MACHINE GUN, a weapon designed to discharge in rapid succession 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.
Under the direction of the Emperor Napoleon III., a type of mitrailleuse wal designed and manufactured by Com mandant Reffye, but so much secrecy sur rounded 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, 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 charac teristics 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 required for loading, and the guns were heavy and unwieldy.
The reintroduction of the breech-load ing principle and the general use of the cartridge type of ammunition about 1860 paved the way for the true machine gun.
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 of the barrel was a lock plate upon which there was a separate lock for each barrel, and over which was a hopper for am munition. The main shaft was revolved by hand, the ammunition being fed from The guns which have been in use in recent times have been either of the semi automatic or automatic type, in which use the hopper through a grooved carrier to barrels, and by a cam and plunger mechanism the cartridge was pressed home, discharged as it passed a firing cam, and removed by mechanical extrac tors. 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-Mer cie guns, in which the power of recoil 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 Jap
anese Yamanouchi and the Hotchkiss gun, used by the French, applied the 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 in creased production rather than for im American Marine Corps used the Lewis gun. One reason advanced for the adop tion of the Browning gun was the fact that additional quantity production coula 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 secures proved models, and because of the de mands of production both in the guns and ammunition a general standardiza tion 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 (Colo nel U. S. A., retired) was being used with great success by the British. The 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 Brown ing 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 perma nently set. When used in an airplane, the water-cooling system is removed. The light type, resembling an ordinary rifle outwardly, is air cooled, weighs fif teen pounds and is fired from the hip.
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 be used for greater distances. Machine guns are used to lay a barrage in front of an advancing infantry, co-operating with or taking the place of heavier artil lery. All airplanes used for military purposes are equipped with machine guns, and when mounted upon a special tripod and provided with tracer bullets they are used as anti-aircraft guns. Tanks and armored cars carry machine guns, and usually the first boat of a naval landing party in hostile territory is equipped with them.