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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 178
lutely at all times under the control of the officer commanding the battalion.”
See also:
Maxim, Sir Hiram; MaximVickers Machine-gun.
Reference:
Goldsmith, Dolf L., ed. R. Blake Stevens, The Devil’s Paintbrush: Sir Hiram Maxim’s Gun
(Toronto, Collector Grade Publications, 1989); Machine Guns; Answers Received at the War
Office to Additional Questions on Machine Guns and Pom-Poms asked in Army Orders in
South Africa (57/Cape/8122, National Army Museum 7805–26).
Maxim-Vickers Machinegun
The invention of the fully automatic quick-firing gun by Hiram Maxim followed an appreciation of the
limitations of existing hand-cranked weapons. It reached the zenith of its effectiveness in the close
conditions of trench warfare during the First World War, but the first opportunity to demonstrate its
powers came in South Africa where it was used mainly as a support weapon for attacking infantry. Its
potential in defence was recognised but the conditions to use it were rarely available.
The first practical machine-gun was the invention of Dr Richard Jordan Gatling, an American
inventor who offered it to his government in 1863. Another American, Hotchkiss, made the next gun
of note and went to France to manufacture it. The guns by Nordenfelt and Gardner followed. These
were all hand operated, three by a crank and one, the Nordenfelt, by a lever like a pump. However,
this method of operation disturbed the aim, and they were all fed from magazines of limited capacity.
Furthermore, because cartridges could not be relied upon to go off at precisely the same interval after
the firing-pin struck them, it was possible for the operator to be caught in the act of extracting a “hangfire” cartridge, that is, one that is in the process of exploding. The result is that part of it gets driven
into the breech, jamming the gun, and part can set off the rounds while still in the magazine. Maxim’s
gun harnessed the recoil automatically to eject the spent cartridge, chamber a new one, close the
breech block and fire the weapon. A “hang fire” would merely slow the action fractionally. It was an
advance of immense practical importance.
The first true machine-gun was the subject of Hiram Maxim’s Patent No. 3493 of 16 July 1883
and he was supplying the British army with his guns by March 1887. These were 0.45-inch watercooled weapons, weighing 60lb (27.25kg). At the same time, smokeless powder was replacing black
powder in the wake of the French decision to adopt the new propellant in 1885. Maxim’s re-design
produced the .45 calibre “world standard” version of which 120 were delivered in 1890. The calibre
of the chamber was influenced by that of the guns already in use. The Royal Navy, for example, had
been using, and was still using, .45 Gardners and Nordenfelts, and so had .45 ammunition. The
Maxims were therefore similarly chambered. In 1891 the British adopted the “small” .303 bullet with
smokeless powder. The Maxim of the same calibre came into production at Enfield in July 1893 and
the older guns were converted from February 1899.
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