Machine Gun
a weapon designed to discharge in rapid succession large numbers of small shells.
There are two distinct types of machine guns-those which operate by hand, or other externally applied power, and those which utilize the force of the recoil or explosion.
MACHINE GUN Under the direction of the Emperor Napoleon III., a type of mitrailleuse was designed and manufactured by Commandant Reffye, but so much secrecy surrounded the gun that at the time of the Franco-Prussian War the lack of trained operators prevented the effective use of the weapon.
The Gatling gun, invented in 1861, by Dr. R. J. Gatling of Indianapolis, had its vogue from the latter part of the Civil War to the Spanish American War, 10 2 000 7 S 9 8 4 46 1. Handle 2. Firing Trigger 3. Rear Sight DIAGRAM OF MAXIM MACHINE GUN 4. Barrel 5. Water Jacket for Cooling Barrel A machine gun operates from a fixed mount, thus making it possible to cover any area, day or night, and is usually jacketed for water cooling, which characteristics distinguish a machine gun from an automatic rifle.
Some authorities credit the first use of the machine gun to the Chinese, though their history, like that of other fire arms, is a matter of dispute. There are in existence guns of Chinese manufacture which carry dates of the early 17th century, but at this time various types of mitrailleuse, a gun which discharged several barrels at the same time or in rapid succession, were known in Europe.
The early machine guns were more of a novelty than a useful weapon; although they could be rapidly discharged, a long time was re required red for loading, and the guns were heavy and unwieldy.
The reintroduction of the breech-loading principle and the general use of the cartridge type of ammunition about 1860 paved the way for the true machine gun. 6. Nozzle 7. Feed Box 8. Cartridge in Barrel 9. Elevating Screen 10. Front Sight and was by far the most successful gun of its time. A number, usually ten, of parallel barrels were securely attached to a central shaft. At the breech end 2 HOTCHKISS AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN of the barrel was a lock plate upon which there was a separate lock for each barrel, and over which was a hopper for ammunition. The main shaft was revolved by hand, the ammunition being fed from MACHINE GUN MACHINE GUN the hopper through a grooved carrier The guns which have been in use in to barrels, and by a cam and plunger recent times have been either of the semimechanism the cartridge was pressed automatic or automatic type, in which use VICKERS MACHINE GUN home, discharged as it passed a firing cam, and removed by mechanical extractors. Various improvements were made to this gun, particularly to the loading is made of the powder gas and recoil force for operation. The Colt machine gun (Browning patent) and Benet-Mercie guns, in which the power of recoil RADIATOR ↓ MAGAZINE CROSS SECTION of RADIATOR LEWIS MACHINE GUN device. The gun was used with excellent results by the British in the Zulu and Sudan campaigns. Special models of this gun have fired as many as one thousand shots a minute. was used to operate a lever, were used until the time of the World War by the American army and navy. The Japanese Yamanouchi and the Hotchkiss gun, used by the French, applied the Vol. VI-Cyc-E MACHINE GUN pressure of the powder gas to a plunger mechanism.
At the beginning of the Great War almost every possible machine gun owned by any of the warring powers was brought into action, including many of the Colt and Hotchkiss type. During the war the tendency was to design for increased production rather than for im- MACHINE GUN American Marine Corps used the Lewis gun. One reason advanced for the adoption of the Browning gun was the fact that additional quantity production could be more quickly reached than with the Lewis gun.
The Browning gun is the invention of John M. Browning of Utah, a designer of automatic weapons, who has secured At A C B THE BROWNING MACHINE GUNS A. Browning Machine Gun Rifle. proved models, and because of the demands of production both in the guns and ammunition a general standardization was effected. The French used the light Chauchat automatic rifle and the heavy Buteaus; the English used the Vickers heavy type and the Lewis guns in both heavy and light type.
The American army, after exhaustive tests, adopted the Browning machine gun, in both the heavy and light models, as its standard weapon. This invoked much criticism, as the Lewis gun, invented and perfected by Isaac Newton Lewis (Colonel U. S. A., retired) was being used with great success by the British. The B. Heavy Browning Machine Gun over one hundred and thirty patents on such weapons, among them the patent for the original Colt machine gun. Their outstanding feature is their extreme simplicity and their adaptability to quantity production. The heavy Browning gun weighs less than thirty-five pounds, is fitted with water jackets, gas actuated, and ammunition is supplied in belts. This type may be mounted in air craft, on a portable tripod, or permanently set. When used in an airplane, the water-cooling system is removed.
The light type, resembling an ordinary rifle outwardly, is air cooled, weighs fifteen pounds and is fired from the hip. MACKAY The machine gun has no tactics of its own: it is used mainly as a support to infantry, and it is said that the fire of three properly handled machine guns is equal to that of a company armed with rifles. The most effective range for machine-gun fire is between five hundred to one thousand yards, though they can MCKENNA