As air is blasted forward in the blast chamber a vacuum is created. This causes cool air to be pulled through the radiator via the capillaries across the barrel. Resulting in the barrel being cooled from firing and preventing overheating.
The Lewis gun was designed by an American, Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis. It was one of the first successful air-cooled light machine gun designs, and used an aluminum radiator to pull heat off the barrel. The gun was used extensively in both World Wars.
Royal armouries video of the paper moving: [1:26] https://youtu.be/IIBxSv3XQEU?si=
Ian’s video: [13:50] https://youtu.be/l73mR4D9pYw?si=
Awesome! Thanks for the YT links!
Lewis Light machine gun: The Lewis gun is a First World War–era light machine gun. Designed privately in America but not adopted the design was finalised and mass-produced in the United Kingdom, and widely used by troops of the British Empire during the war. It had a distinctive barrel cooling shroud and top-mounted pan magazine. The Lewis served to the end of the Korean War. It was also widely used as an aircraft machine gun, almost always with the cooling shroud removed, during both World Wars.
Comments from @ForgottenWeapons, great info:
Yep, the US used them in .30-06, the Dutch used them in 6.5x53R, and at least a couple were made for Russia in 7.62x54R.
The US rejection of the Lewis was in large part due to political issues and friction between Col. Lewis and the Ordnance Dept. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t do weapons procurement any better than it does anything else.
Actually, loading the pans is pretty easy. The gun mechanically rotates the mag as it fires instead of using a spring, so you don’t have to hold tension on anything when loading. Just drop the rounds in and rotate the center piece of the pan. With practice, you could probably do a full 47 rounds in about 30 seconds.
Oh, the Lewis could definitely be overheated - the cooling system just extended how long you could fire before it happened. It was replaced by the Bren because the Bren was better in pretty much every way - lighter, more reliable, cheaper, and more durable. Lewis mags cannot be used on the Bren.
To some extent. The Lewis pans have a couple advantages over Chauchat mags, namely they are open on the bottom so gravity is always pulling dirt out, and they don’t have a spring to get fouled up, since the gun itself turns the pan. They are also not nearly as flimsy as Chauchat mags.
Rapid fire 7.62x54R is a scary thought. I like it.
hahaha, fire range would be awesome. Pointed at you, yes, it would be a horror show!
Is this as heavy as it looks?
Wikipedia has it at 28lbs or 13 kg. They don’t specify loaded/unloaded.
