Everyone who watched the Soviet film "White Sun of the Desert" must have noticed the Lewis machine gun. It was this weapon that was in the hands of the protagonist in the person of Comrade Sukhov. Against the background of any other weapon, this machine gun immediately stands out with its very specific barrel. He looks incredibly fat. The question arises how, with such a caliber, the Lewis did not turn into a manual mortar and why does it even need such a barrel diameter?
The first moment: in the "White Sun of the Desert" was filmed not a real Lewis machine gun. Then the film crew could not find a real working machine gun from the First World War. That is why the props experts skillfully made up the Soviet machine gun Degtyarev under the legendary weapon. Moment two: the barrel and caliber of the "Lewis" are the most common. It is so thick because of the cooling system installed on top of the radiator. Here we will talk about it in more detail.
So, the "Lewis gun" or the Lewis machine gun owes its design to the 37-mm cannon of the American designer Samuel McLane in 1904. Initially, the gun had liquid cooling, but after the first tests it became clear that it was not enough. Therefore, a cunning air radiator was installed on the gun barrel. On the basis of this weapon, McLane also invented a heavy air-cooled machine gun. However, the project was never brought to life, and the creator sold the rights to his designs to Armes Automatiques.
A few years later, McLane was adopted by US Army Colonel and weapons designer Isaac Lewis. Initially, he wanted to make his own heavy machine gun. However, then leaned towards designing a light manual. Lewis changed almost nothing in the design of the borrowed weapon, except that he seriously redesigned the cooling system. As a result, the 7.62x54 mm machine gun received a fairly massive air cooler.
>>>>Ideas for life | NOVATE.RU<<<<
The problem was that the cooling system came out too bulky and heavy. In the course of further work, Isaac Lewis was able to reduce its metal part to literally the width of the palm of your hand. And in order for the entire barrel of the machine gun to continue to cool normally, a special casing was pulled over it.
The meaning of this bizarre design is that at the time of the shot, a zone of low atmospheric pressure is formed in the front of the casing due to the departure of the bullet. Since there is low pressure at the outlet of the radiator, the air pressure at the inlet to the radiator (on the back) is normal, then the cooling system sucks it in and holds it along the entire bore, thus trying to align difference. So with each bullet fired from Lewis, the machine gun is air-cooled.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about what "exotic" weapon does it use Russian special forces.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/271121/61396/