Orzel Light Machine Gun
While the weapon pictured appears at first glance to be a Lewis gun, with the instantly recognisable pan magazine and cooling jacket it is in fact an entirely different weapon designed by Francis J. Orzel - the O.Z.L.77 Machine Gun.
There are no trials reports or patents documenting Orzel’s design available, however, some photographs, specifications and letters detailing his work are available online. The letters dated February 1938 are stamped ‘Tygdepartementet’ (the Swedish Army Arms Department) perhaps indicating Swedish interest in Orzel’s inventions. In the letters Orzel claims to have invented a series of interesting systems and inventions including a precision rifling system which prolonged barrel life, a multi-calibre bullet, a compensator and a wire entanglement shell for clearing barbed wire. The most intriguing of Orzel’s designs was a machine gun operating principle “with equal facility to a light shoulder automatic rifle, to a light or heavy 30 calibre machine gun… to a 50 calibre machine gun for anti-aircraft use.” Orzel claimed that his ‘positively interlocked… straightline, piston type” action and bolt locking mechanism were jam proof.
Orzel constructed at least one prototype chambered in .30-06 using his bolt mechanism and air cooling system which he claimed gave “100% greater radiating surface” than the Lewis Gun. He claimed a blistering cyclic rate of a 1,000-1,200 rounds per minute was possible but a more manageable ‘actual speed’ of 600 rounds per minute was the norm. The specification for his gun describes a “floating piston with universal joint action” with 30% fewer parts than contemporary weapons.
Little is known about Orzel and his designs, they were certainly never produced beyond the prototype stage. Sadly, no patents for Orzel’s firearms designs can be found. However, it would appear that a Francis John Orzel, of Flushing, New York, filed two non-firearms patents during the 1940s. In 1944 he filed a patent for a sparkplug and in 1948 he filed a patent covering construction slabs.