The Maxim gun, patented in 1884 by the American-born inventor Hiram Maxim, was the first fully automatic machine gun, using the recoil energy of each fired round to eject the spent cartridge, load the next and fire again, sustaining continuous fire for as long as ammunition and the operator's trigger pressure allowed. Water-cooled to prevent the barrel from overheating during sustained fire, the Maxim gun could fire several hundred rounds per minute, a rate of fire without precedent that gave the armies that adopted it, including Britain and Germany, a decisive advantage in colonial conflicts of the late nineteenth century, most starkly demonstrated at the 1898 Battle of Omdurman in Sudan. The weapon's devastating effectiveness against massed infantry attacks, later confirmed catastrophically for all sides on the Western Front of World War I, fundamentally altered infantry tactics and helped end the era of dense frontal assaults that had characterized warfare for centuries. Maxim's design directly influenced nearly every subsequent machine gun, including Germany's MG 08 and Russia's PM M1910, both direct licensed or adapted derivatives of Maxim's original recoil-operated pattern.
Facts
Classification
Service Status Service Status Weapon ClassRecoil-operated machine gun 2 Introduced Year Introduced Year Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) Connections
Associated With
Hiram Maxim's fully automatic recoil-operated design superseded the hand-cranked Gatling gun as the dominant machine-gun type from the 1880s onward.
The Vickers machine gun was a direct, lighter British refinement of Hiram Maxim's original recoil-operated design, adopted in 1912.
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Operated By
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Used In
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
Source Wikipedia: Maxim gun
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikidata: Maxim Gun
Wikidata Q282352, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source 2. Wikipedia: Maxim gun
WikipediaLead section (introduced)
It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world.
Lead section (class)
It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world.
service-status
service = 1886-present
caliber
cartridge = 6.5x52mm Carcano 6.5×58mm Vergueiro 7×57mm Mauser 7.62×54mmR 7.65×53mm Argentine 7.62x65mm 7.62×63mm Springfield 7.7×56mmR British 7.92×57mm Mauser 8×50mmR Lebel 10.35×47mmR 11.43×60mmR Martini-Henry 11×59mmR Gras
Used In: First Matabele War, Wikipedia article text
The Maxim gun was first used extensively in an African conflict during the First Matabele War in Rhodesia.
Used In: Russian Civil War, Wikipedia article text
It also saw use during the Russian Civil War, which followed the Revolution in 1917.
Used In: Russo-Japanese War, Wikipedia article text
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, the Russian Army employed the Maxim in combat and placed a rush order for another 450 units from overseas suppliers, which were mostly delivered to front-line troops before the end of the war.
Used In: Russo-Ukrainian War, Wikipedia article text
Some are still in service to the present day and used in contemporary conflicts, such as the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Used In: World War I, Wikipedia article text
The Maxim M1905 was still in use with the Russian military in World War I, but mainly equipped with non-frontline troop.
Operated By: British Army, Wikipedia article text
The weapon was adopted by the British Army under the guidance of Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1888.
Operated By: Imperial Russian Army, Wikipedia article text
The Imperial Russian Army purchased 58 Maxim machine guns (chambered in 7.62×54mmR) from DWM in 1899 and contracted with Vickers in 1902 to manufacture the design in Russia.
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