The Republic

PORTER'S REPEATING RIFLE.—The Washington correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce thus notices the repeating rifle recently invented by Mr. Porter, of Tennessee:

"Among the remarkable inventions lately brought to public notice here is the rifle invented by Mr. Porter, of Nashville, Tennessee. I was present yesterday when it was examined by a scientific and practical man, who knows a good deal about guns, and has made rifles himself with his own hands. He was rather favorably impressed with it, and intends to give it a trial. It will be submitted to a trial by the War Department. It has been already patented in the United States, in England, and in France.

It is a repeating rifle with a vengeance. It loads and primes itself, solecism as this seems. To use the rifle as a revolver, you put on a cylinder with eight loads, and discharge them in succession. You may put on another cylinder. No caps are used—the gun being primed on Maynard's principle.

"As a repeater, this rifle has another movement. Discarding the cylinders, you may drop over the lock what Mr. Porter calls 'the magazine,' which contains sixty charges of powder and ball. These sixty charges you may fire as rapidly as a watch ticks.

"Mr. Porter is a modest and religious man, of the Baptist persuasion. He was conscientiously scrupulous as to the introduction of so destructive a weapon into public use, and consulted the members of his religious society on the subject. They came, very wisely, to the conclusion that the more destructive weapons of war were rendered, the shorter and the fewer would be the conflicts of arms. Therefore the Porter rifle was put forth as a messenger of peace—a peace keeper."