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83-436: The GPMG was created with first prototypes designed in 1989 before it was approved for production in 1999. A variant with a heavier barrel, longer flash hider, and an electric solenoid trigger that replaces the buttstock, named QJT88 (QJT5.8), is designed for vehicle coaxial usage. This article relating to machine guns is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Machine gun A machine gun ( MG )

166-486: A Portuguese fleet sent to India to take part in a colonial war in the 1740s. Also in 1737, it was mentioned that a German engineer had invented a 10-pounder cannon capable of firing 20 times in a minute. In 1740, a cannon able to shoot 11 times per minute was developed by a Frenchman called Chevalier de Benac. Meanwhile, not long after in England, in 1747 a cannon able to simultaneously charge and discharge itself 20 times in

249-416: A full-powered rifle cartridge , and is considered "medium" in weight (15–40 lb or 6.8–18.1 kg). Medium machine guns are light enough to be infantry -portable (as opposed to a heavy machine gun , which completely relies on mounting onto a weapons platform for operational stability and mobility ), but still cumbersome enough to require a crew for optimal operational efficiency (as opposed to

332-536: A light machine gun , which can be operated to full capacity by only a single gunner). In the late 19th century, Gatling guns and other externally powered types, such as the Nordenfelt , were often made in different ranges of calibers, such as half-inch and one-inch. Thanks to their many barrels, overheating was not a major issue, and they were also quite heavy, being, essentially, heavy machine guns. When Hiram Maxim developed his recoil-powered machine gun that used

415-421: A swivel gun that did not need cleaning or muzzle-loading and was capable of being made to any dimensions and used as an ordinary cannon at a moment's notice and firing 40 shots a minute was invented by a native of Ireland. Also in 1828 a revolver cannon capable of firing 12 shots a minute and worked by 2 artillerymen was invented by a Frenchman called Lesire-Fruyer. In 1854 this cannon would be put on display at

498-516: A tripod or on a vehicle; when carried on foot, the machine gun and associated equipment (tripod, ammunition, spare barrels) require additional crew members. Light machine guns are designed to provide mobile fire support to a squad and are typically air-cooled weapons fitted with a box magazine or drum and a bipod; they may use full-size rifle rounds, but modern examples often use intermediate rounds. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on

581-416: A French artist known as Renard invented a piece of ordnance that could be operated by one man and fired 90 shots a minute. Also in 1792, a French mechanic called Garnier invented a musket battery made up of 15 barrels capable of firing 300 shots in 2 minutes for a total rate of fire of 150 shots a minute or 10 shots per minute per barrel and of being operated by one man. In the early and mid-19th century,

664-411: A bipod and drum in the light machine gun role or a tripod and belt feed in the medium machine gun role. Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. A common aiming system for direct fire is to alternate solid ("ball") rounds and tracer ammunition rounds (usually one tracer round for every four ball rounds), so shooters can see the trajectory and "walk"

747-407: A breech-loading volley gun , similar to the later mitrailleuse, was invented by a Frenchman called Du Perron which was worked by 3 or 4 men and capable of discharging 24 barrels 10 times a minute for a total rate of fire of 240 shots per minute. In 1776, a gun capable of charging and discharging itself 120 times 'by the motion of one hand only' in a minute was invented in England by an inventor from

830-431: A cartridge to overheat and detonate even when the trigger is not pulled, potentially leading to damage or causing the gun to cycle its action and keep firing until it has exhausted its ammunition supply or jammed; this is known as cooking off (as distinct from runaway fire where the sear fails to re-engage when the trigger is released). To guard against cook-offs occurring, some kind of cooling system or design element

913-644: A class of military kinetic projectile weapons, machine guns are designed to be mainly used as infantry support weapons and generally used when attached to a bipod or tripod , a fixed mount or a heavy weapons platform for stability against recoils . Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, features not normally found on other infantry firearms. Machine guns can be further categorized as light machine guns , medium machine guns , heavy machine guns , general-purpose machine guns , and squad automatic weapons . Unlike semi-automatic firearms , which require one trigger pull per round fired,

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996-415: A common characteristic: they fired full power rifle caliber ammunition such as 8mm Mauser or .30-06 Springfield . The Lewis gun , which weighed 27 lb (12.3 kg), was commonly used with a 47-round drum and bipod; it was used on the move in support of squads, and on vehicles and aircraft as well, or on a tripod (either for anti-aircraft use, or to fill in for a heavier MG). What made it very useful

1079-618: A common feed source. The continuous nature of the rotary action and its relative immunity to overheating allow for a very high cyclic rate of fire , often several thousand rounds per minute. Rotary guns are less prone to jamming than a gun operated by gas or recoil, as the external power source will eject misfired rounds with no further trouble; but this is not possible in the rare cases of self-powered rotary guns. Rotary designs are intrinsically comparatively bulky and expensive and are therefore generally used with large rounds, 20 mm in diameter or more, often referred to as Rotary cannon – though

1162-531: A comparatively small magazine. Essentially a machine rifle with a bipod, weapons like the Chauchat or the Madsen 1902 were the most mobile, but were made for single and burst fire. These were used in assaults to great effect by infantry, but were less effective in vehicle-mounted and other applications. The medium designs offered greater flexibility, either using a bipod and being used like lighter designs, or being put on

1245-443: A full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles , while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles . Assault rifles are a compromise between the size and weight of a pistol-caliber submachine gun and a full-size battle rifle, firing intermediate cartridges and allowing semi-automatic and burst or full-automatic fire options (selective fire), sometimes with both of

1328-424: A given amount of heat, while at the same time they are also much better at shedding the excess, as the extra barrels provide a larger surface area from which to dissipate the unwanted thermal energy. In addition to that, they are in the nature of the design spun at very high speed during rapid fire, which has the benefit of producing enhanced air-cooling as a side-effect. In weapons where the round seats and fires at

1411-598: A great boost as tactics using heavy water-cooled MGs were slowly phased out, but suffered a loss when there was shift back to lighter caliber automatic infantry support weapons. The Belgian name Mitrailleuse d'Appui General , or general-purpose machine gun (GPMG), became popular for describing medium machine guns used in multiple roles. The mediums fired full-power rifle-caliber ammunition, but had some concessions for more extended firing and more general usage. This generally included both bipod and tripod/pintle mounting options and quick-change barrels. Water-cooled machine guns of

1494-551: A greater total amount of ammunition to be carried by a gunner and/or other squad members carrying additional ammunition for the weapon. Many models were scaled-down medium caliber designs or heavier, longer-barrel versions of infantry standard Assault rifles . Examples include the FN Minimi , M249 (US designation of the FN Minimi) or the RPK . The term "medium machine gun" is used to refer to

1577-563: A machine capable of firing 600 balls in a few minutes. In 1720, a French inventor called Philippe Vayringe invented a small cannon that could fire 16 shots in succession, which he demonstrated before the Duke of Lorraine. In 1737, it was mentioned that Jacob de Weinholtz, a Dane who was serving in the Portuguese army, had invented a cannon capable of firing 20 to 30 shots a minute though requiring 15 people to work it. The cannons were brought along with

1660-494: A machine gun is designed to continue firing for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays, the term is restricted to relatively heavy crew-served weapons , able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition feeding is replete. Machine guns are used against infantry , low-flying aircraft , small boats and lightly/un armored land vehicles , and can provide suppressive fire (either directly or indirectly ) or enforce area denial over

1743-549: A minute of use. Because they become very hot, the great majority of designs fire from an open bolt , to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, or removable barrels which allow a hot barrel to be replaced. Although subdivided into " light ", " medium ", " heavy " or " general-purpose ", even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy machine guns are either mounted on

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1826-496: A minute though the rate of fire was limited by the overheating of the barrel. In 1819, an American inventor from Baltimore designed a gun with 11 barrels that could fire 12 times in a minute for a total rate of fire of 132 shots a minute. In 1821, a muzzle-loading repeating cannon capable of firing 30 shots in 6 minutes or 5 shots per minute was demonstrated in England by the French-American "Fire King" Ivan Ivanitz Chabert. It

1909-793: A minute was invented by James Allis and presented to the Royal Society of England. In 1750, in Denmark, a Prussian known as Captain Steuben of the Train of Artillery invented a breech-loading cannon worked by 4 people and fed by paper cartridges capable of firing 24 times in a minute and demonstrated it to the King of Denmark along with some other high-ranking officials in the same year. In 1764, Frenchman Ange Goudar wrote in his work The Chinese Spy that he had assisted in Paris in

1992-415: A multi-shot weapon by a Palmer during this period appear to be referring to a somewhat more common Kalthoff repeater or Lorenzoni-system gun . Despite this, there is a reference in 1663 to at least the concept of a genuine automatic gun that was presented to Prince Rupert , though its type and method of operation are unknown. In 1708, it was reported from Constantinople that a French officer had invented

2075-431: A new medium machine gun, a Einheitsmaschinengewehr (standard machine gun), resulted in a Universelles Maschinengewehr (universal machine gun) that was to not only be a medium machine gun that was used in many roles, but was specifically named so. It was similar to older mediums in that it was a medium machine gun intended to replace older light and heavy machine guns of the same caliber, though Germany would continue using

2158-658: A number of rapid-firing weapons appeared which offered multi-shot fire, mostly volley guns. Volley guns (such as the Mitrailleuse ) and double-barreled pistols relied on duplicating all parts of the gun, though the Nock gun used the otherwise-undesirable "chain fire" phenomenon (where multiple chambers are ignited at once) to propagate a spark from a single flintlock mechanism to multiple barrels. Pepperbox pistols also did away with needing multiple hammers but used multiple manually operated barrels. Revolvers further reduced this to only needing

2241-430: A pre-prepared cylinder and linked advancing the cylinder to cocking the hammer. However, these were still manually operated. In 1805, a British inventor from Northampton designed a cannon that would prime, load and fire itself 10 times a minute. In 1806, a Viennese copper engraver and mechanic known as Mr Putz invented a machine cannon that could load, fire and clean itself once every second or potentially up to 60 times

2324-402: A reasonable rate of fire and reliability. In contrast to the rotary format, such weapons have a single barrel and a recoil-operated carriage holding a revolving chamber with typically five chambers. As each round is fired, electrically, the carriage moves back rotating the chamber which also ejects the spent case, indexes the next live round to be fired with the barrel and loads the next round into

2407-462: A reduced rate of fire. Some designs – such as the many variants of the MG42 – are capable of rates of fire in excess of 1,200 rounds per minute. Motorized Gatling guns can achieve the fastest firing rates of all, partly because this format involves extra energy being injected into the system from outside, instead of depending on energy derived from the propellant contained within the cartridges, partly because

2490-727: A rimmed cartridge. For example, the US Army and Marines now use the FN MAG (as the M240 machine gun ), which is generally called the "M240 medium machine gun". It was originally adopted for vehicle mounting in the late 1970s, but its higher reliability resulted in the infantry adopting it for use over the M60 machine gun , despite it being several pounds heavier. They both have quick-detachable barrels, bipods in their light infantry model, tripod and pintle mount options for other models, and similar weight and size. The M60

2573-598: A sector of land with grazing fire . They are commonly mounted on fast attack vehicles such as technicals to provide heavy mobile firepower, armored vehicles such as tanks for engaging targets too small to justify the use of the primary weaponry or too fast to effectively engage with it, and on aircraft as defensive armament or for strafing ground targets, though on fighter aircraft true machine guns have mostly been supplanted by large-caliber rotary guns. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours; other automatic weapons overheat after less than

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2656-409: A single barrel, the first main design was a modest 26 pounds (11.8 kg) in weight, firing a .45-inch rifle caliber bullet (from a 24 inch long barrel). As depicted in a famous photo of Maxim, it could be picked up complete with its 15-pound (6.8 kg) tripod with one arm. It was similar to later-design medium machine guns, but it could not be fired for extended periods. As a result, he created

2739-414: A time when close. It was also claimed to be able to shoot 5 or 6 times before infantry came within musket range or cavalry within pistol range and with no more space between each shot than the time needed to prime a pistol, cock it and release the hammer as well as being nearly as manoeuvrable as cavalry. An alternative and heavier version was said to be able to throw grenades and it was also proposed to equip

2822-554: A tripod, or on heavier mounts. The Hotchkiss Mark I (e.g. Benét–Mercié M1909 ) was a 27.6 lb (12.2 kg) MG that normally used a mini tripod and linkable 30-round strips or in vehicles, but there was also a belt-fed version of it. Not be confused with heavier Hotchkiss models (such as the M1914), the design proved a useful intermediate and would serve even to the end of World War II in some jobs. The design would be followed by lighter machine rifles and better medium types. They also shared

2905-492: A tripod. The heavy machine gun is a term originating in World War I to describe heavyweight medium machine guns and persisted into World War II with Japanese Hotchkiss M1914 clones; today, however, it is used to refer to automatic weapons with a caliber of at least 12.7 mm (0.5 in), but less than 20 mm (0.8 in). A general-purpose machine gun is usually a lightweight medium machine gun that can either be used with

2988-471: A variety of heavier and lighter automatic machine guns to a limited extent. The use of medium machine guns to replace other types would later be called a General Purpose Machine Gun by the Belgians in the 1950s. The actual practice of using medium machine guns in different roles dates back to World War I, whatever the name given by different countries. The trend toward replacing more types with mediums would receive

3071-436: A very light cannon that could fire from a single barrel 30 shots in 2 and a half minutes for a total rate of fire of 12 shots a minute. In 1711, a French lawyer called Barbuot presented to the parliament of Dijon a crank-operated 'war machine' made up of 10 carbine barrels and loaded via a 'drum' capable of firing in vollies. It was said to be accurate at 400 to 500 paces and to strike with enough force to pierce 2 or 3 men at

3154-470: A water-jacket cooling system to enable it to fire for extended periods. This added significant weight, as did changes to more powerful cartridges. This class of heavy, water-cooled machine gun would eventually be regarded as the classic heavy machine guns. However, the much lighter total weight possible by using recoil to power automatic loading was not lost on the firearms designers of the day, resulting in other automatic firearms that used this concept, such as

3237-623: Is a fully automatic and rifled firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges . Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ) are typically designed more for firing short bursts rather than continuous firepower and are not considered true machine guns. Submachine guns fire handgun cartridges rather than rifle cartridges, therefore they are not considered machine guns, while automatic firearms of 20 mm (0.79 in) caliber or more are classified as autocannons rather than machine guns. As

3320-559: Is a revolving arquebus , produced by Hans Stopler of Nuremberg in 1597. True repeating long arms were difficult to manufacture prior to the development of the unitary firearm cartridge; nevertheless, lever-action repeating rifles such as the Kalthoff repeater and Cookson repeater were made in small quantities in the 17th century. Perhaps the earliest examples of predecessors to the modern machine gun are to be found in East Asia. According to

3403-888: Is locked into the chamber. Almost all machine guns have a "safety" sear, which simply keeps the trigger from engaging. The first successful machine-gun designs were developed in the mid-19th century. The key characteristic of modern machine guns, their relatively high rate of fire and more importantly mechanical loading, first appeared in the Model 1862 Gatling gun , which was adopted by the United States Navy . These weapons were still powered by hand; however, this changed with Hiram Maxim 's idea of harnessing recoil energy to power reloading in his Maxim machine gun . Dr. Gatling also experimented with electric-motor-powered models; as discussed above, this externally powered machine reloading has seen use in modern weapons as well. While technical use of

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3486-483: Is no longer a need for it. Most medium machine guns that use barrel replacement overheat after about 200 rounds, and then a quick barrel replacement is needed (such as was done on the Bren ). They can only keep firing if they have spare barrels. However, barrels are expensive and heavy, so only a limited amount are kept. As a result, even if two or three barrels were carried and rotated in and out, it would not allow non-stop fire;

3569-619: Is required. Early machine guns were often water-cooled and while this technology was very effective, (and was indeed one of the sources of the notorious efficiency of machine guns during the First World War ), the water jackets also added considerable weight to an already bulky design; they were also vulnerable to the enemies' bullets themselves. Armour could be provided, and in WW I the Germans in particular often did this; but this added yet more weight to

3652-543: Is the recoil actuated type, which uses the gun's recoil energy for the same purpose. Machine guns, such as the M2 Browning and MG42 , are of this second kind. A cam, lever or actuator absorbs part of the energy of the recoil to operate the gun mechanism. An externally actuated weapon uses an external power source, such as an electric motor or hand crank, to move its mechanism through the firing sequence. Modern weapons of this type are often referred to as Gatling guns , after

3735-505: The 5.56×45mm NATO standard cartridge first used in the AR-15/M-16 rifles. These very lightweight machine guns were designed for more sustained fire than normal infantry rifles, several hundred rounds worth of extended firing. They were similar in weight to an empty older light machine gun and several pounds lighter than mediums, but offered a much higher volume of fire due to their smaller caliber and lighter round; lower cartridge weight allows

3818-894: The Borchardt pistol , the Cei-Rigotti rifle, the Madsen 1902 , as well as lighter, gas-operated, air-cooled designs. Many new designs were developed, some powered by air or recoil, or a combination of the two (e.g., the Colt 1895 and M1895 , Hotchkiss M1909 , PM M1910 , Fiat–Revelli Modello 1914 , Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935 , Breda M37 , and Breda 38 ). Also, instead of the rather heavy water jacket, new designs introduced other types of cooling, such as barrel replacement, metal fins, and/or heat sinks or some combination of all of them. Machine guns then diverged into heavier and lighter designs. The later model water-cooled Maxim gun and its derivatives (the MG 08 and

3901-404: The Nordenfelt gun . The first known ancestors of multi-shot weapons were medieval organ guns . An early example of an attempt at the mechanisation of one of these would be an 'engine of war' produced in the mid-1570s in England capable of firing from 160 to 320 shots 4, 8, 12 or 24 bullets at a time at a rate of fire up to roughly 3 times the rate of fire of the typical arquebusier of the day. It

3984-557: The Vickers gun ), as well as the American Browning Model 1917 machine gun , were all substantial weapons. The .303 inch Vickers, for example, weighed 33 lb (15 kg) alone and on its tripod mount the total weight was 50 lb (22.7 kg). The heavier designs could, and in some cases did, literally fire for days on end. The need was to be able to cut down, potentially, thousands of charging soldiers. The heavy machine gun

4067-399: The 1960s, but were gradually phased out in favor of the lighter air-cooled designs. The mediums are now used both as heavy machine guns, while mounted on tripods , and as light machine guns , while mounted on bipods . This was possible, in part, because a heavy static MG position was not a very effective tactic in vehicle centered warfare, and the lighter air-cooled designs could nearly match

4150-554: The French Museum of the Marine. In France, in 1831, a mechanic from the Vosges department invented a lever-operated cannon that could fire 100 shots a minute. In 1832, a machine capable of firing 500 rifle shots a minute was devised by Hamel, a French mechanic. Medium machine gun A medium machine gun ( MMG ), in modern terms, usually refers to a belt -fed machine gun firing

4233-658: The Wu-Pei-Chih, a booklet examining Chinese military equipment produced during the first quarter of the 17th century, the Chinese army had in its arsenal the 'Po-Tzu Lien-Chu-P'ao' or 'string-of-100-bullets cannon'. This was a repeating cannon fed by a hopper containing balls which fired its charges sequentially. The way it worked was similar to the Perkins steam gun of 1824 or the Beningfield electrolysis gun of 1845 only slow-burning gunpowder

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4316-461: The basis of size; those using shotgun cartridges are almost always referred to as automatic shotguns . The term personal defense weapon (PDW) is sometimes applied to weapons firing dedicated armor-piercing rounds which would otherwise be regarded as machine pistols or SMGs, but it is not particularly strongly defined and has historically been used to describe a range of weapons from ordinary SMGs to compact assault rifles. Selective-fire rifles firing

4399-519: The capabilities of water-cooled designs with a combination of other, lighter cooling features. This resulted in the widespread use of medium weight machine guns by infantry, but also on tanks, aircraft, and on tripods. The practice of using medium-weight machine guns continued into the 1930s. The French made a version of their infantry machine gun, the Châtellerault M1924 , with 150-round magazine and internal water cooler. The German requirement for

4482-406: The chamber. The action is very similar to that of the revolver pistols common in the 19th and 20th centuries, giving this type of weapon its name. A Chain gun is a specific, patented type of Revolver cannon, the name, in this case, deriving from its driving mechanism. As noted above, firing a machine gun for prolonged periods produces large amounts of heat. In a worst-case scenario, this may cause

4565-538: The county of Westmoreland. In 1777, Philadelphia gunsmith Joseph Belton offered the Continental Congress a "new improved gun" , which was capable of firing up to twenty shots in five seconds; unlike older repeaters using complex lever-action mechanisms, it used a simpler system of superposed loads , and was loaded with a single large paper cartridge . Congress requested that Belton modify 100 flintlock muskets to fire eight shots in this manner, but rescinded

4648-519: The fire into the target, and direct the fire of other soldiers . Many heavy machine guns , such as the Browning M2 .50 BMG machine gun, are accurate enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War , Carlos Hathcock set the record for a long-distance shot at 7,382 ft (2,250 m) with a .50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight . This led to

4731-568: The guns. Air-cooled machine guns often feature quick-change barrels (often carried by a crew member), passive cooling fins, or in some designs forced-air cooling, such as that employed by the Lewis Gun . Advances in metallurgy and the use of special composites in barrel liners have allowed for greater heat absorption and dissipation during firing. The higher the rate of fire, the more often barrels must be changed and allowed to cool. To minimize this, most air-cooled guns are fired only in short bursts or at

4814-480: The heavier designs, but more than the lightest. Light machine guns were introduced as lighter, more portable automatic weapons. They still fired the same full-power rifle caliber ammunition, but used lighter barrels without extra cooling and were fired from a bipod. Light machine guns were not intended to be fired for extended periods of time. The lightest of the new designs were not capable of sustained fire, as they did not have extra cooling features and were fed from

4897-507: The introduction of .50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles , such as the Barrett M82 . Other automatic weapons are subdivided into several categories based on the size of the bullet used, whether the cartridge is fired from a closed bolt or an open bolt , and whether the action used is locked or is some form of blowback . Fully automatic firearms using pistol-caliber ammunition are called machine pistols or submachine guns largely on

4980-591: The inventions mentioned in the book, it is uncertain if it was ever built. It is sometimes claimed (i.e. in George Morgan Chinn's the Machine Gun ) that in 1663 the first mention of the automatic principle of machine guns was in a paper presented to the Royal Society of England by Palmer, an Englishman who described a volley gun capable of being operated by either recoil or gas. However, no one has been able to find this paper in recent times and all references to

5063-524: The latter presents. Many machine guns are of the locked breech type, and follow this cycle: The operation is basically the same for all locked breech automatic firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. There are also multi-chambered formats, such as revolver cannon , and some types, such as the Schwarzlose machine gun etc., that do not lock the breech but instead use some type of delayed blowback . Most modern machine guns are of

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5146-510: The locking type, and of these, most utilize the principle of gas-operated reloading , which taps off some of the propellant gas from the fired cartridge, using its mechanical pressure to unlock the bolt and cycle the action. The first of these was invented by the French brothers Claire, who patented a gas operated rifle, which included a gas cylinder, in 1892. The Russian PK machine gun is a more modern example. Another efficient and widely used format

5229-438: The machine with a bellows for clearing smoke that built up during firing. Another early revolving gun was created by James Puckle , a London lawyer, who patented what he called "The Puckle Gun " on May 15, 1718. It was a design for a manually operated 1.25 in. (32 mm) caliber, flintlock cannon with a revolver cylinder able to fire 6–11 rounds before reloading by swapping out the cylinder, intended for use on ships . It

5312-430: The next round can be inserted simultaneously with or before the ejection of the previous cartridge case, and partly because this design intrinsically deals with the unwanted heat very efficiently – effectively quick-changing the barrel and chamber after every shot. The multiple guns that comprise a Gatling being a much larger bulk of metal than other, single-barreled guns, they are thus much slower to rise in temperature for

5395-413: The order when Belton's price proved too high. In 1779, a machine made up of 21 musket barrels worked by 3 men was produced by a British inventor called William Wilson Wright which he claimed could be fired 3 times quicker than a single man could load and fire a musket 3 times. In 1788, a Swiss soldier invented a machine worked by 10 men capable of discharging 300 balls in 3 minutes. Also in 1788, it

5478-413: The original inventor (not only of the well-known hand-cranked 19th century proto-machine gun, but also of the first electrically powered version). They have several barrels each with an associated chamber and action on a rotating carousel and a system of cams that load, cock, and fire each mechanism progressively as it rotates through the sequence; essentially each barrel is a separate bolt-action rifle using

5561-449: The previous medium machine guns, as well as lighter machine guns of the same caliber. However, the medium machine guns continue to be used in many of their previous roles, especially on tanks and vehicles. Often, countries field a mix of medium-caliber medium machine guns, and smaller-caliber light machine guns. These weapons typically fired the 7.62×39mm cartridge fired by the AK-47 series or

5644-408: The proofing of a 'great gun' capable of firing 60 times in a minute. In 1773, another cannon capable of firing 23 or 24 times in a minute and cleaning itself after every shot was invented by Thomas Desaguliers . In 1775, it was mentioned that in England two large cannons invented by an unidentified matross at Woolwich had achieved a rate of fire of 59 shots in 59 and a half seconds. Also in 1775,

5727-473: The removed barrel does not cool down before the next must be replaced. This has become a moot point, since situations where non-stop fire is needed is rare, and other tactics and weapons can deal with an emergency. The 1960s and 70s saw the introduction of new families of automatic weapons using smaller cartridges than the full-power rifle caliber cartridges previously in use. These weapons were called Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW). They have taken roles away from

5810-521: The rifle-calibre Minigun is an exception to this. Whereas such weapons are highly reliable and formidably effective, one drawback is that the weight and size of the power source and driving mechanism makes them usually impractical for use outside of a vehicle or aircraft mount. Revolver cannons , such as the Mauser MK 213 , were developed in World War II by the Germans to provide high-caliber cannons with

5893-455: The same caliber as the existing mediums were no longer useful, as the situation in which they excelled (non-stop firing) was regarded as no longer being needed in modern warfare. This is because mass charges by infantry are rarely done, replaced by AFV -based thrusts, and that a static MG position is a high-priority target for infantry rocket launchers. Modern medium machine guns do not match the sustained firing ability of many older mediums; there

5976-507: The same period, a number of new air-cooled designs were developed that, instead of weighing well over 30 lb (15 kg), were lighter and more mobile. In World War I, they were to be as important as the heavier designs, and were used to support squads and infantry on the move, on aircraft, and on many types of vehicle, including some tanks . The two that would become critical were new medium and light machine guns. The new medium machine guns offered less, or more difficult-to-use, cooling than

6059-406: The same time, mechanical timing is essential for operator safety, to prevent the round from firing before it is seated properly. Machine guns are controlled by one or more mechanical sears. When a sear is in place, it effectively stops the bolt at some point in its range of motion. Some sears stop the bolt when it is locked to the rear. Other sears stop the firing pin from going forward after the round

6142-538: The term "machine gun" has varied, the modern definition used by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute of America is "a fully automatic firearm that loads, fires and ejects continuously when the trigger is held to the rear until the ammunition is exhausted or pressure on the trigger is released." This definition excludes most early manually operated repeating arms the Gatling gun and such as volley guns like

6225-495: The ubiquitous full-power rifle-caliber machine gun designs, which are alternatively called general-purpose machine guns or universal machine guns. They essentially all have provisions for quick-change barrels and the ability to be fired from a bipod, tripod, or pintle mount, and weigh between 20-30 pounds. Modern Western MMG/GPMG weapons almost always fire 7.62×51mm full-power rifle ammunition; modern Eastern MMG/GPMG weapons usually fire 7.62×54mmR full-power rifle ammunition with

6308-555: The weapon's weight (but can increase the total weight carried by a soldier). Some earlier designs, like the Vickers, provided for the replacement of worn barrels. It was in the 1920s and 1930s that barrel replacement as a means of cooling became more popular (e.g., in the ZB 1930 , and later the MG34 and the Bren gun ). The heavier water-cooled designs continued to be used throughout World War II and into

6391-662: Was also claimed that the gun could be reloaded 'as often as you like' and fired no matter the weather though the English government never adopted the weapon despite testing being carried out at the Tower of London . The first firearms to have the ability to fire multiple shots from a single barrel without a full manual reload were revolvers made in Europe in the late 1500s. One is a shoulder-gun-length weapon made in Nuremberg, Germany, circa 1580. Another

6474-406: Was mounted on a tripod and was often water-cooled; a well-trained and well-supplied crew could fire for hours on end. Carefully positioned heavy machine guns could stop an attacking force before they reached their objectives. The first machine guns in use before World War I covered a wide range of characteristics. In addition to these heavier designs, there were also a number of lighter types. During

6557-455: Was one of the earliest weapons to be referred to as a machine gun, being called such in 1722, though its operation does not match the modern usage of the term. According to Puckle, it was able to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Turks . However, it was a commercial failure and was not adopted or produced in any meaningful quantity. In 1729, a report was written in France on

6640-413: Was reported that a Prussian officer had invented a gun capable of firing 400 balls one after the other. In 1790, a former officer in the French military known as Joseph-François-Louis Grobert invented a 'ballistic machine' or 'pyroballistic machine' with multiple barrels operated by 4 men and a continuous rotational movement capable of firing 360 rifle shots a minute in a variety of calibers. In 1792,

6723-453: Was that it was significantly lighter than water-cooled weapons, but could fire nearly as much due to a very large cooling assembly. This sort of multi-purpose machine guns would be further developed, and later given names like Universal Machine gun or general-purpose machine gun , and would eventually supplant the water-cooled designs. Later designs have mostly switched to fast barrel-replacement as an alternative to cooling, which further reduces

6806-556: Was used as the propelling force in place of steam or the gases produced by electrolysis. Another repeating gun was produced by a Chinese commoner, Dai Zi, in the late 17th century. This weapon was also hopper-fed and never went into mass production. In 1655, a way of loading, aiming and shooting up to 6 wall muskets 60 times in a minute for a total rate of fire of 360 shots per minute was mentioned in The Century of Inventions by Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester , though, like all

6889-420: Was worked by a "wheel" fed by paper cartridges from a store attached to the cannon and ignited using a match from a match-holder somewhere else on the cannon. In 1825 an Italian book attempting to catalogue all topographic features of all known countries on Earth mentioned that in France there were 'mechanical rifles' used to defend warehouses that were capable of firing 120 shots without reloading. In 1828,

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