seating them in the
chamber, withdrawing them from the belt or in removing the fired case,
will not operate the gun properly and will cause "jams." On the other
hand, ammunition which develops too much pressure or creates too
little friction, will cause breakages because of the excess jar and
hammering of the moving parts.

We utilized parts of cream separators, sewing machines, baby
carriages, bicycles and various agricultural implements, found in and
around the old Belgian farms, and it soon became common talk that we
could make every part of a machine gun excepting the barrel. We
learned that there was a certain bolt, a part of the rifle carrier on
the French bicycle, which was an exact duplicate of an important part
of our guns, so, whenever we found one of those old, broken and
abandoned cycles, we would take time to remove this particular part
and carry it along for emergencies. This is but one instance of many.

Then, there was the matter of concealing the flash, when firing at
night. As the position we occupied was in plain view of the enemy
lines, to have fired without some device to prevent the flash being
seen would, inevitably, have resulted in a concentration of fire upon
us which would have rendered the position untenable. We tried many
schemes, from the crude "sand-bag" screen to the most elaborate
devices made in the armorer's shops, while back in billets, and
finally perfected one which was thoroughly satisfactory. I can not
describe it here, as I hope to see it used by our soldiers in France,
but I can say that, out of probably fifty different contrivances made
for the same purpose, this was the only one that "filled the bill"
from every standpoint.

As most of our firing was done at night, it was necessary to improve
the manner of mounting and "laying" the guns as we soon found that the
methods taught at the training schools and the lamps and other
mechanical devices furnished by the authorities were of no use under
actual service conditions.

The various schemes and devices which we originated and elaborated are
at the disposal of the proper military authorities in this country
but, obviously, can not be described here.

The foreign officers, British and French, who are now in this country
acting as instructors and advisers are doing everything in their power
to impress upon our officers and men the necessity for keeping up to
date in all the various and complicated departments of military
tra