Self-powered+machine+gun+-TK

=Machine Gun = 1884, the self-powering machine gun is patented. It is the Maxim gun, named after the inventor, Sir Hiram Maxim. The innovation is that the gun self-powered, it uses the recoil of the previous to load and fire the next cartridge. The Maxim gun was water cooled. The Vickers machine gun is based off the Maxim, and was used by the British in WWI with deadly efficiency and reliability. It was fed a cloth belt, fired the bullet, and dropped the casing out the other side. The Vickers, and other models during WWI, took a team of people who kept the gun cool, fed, and firing while protecting it.



The machine gun slaughtered soldiers who trie d to charge between trenches, they were caught in the no-man's land with a hail of bullets. They were not portable on the battlefield because they weighed between 30 and 60kg, so machine guns during WWI were used for defense. The gun changed the strategy and casualties of war. WWI trench warfare was dominated by the power of these guns. In the late years of WWI and into WWII, the light machine gun was developed and used by infantry as well as mounted on vehicles for the offense. Machine gun have consistently  been innovated and developed to modern day. The advantages in war directly affected the borders and nations after the war settled. The machine gun brought wars to a new level of casualties  and expense.  media type="custom" key="25115288" align="center"

Michael Duffy, "Weapons of War- Machine Guns", Firstworldwar.com, 22 August 2009, [] (accessed February 14, 2014) Wikipedia contributors, "Machine gun," // Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, // [] (accessed February 14, 2014). Wikipedia contributors, "Vickers machine gun," // Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, // [] (accessed February 14, 2014).