Lewis gun on gunbroker

[harmoniums]

Want want want!

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=376096409

full auto though
Anybody know of a semi rebuild anywhere?

[pitfighter]

There was a parts kit for sale on GB a year or so ago - I saw the links on the 1919 forum - it sold for over $5K -
There is an English company making non-firing replicas.

http://www.milweb.net/webverts/66519/

The vent-cooling system for the air-cooled barrel shroud has always interested me, I don;t quite understand how it works, lol.

[furyous68]

Maybe there are a bunch of fins that connect the barrel to the outer case of the shroud... like the cooling fins on your computer's CPU?

I always thought they were water cooled.

[TRAP55]

There was a parts kit for sale on GB a year or so ago - I saw the links on the 1919 forum - it sold for over $5K -
There is an English company making non-firing replicas.

http://www.milweb.net/webverts/66519/

The vent-cooling system for the air-cooled barrel shroud has always interested me, I don;t quite understand how it works, lol.

Pit, the design in theory, used the muzzle blast, to draw ambient air through the aluminum barrel shroud for cooling. Never really proven to work though. Brits used them mounted on jeeps in North Africa without the shroud.
furyous68, exactly what that is, aluminum heatsinks to draw heat from the chamber area.
I got to squeeze off a drum full on one of these back in the early 80's when .303 was still cheap. Most fun you could have with your pants on.

[mj1]

The cool air is drawn/pulled in the rear by the gases and bullet leaving the front of air jacket.

Lewis was another American who had to take his goods overseas to sell them.

[glennsche]

The cool air is drawn/pulled in the rear by the gases and bullet leaving the front of air jacket.

Lewis was another American who had to take his goods overseas to sell them.

from the maxim gun, to the lewis gun, dating back even to mr. gatlings gun up thru the adoption of the first gen m16 seems like the US Army ordinance depts. have been stocked with the worst and dullest minds that institution can produce.

lewis gun article in wiki is quite good

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_gun

and harmoniums you need to get that to match the bren gun in your arsenal.

[pitfighter]

Ha - no I know in theory how the cooling system works - I just never grasped how it would actually work in practice - aluminum dampeners sound like a terrible way to cool a machine-gun barrel.
Owning three water cooled guns and having shot one or two without water, just to see, lol - I always felt that the lewis barrels would heat up very quickly in those tubes unless a constant wind/breeze was hitting the front, to form a convection current - ie. in a bi-plane.

Ref. Maxim, he was living in the UK because Edison was paying him to live there and to stop inventing electronics patents - his work on the machine-gun came after the move, he was already very successful - he sold the machinegun to the Europeans first because they were the ones fighting - he sold to anyone who would pay though, and took a particular satisfaction from out shooting and then out-selling Gatlings or Gardners.
*Read his book on the Swedish MG trials. He was ruthless.

But, I understand what you're saying, and it is true many great US inventors had to go to Europe to find recognition.

[hambam105]

The cool air is drawn/pulled in the rear by the gases and bullet leaving the front of air jacket.

So much for 2nd rule of thermodynamics, Heat to Cold
And someone made a doo-hickee that reversed this concept and attached it to a Lewis Gun that wasn't a fan? Wow! I'm impressed. Pictures by any chance?

[mj1]

LOL

So much for 2nd rule of thermodynamics, Heat to Cold
And someone made a doo-hickee that reversed this concept and attached it to a Lewis Gun that wasn't a fan? Wow! I'm impressed. Pictures by any chance?

The heat goes to the cool air via the doo-hickee, think about it. He virtually increased the the barrel surface 400%+ then pulled cool air through the jacket. I just picked 400% but look at many and most of the heavy MGs of the first half of the last century from the French, Japanese and others turned their barrels with fins, bulbs and clamp on extensions/heat sinks. this was easy and effective through the mid 70s and was taught in schools I went to.

[hambam105]

Heat to Cold.

Even on our hottest days, air temp is nowhere near the heat of barrel, right?

So in your example, the 'cool air' that you are referring to is the temperature associated with the heat of the barrel.

It's not cool air coming in, it's hot air leaving. Heat to Cold.[U] The heat off the barrel is on it's way to the sky to balance the temperature of the atmosphere..Heat to Cold.

/U]

"The heat goes to the cool air via the doo-hickee,..." If you had a gadjet that brought ambient heat to an already hot Lewis barrel then Steve MaQueen would have been wiped-out in the movie, SandPebbles, and then we wouldn't have had a Car Chase in SF and there wouldn't have been a 1970 Ford Mustang.
And you all thought I was going to see my GF instead of attending Air Conditioning classes at night school.

[DisgruntledReaper]

Those are georgeous guns, wish I had the cash... oh and how about a transferable MAXIM! aucion over but here is the link for drooling pleasure... I want this more than a Lewis but would not kick either out of my house......

-- http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=374525008 --

[DisgruntledReaper]

A tidbit of info.... in Star Wars, Storm troopers carried MG34's, a finned Lewis like this one ,the Blasters were Sterlings, Hans was a BH mauser, I think Leia's was a tarted up luger.... so much cool stuff in that movie....

[hambam105]

Oh yea, well I was the one who mentioned those props to Lucus and he used them alright, but he didn't include me in the royalties for my, technical 'a-sis-tawn'ce'.

[glennsche]

A tidbit of info.... in Star Wars, Storm troopers carried MG34's, a finned Lewis like this one ,the Blasters were Sterlings, Hans was a BH mauser, I think Leia's was a tarted up luger.... so much cool stuff in that movie....

[mj1]

LOL

[QUOTE=hambam105;12760989]Heat to Cold.

Even on our hottest days, air temp is nowhere near the heat of barrel, right?

So in your example, the 'cool air' that you are referring to is the temperature associated with the heat of the barrel. WTF?

It's not cool air coming in, it's hot air leaving. Heat to Cold.[U] The heat off the barrel is on it's way to the sky to balance the temperature of the atmosphere..Heat to Cold.


What ever you say your the expert and must be smarter than the instructors I had.

It's an air pump in their books. LOL