The First Maxim Machine Gun

Hiram S Maxim developed the first automatic machine gun in 1884. His prototype used a fairly complicated mechanism but he was the first person to use the force of recoil from firing a cartridge to extract the spent cartridge, cock the firing mechanism, load a fresh cartridge and then fire the next cartridge fully automatically. His prototype included a regulator to vary the firing speed from 23 per minute to about 600 p, m. His designs matured over the next 2 years to produce a world standard design in