Pom-pom, Pompom n. (Mil.) Originally, a Vickers-Maxim one-pounder automatic machine cannon using metallic ammunition fed from a lopped belt attached to the gun; popularly so called from its peculiar drumming sound in action. More recently, the term is applied mostly to automatic antiaircraft cannons.
... In the glitter of a piece of quartz in the firelight he discovers King Solomon's mines. Like the horned cattle, he can tell by the smell of it in the air the near presence of water, and where, glaring in the sun, you can see only a bare kopje, he distinguishes the muzzle of a pompom, the crown of a Boer sombrero, the levelled barrel of a Mauser. He is the Sherlock Holmes ... — Real Soldiers of Fortune • Richard Harding Davis
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