Machine Guns.
The revolving idea was applied to guns about 1861 by Richard J. Gatling, the first Gatling guns fitted for use with metalling ammunition being produced by the Colt Company in 1870. These guns had ten barrels revolving around a central shaft and in their developed form were capable of being fired at the rate of one thousand shots a minute. The first of these to be used prominently in warfare was the French mitrailleuse, used by France in the war of 1870-71. The Gatling soon made its way widely, and its rapidity of fire became a proverb. If anything moved quickly it was said to “go like a Gatling” or “sound like a Gatling.”
Automatic Gun Mounted on Automobile
Other guns of this type are the Hotchkiss, the Nordenfeldt and the Gardner, and a more recent one is the Maxim, which, after the first shot is fired by hand power, continues to fire shot after shot by means of the power derived from the explosion of each successive cartridge. In the early form of the revolver the empty cartridge cases had to be ejected from the cylinder singly by an ejector rod or handy nail. In 1898 a new type was introduced with a lateral swinging cylinder which permitted the simultaneous ejection of all the empty shells.
Near the time of the Spanish-American War appeared what is known as the Colt automatic gun, operated by the action of the powder gases on a piston and lever near the muzzle of the barrel. This could be fired at the rate of 400 to 500 shots a minute, and by reason of its light weight could be very easily carried. The British used it effectively in the Boer War.
Today the Colt Company manufacture revolvers in which the simultaneous ejection of the cartridge-cases and recharging of the chambers is combined with a strong, jointless frame; automatic magazine pistols in which the pressure of the powder gases, as above said, is utilized after giving the proper velocity to the projectile, it requiring only a slight continued pressure on the trigger for each shot; automatic machine guns firing at will single shots or volleys while requiring only a slight pull upon the trigger; and the improved manually-operated Gatling gun firing the improved modern ammunition. The cartridges are carried on a tape which feeds them with the necessary rapidity into the barrel.
What would be the history of the European War without the machine gun is not easy to state, but as a highly efficient weapon of war its quality has been abundantly proved.