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I thought the first firearm generally considered a machine gun (as opposed to human powered Gatling guns) was the Maxim gun, which was belt fed. All the major m
by manfredo 8y ago
I thought the first firearm generally considered a machine gun (as opposed to human powered Gatling guns) was the Maxim gun, which was belt fed. All the major military powers in WWI other than France and Austria used Maxim guns or derivates of it. Austria used what is essentially a delayed blowback operated Maxim gun, and it was belt fed. Early light machine guns were magazine fed (e.g Bren Gun, BAR, Lewis Gun), but these aren't typically what militaries typically refer to as "machine guns". Some called them automatic rifles to distinguish them from machine guns.
- icegreentea2 8y agoI think Gatling gun and friends are definately considered "early" machine guns, in that they fulfill what is probably the most important distinctive feature of machine guns - relatively sustained periods of high rate of fire. There are lots of ways to argue about what exactly defines a machine gun, but if we take the perspective of what it's like to be shot at by one, I think we can say that Gatling guns and friends are close enough that I don't really think it matters. This helps highlight juts HOW MUCH BETTER the Maxim gun was compared to everything before it though.