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The Gatling Gun is patented
The Gatling gun, often considered to be the first machine gun, and even though it is not the first, it is likely the most famous. It was hand cranked and the barrel turned to allow a continuous stream of bulletsto be fired. The gun got its ammo from a hopper on top. The rotation of the barrels made overheating a non-issue. -
The Maxim machine gun
The maxim machine gun was invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884. It was a recoil operated gun, which means that the gun uses the force created when the gun is fired to eject an dload the new cartridge. It was also water cooled meaning that the gunner team had to carry around water to make sure the gun did not overheat.This did not require a hand crank. -
Airplanes and machine guns
On June 7, 1912, a machine gun called the Lewis Machine gun was mounted on an airplane and demonstated the power of this combination. The gun was light enough to be carried on an airplane, but had sufficient power. This led to the development of armed airplanes, and in turn dogfights. This lethal combination would revolutionize warfare as we know it. -
Water cooling
Water cooling was an efficient method for keeping barrels of machine guns from overheating. However, it did require people operating the gun to carry around large quantities of water, say, a gallon. This required more men to be part of a machine gun crew. -
Air cooling
The first air-cooled guns showed up around this time.The invention of air cooling negated the need forcarrying around large amounts of water to cool the barrel. This was advantageous as it allowed for less people in the gunner crew. It also allowed for more mobilty. -
The Thompson submachine gun "Tommy gun"
The Thompson machine gun, known as the "Tommy gun," was named after its inventor, John Thompson. It became known as a gangster gun, and it was adopted by the army in 1928. It was used by the British and American forces during World War Two, weighed ten pounds, and could hold up to 50 rounds of ammunition, if you used a drum of ammunition. -
The Browning M2 machine gun patented
When general Pershing requested a HMG (heavy machine gun) the army found John Browning's machine gun. it is an 50 caliber air cooled belt-fed machine gun,which has semi and full auto modes. It is still used today. It can fire 450-600 rounds per minute, and is mounted on a tripod. -
Gas operated machine guns
Gas operated machine guns are a huge innovation. The mechanism works by simply putting a channel in the gun, which, upon firing, diverts some of the gas into this channel, using the force of this pressure to drive a piston or a like device attached to the bolt, thereby propelling the bolt backwards, rendering it ready to fire another round. -
MG 42 "Hitler's saw"
The German Mg42 was generally a great success. It was cheap, and easy to make. It was also very versatile. It could fill almost any role you wanted it to. It could be a light machine gun, a heavy machine gun, or even an anti-air gun. It did, however, have its faults. The rate of fire was at first to rapid, and caused overheating, as well as gobbling up very large amounts of ammunition. All in all, though, it was a great gun. Allied soldiers called it "Hitlers saw," for the noise it made. -
Modern machine guns
Modern machine guns are truly terrifying. Even though we still use traditional weaponry, such as the Browning M2 (not by any means a bad gun,) new gatling guns have been created, ones that are gas operated instead of hand cranked, and that can fire up to 6,000 rpm (rounds per minute.) That is truly terrifying.
