight almost equal to that of a 12-pdr., cannot be regarded as very satisfactory."

I seem to be remember reading that the Boer artillery was not as effective as it could have been because all their shells exploded on impact rather than in mid-air.

Regards, David.

David,

The barrel was offset to allow for the inclusion of a "steam tube" near the top of the water-jacket. This tube, which ran the whole length of the jacketed barrel, was perforated, and allowed steam to escape as the water heated up during periods of sustained rapid firing. When the gun was elevated, a sleeve or "slide valve" slid backwards, blocking the perforations closest to the chamber, ensuring liquid could not escape as the water level rose at the lower end of the tilted water-jacket.
The space was therefore only partially filled with water, allowing for the collection and escape of steam in the upper part of the jacket.



Handbook for the 0.303" Maxim Machine Gun, 1898, Figure 2. The barrel is marked "26", and the steam tube "73".

Neville

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