The Maxim gun was the first true machine-gun. It was invented by an American, Hiram C Maxim while he was living in England. The Maxim gun was a short-recoil water-cooled automatic machine-gun first used in the Matabele War of 1893. The British Maxim gun was chambered for the .303 Mk VII cartridge which it took from a 250-round fabric beltfeed and fired at a cyclic rate of 600 rounds per minute with a muzzle velocity of 744 meters per second to an effective range of 2000 meters. The Maxim gun had a 718 mm long barrel and was fitted with a blade foresight and a leaf notch rearsight. Maxim guns have been used by many armed forces, and during the Great War were employed by both the British and German forces. Research Maxim
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert