The Maxim Gun: The (Terrifying) First Machine Gun

[@megaprojects9649]

Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S: playwt.link/mp2024 Follow the link to download the game and get a massive free bonus pack including vehicles, premium accounts and more!

[@BrunoDias1234]

please make a video of the indonesian high speed rail, the first in south east asia

[@hullutsuhna]

regarding the use in Ukraine: in a defensive position the Maxim gun is very much superior to any air-cooled machine gun due to it's ability to keep firing virtually indefinitely as long as you can keep topping off the water jacket while literally all the general-purpose machine guns in service around the world are air-cooled & require barrel changes after some 200 rounds or so which forces a pause of anywhere from five seconds to over ten seconds while the barrel is changed, as a prime example of the Maxim gun's ability to keep on shooting, when the Vickers gun was finally retired by the British Army, a Vickers gun was famously fired virtually non-stop for several days (excluding reloads and an unknown number of barrel changes as the barrels were worn out to the point where the wear and tear started hindering the cycling of the gun)

[@Un_Pour_Tous]

Hail Azazel!

[@Era_SoNER]

Keep in mind that Warthunder is a PVP mmo, without a functioning anticheat.. with a predatory pay 2 progress model

[@Arnoldgomez-ul4ub]

@@hullutsuhnaanyone have seen Agatha all along ?

[@dod_the_angel]

Some fun facts about maxim - to promote his gun, he would use one to chop down trees for his guests - He wasn't just a gun inventor, he was fighting with THE Thomas Edison for patents to the lightbulb. - His son (who was also called Hiram) invented the first commercially successful silencer. - He eventually became a naturalised British citizen and was given a knighthood by Queen Victoria in 1901

[@Nick-v7b3l]

A little deeper: His son developed the suppressor because his dad went deaf testing the Maxim. Although his invention never took off, he used the tech he developed to create the first automobile muffler!

[@w8lvradio]

​@@Nick-v7b3land the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Amateur Radio.

[@johnanderson1245]

It’s ironic that the weapon was designed by a British subject yet it was the Germans that used it against them.

[@Nick-v7b3l]

​@w8lvradio very cool!

[@steveconquest6684]

Actually there were a few inventors challenging Edison, the most successful being Joseph Swan in the UK. Hiram was recognised the world over for his Maxim gun, receiving awards and honors from heads of state across the globe. I can recall seeing a photograph of him with a chest full of medals kept by his descendants.

[@ianray8823]

When you open up Maxim Magazine and its just a bunch of sexy women instead of water cooled machine guns...

[@jamesmcewan2011]

Biggest disappointment of my life

[@comancheclub3449]

my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

[@amaccama3267]

70 rpm of 37mm Canon rounds. That's going to cause anyone facing it to have a significant emotional event .

[@sinocte]

And likely leave them searching for a new pair of trousers.

[@Shinzon23]

So much fun in BF1 to use

[@okforsureguy6668]

wonderful reference

[@Pearcewreck]

@@sinocte You misspelt legs.

[@patgraeme775]

Now we have the mk19, 350-400rpm of 40mm HEDP that shoots up to 2200 yards

[@CassandraFortuna]

I'd known about Maxim guns being used in Ukrainian service for a while now thanks to a few Twitter posts that had gone viral, but it's still insane to think about. It's one thing for a carefully preserved machine gun to be fired a few dozen times by a curator or historian, it's another for one to be pushed right into frontline service when it's over a century old and just keep on trucking like not a day had passed.

[@hanisk2]

Yes…metal tends to feel time at a much slower pace 😂

[@GalootWrangler]

Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not. - Belloc

[@randalthor741]

This is the first thing that always pops into my head any time I hear or read anything about the Maxim gun... Hilaire Belloc really had a way with words!

[@samuelgordino]

Every time I read that poem, I always thought what if they also have Maxim guns?

[@deamon002]

@@samuelgordino You get WWI.

[@notlessorequal3777]

@@deamon002 You get 2022 Russo-Ukranian war

[@acmelka]

Interesting side note the US Navy hooked an electric motor to a Gatling gun in the 1890s and achieved 4000 rounds per minute rates if fire, just like a mini gun. The deal was shut down because of fear of cost of feeding such guns. The US Military used to be penny pinchers

[@Nathan-vt1jz]

We actually do the same thing in modern times if they think it doesn’t provide them with a new capability. This was the idea behind the three round burst fire of the M4 and precision strikes over carpet bombing (also less collateral damage).

[@Kahless00]

They still are when it comes to veteran healthcare.

[@christopherconard2831]

"It will use too much ammunition!" The neverending cry from ordinance approval. They hated the lever action Henry and Winchester rifles for the same reason. Apparently they have a great fear that if you give soldiers extra ammunition and a way to use it, they might actually use it as intended. To fire it towards the enemy.

[@inisipisTV]

The US has a small Navy back then in comparison to most European countries.

[@mark_wotney9972]

Could you provide a source for the information on the motorized Gatling gun?

[@Losangelesharvey]

Thanks!

[@lebaillidessavoies3889]

Maxim’s achievement: a great leap forward for industrialisation of death….

[@MyRuno]

And the solution is, STOP MAKING WARS.

[@Nathan-vt1jz]

@@MyRuno How?

[@SoMuchFacepalm]

@@Nathan-vt1jz Make it so expensive that on one can afford to even try.

[@christopherconard2831]

And breakfast. He also invited the first practical automatic toaster. But not enough people bought them to be really profitable. So, back to the drawing board and find something people would buy.

[@sayaddesign]

Boohoo, cry harder

[@mehtevas2653]

3:30 even at its Inception the Gatling gun had a theoretical fire rate of 3000 rounds per minute but the feed mechanism wasn't there yet

[@blackmagemasher4031]

yeah, Simon's writers AI was delusional for the first 5 minutes

[@mehtevas2653]

​@@blackmagemasher4031 nevermind they do specify early models they just didn't mention later models

[@myparceltape1169]

Black powder didn't help.

[@mikepatton8691]

A little snippet from Young Guns there while illustrating the gatling gun in use, you could almost say that gentleman was shot down in blaze of glory.

[@AaronLitz]

That's not from _Young Guns!_ ...it's _Young Guns II_ 😁

[@echomande4395]

18:10 The Schwarzlose was not a Maxim derivative. There are major internal differences.

[@steveconquest6684]

Whether you like weaponry or not, this represents an incredible accomplishment for a man who came from a town in central Maine that even by today's standards, barely registers as a dot on the map. I was married to one of his descendants and I recall the family still talking about Hiram and his son who they referred to as Percy (inventor of the silencer). One of them kept a trunk with some of his memorabilia tucked away in it.

[@simracing4simpletons978]

Poilu, the book that is a collection of Louis Barthas’ WW1 notebooks, is a fantastic read. We had to study it for an entire year as a senior university history class. I highly recommend it to anybody who enjoys firsthand accounts or historical diaries. Especially ones about war or world war 1. He paints a very clear picture of the trials the French trench soldiers dealt with and his account pretty much lasts the entire war and he was in several major battles. It also covers the morale and thoughts of soldiers and officers at the time. (Officers more a hunch on his part, but he was a soldier and served with other soldiers and knew them well).

[@geodkyt]

Fun fact, when Maxim was demonstrating his gun to Russia, one of the generals at the trials called Maxim a liar, because he said *no one* could possibly crank the little charging handle fast enough to fire 600 rounds per minute. 😂

[@yo388]

Louis Barthas, the man somehow survived the entirety of the war despite being continuously on the front. His book, Poilu, is worth a read.

[@gumpyoldbugger6944]

The British Army retired the Vickers in 1958, however it is reported that the Royal Marine last use one in action in 1971. Interestingly enough, the British and Allied forces faced the Vickers when the Taliban used them during the recent Afghan War.

[@Retarmyaviator]

The Vickers was retired in 1968.

[@gumpyoldbugger6944]

@@Retarmyaviator sorry....a typo on my part, one day I will learn to check what I wrote before posting.

[@joshuaturcotte6724]

Maxim's gun was a stalwart defensive platform, a system they was effective at hammering offensive battle lines to a halt or to decimate an on coming force. If your on the Defensive the Maxim guns are one of the best machine-guns to date. Reason is because so long as the soldiers have water and soldiers have ammunition the gun wont stop doing what its asked. Water cooled guns are completely impractical outside of defense, however they were tight tolerance, allowing for insane firepower at range, the Maxim gun could "Zero" and so long as you have a fixed fighting position solid enough you could rain hell from ranges snipers would enguage enemy forces at. The tactical touches to a gun such as Maxim's design are defined as a static emplacement, or vehical technical weapon as the Russians used. Generally the weapon was better suited to WW1 Trench warfair then intended. Machineguns became a harsh regular operation, many doctrines still have classified this weapon type and have reasons for it. Often this is the "Crew Served Heavy Machine Gun" Which is oftennot expected to pace 15,000 rounds but could generally keep up. This was to lighten the load and change systems. However nothing can beat the sheer volume of lead the Vicker's could spit in WW1, there were soldiers who mastered the art of "Looping" where they merged belts and when the enemy pressed out they would run a 500+ round belt flawlessly turning enemy infantry into mulch. Moisture and mud made the cloth belts unreliable and thats why "Links" came into design, and many link systems can still work in older designs as the belt operations will be the same they just discard themselves onto the floor depending on the action. So there was many reasons to update the system, such as domestic production, tactics, and field efficency based on mission criteria and expectations!

[@paulweeldreyer7457]

Fascinating, I've never heard of it. Certainly the Gatling Gun was a big advancement, but the recoil feed innovation was really creative.

[@DuckAllMighty]

A couple of facts about the Maxim, his first functioning prototypes where chambered for black powder, as smokeless powder hadn't been invented yet, it even had an internal cleaning mechanism. When the British took it out of service, they had 14 million bullets for it and 1 Vickers gun, they fired of all 14 million rounds through the same gun, and when they where done, a gun smith said that the gun looked as good as new. No modern firearm can fire 14 million rounds and be in perfect condition afterwards.

[@joshuaj.weaveresq.5719]

The Gatling Gun was the first machine gun, period. The Maxim was the first "automatic" machine gun. It's the self reloading that matters. That's the legal definition in the U.S. It's the automatic reloading and continued firing action after the first round that is the "automatic" part. The human power for causing all subsequent firings of the systems that is the difference. However, the Gatling gun is a gravity feed system, but it is automatically self reloads after each shot, which is why it is a machine gun. It is also only limited in its firing rate based on the speed the handle could be operated. Why the system is used, almost unchanged, on modern aircraft and naval units. They just had an engine attached to achieve firing rates of 1,000s rounds a minute. For example, the F-15E uses the M61A1 Six-barrel Gatling Gun and Feed System (4,000/6,000 shots per minute). However, it is still just a machine gun; not an automatic machine gun.

[@douglassauvageau7262]

The Vickers variants employed aboard WWI aircraft would make for an interesting episode.

[@HSstriker]

the fact is that the maxim design is still one of the best for what it was meant to do, sustained fire from an emplacement. the heavy tri pod and cooling just make it ideal for defending trenches etc. modern machine guns are designed for a more mobile war. the maxims are apparantly still very accurate and they mount modern optics on them

[@MarlinWilliams-ts5ul]

Good thing for us the Civil War was fought when it was, 10 years before the invention of barbed wire, and 20 years before the invention of the Maxim Machine Gun. Incidentally, two of Hiram Maxim's brothers were killed in the American Civil War, another was a pioneer in the field of explosives & the short wave radio.

[@wittsullivan8130]

Sir Hiram Maxim got his start in electrical engineering. Edison saw him as a threat and Maxim was forced to leave the US. I don't know if Edison was going to have him roughed up or killed, he may have strong armed Maxim into turning over some patents. The recoil design could be used with blackpowder or smokeless powder. The gun could be easily converted to any caliber a customer wanted by changing the springs, barrel, and breechblock. He lost his hearing developing the machinegun and developing smokeless powders, which made the gun more reliable. His son, also named Hiram, invented the sound suppressor to try to protect what was left of his dad's hearing and sold them as Maxim Silencers or Maxim Mufflers. Hiram (ne Jr)'s cousin, named Hiram after his uncle Sir Hiram, was working with Carl Benz, trying to help design car engines. He wasn't impressing Benz much, until he came up with the idea of attaching a gun muffler to the exhaust of a car engine, making it quieter and adding back pressure. He still got fired.

[@echomande4395]

This video is on Maxim's machine gun. However, even ignoring the gun Hiram is a fascinating character who probably deserves an episode by himself. The scriptmakers should have tried to include material by Forgotten Weapons. Ian has several videos on Maxims, Vickers and related guns.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:25 - Mid roll ads 2:40 - Chapter 1 - A long & difficult history 6:15 - Chapter 2 - Design history 12:10 - Chapter 3 - Design 14:45 - Chapter 4 - Service history 18:40 - Chapter 5 - Contemporary use

[@Hajile_Ibushi]

19:43 Honestly not surprised considering wagner found one of these cache's and it was full of tommyguns.

[@LukasJampen]

As a technical designer the maxim gun, as horrible as it's use was, was a masterpiece of engineering. It's fascinating that the first version of a one barreled machine gun was this reliable, simple and effective.

[@jesseshort8]

Idk how I've made it 40 years and never heard "noggin joggin'" before.🤯

[@geodkyt]

The Vickers gun is definately a "Son of Maxim Gun", but the Vickers company (Maxim's original partner) revised the mechanism and rather improved it quite a bit. To be honest, the Vickers was the absolute best water cooled, rifle caliber machinegun *ever* built. Whether in the original .303 caliber, one of the 7.62x54mmR conversions, or one of the 7.62x51mm conversions done by various former British possessions (but *not* the UK, notably), I'd take one if I had to set up a fixed dedemsive position. After all, the weight of the gun and water were really the only downsides - modern air cooled GPMGs are just lighter and more versatile for differemt roles. But for a gun in a bunker defending fixed ground, where you actually have access to water? A Vickers is *still* the absolute best rifle caliber MG, with a Maxim and Browning 1917 as very close runners up.

[@sirridesalot6652]

When they retired the Vickers machine gun they set one up and fired on MILLION rounds through it. A remarkable weapon.

[@DornishVintage]

There's a German MG08 on display at the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt, and that thing (with tripod mount) weighs in at a massive 68kg.

[@pr0cr4st1na7or]

Man, come 2100 it's just gonna be the Maxim, Ma Deuce, and Buff

[@weldonwin]

And the Colt M-1911, that thing never dies either

[@the_retag]

Mg42/3 A modernised version (mg3 kws) is on offer, and most of the german military is annoyed its not being bought

[@sheldonwheaton881]

"Whatever happens, we have got, the Maxim Gun. And they have not."

[@allbriardup6451]

I love the game, I had awesome lower ping, though I’ve seen friends go from 160-499 ping after the patch. The game closes out at random and still disconnects players often once you complete a mission. The ammunition is ridiculous. Honestly I played the grind for the heavy bolter to be epic rarity and having 653 bullets is barely okay since you are rarely free to mow down enemies as you have to tap-snipe with a machine gun?? A tip for the devs is add damage to the machine gun and 100 rounds to every weapon. Maybe once you get an epic gun fully leveled you get extra ammo for grinding so much. What sniper goes in to battle with 12- 20 sniper shots plus 200 enemies in some stages alone? Still a favorite game, keep the lore, keep operations going strong because I don’t see replaying single player more than one or twice annually, but I’ll play operations daily 👍

[@Kokuraman]

6:37 min. OK, world! Now you know!

[@JeffBilkins]

11:58 smokeless powder wasn't a thing yet, so the guns also work as portable smoke generator

[@JohnSmith-cn4cw]

Smokeless powder was developed about the same time as the Maxim.

[@MisterOcclusion]

We should take a moment and remember to be impressed that Maxim developed his early guns in the black powder era. A propellant that produced high residue, high heat, not to mention it being an explosive rather than a progressive burn. Black powder fouling was enough of a hindrance on repeaters, let alone a self loading machine gun

[@geodkyt]

​@@JohnSmith-cn4cwYes, but it took a couple of years for Maxim to start making them in smokeless powder cartridges. After all, he was trying to sell them to armies, who wanted to buy them in their primary rifle caliber... and smokeless powder didn't replace every earlier cartridge overnight. So, his first version was, IIRC, in the .450 Martini Henry cartridge Britain was still using (they didn't even adopt the .303 until 1889, and they didn't even start loading it with smokeless powder until 1891... I can't even imagine how bad the powder fouling of a .303 black powder Maxim would be... 😂 )

[@danielwolf6875]

Remarkable..... lolz. Thanks Simon and team. Keep, up the great work! BARUCH HASHEM!!!

[@Jimtheneals]

That lever on the side was NOT for adjusting fire rate but rather the tension on the recoil spring, depending on the ammo used, it did affect the ROF but that was not it's purpose.

[@geodkyt]

It was originally. He even labelled the adjustment for the fusee spring with ROF settings on the prototypes and early demo versions. Literally advertised and demonstrated selectable ROFs from as slow as 1 round per minute (seriously) up to 600 RPMs. This plan of deliberately adjusting the rate of fire via the tension on the fusee spring was dropped by the time of the first production models.

[@raiznsisig]

*This is my machinegun. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My machinegun is my best friend. It is my life.*

[@tootired76]

After looking at a Maxim gun John Moses Browning said, "Hold my beer..."

[@myparceltape1169]

Ìt was adapted by the British military to brew tea.

[@starbomber]

Intresting name missing from that list of contries that adopted the Maxim, was France. Now, I'm 75% sure some Vicars guns ended up in France, but the French had their own machine gun, the Hotchkiss gun, which was *gas* operated, like most modern machine guns. (and operated by positive pressure unlike maxim's first design which used negative pressure...it's wild to me that anyone would even try that and that it would even work)

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

Maybe he used negative pressure to prevent black powder fouling from clogging the piston mechanism. Smokeless powder was not a thing yet when Maxim invented his gun.

[@Pavlos_Charalambous]

No telling of the maxim gun hist is full without mentioning one Basil Zaharoff The OG merchant of death

[@pianowhizz]

Maxim… the OG badass!

[@dennislosee]

When you can piss in it and keep the barrel cool you know it’s a classic

[@bridgetdelport5636]

Interesting article, however the Schwarzlose machine gun,though having some external similarities to a Maxim gun, uses a delayed blowback operating system instead of Maxim's recoil operating system. This was done by its designer to avoid infringing on Maxim's patents. So, to list a Schwarzlose machine gun as Maxim gun variant is incorrect as they are mechanically very different guns.

[@melissasmith5109]

Definitely need a video on the Illustrious class carriers of WW2

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

No references to the Gradner Machine Gun (1874)? It is basically a couple of toggle-lock(-ish) rifles bolted together, operated by a crank. Not so famous than the other mechanical machine guns, but it was adopted by the British, around 1880. It can be made today, there are part kits for Ruger 10-22 rifles that adapt a pair into a tripod mounted gun, fired by a crank.

[@seansimms6693]

Coffee Mill Machine gun

[@w8lvradio]

They called it the devil's paintbrush.

[@Harrington2323]

It was really surprising to see such a relict mounted on a modern Pick-Up Truck in 2022.

[@salty82ndveteran]

I do historical reenactment and archeology from the 1800s, and I am a fully certified cannon operator. A 'grape-shot' round would take out more troops than machine gun ever could if operated correctly! In the operators manual from the 1800s, they even have a section on how you can deer hunt with these cannon.

[@markp6062]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@brs690]

It seems so simple today, 20 years in the army being a gunner probably helps it seem simple.

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

Funny too that the Maxim is one of the most complicated machineguns ever made. Even later guns made inspired by it are much simpler. The early Browning 1917 is a good example. J.M. Browning took a look at a Maxim and went "I'll make a better one, with ..." he was mormon, so no backjack, nor hookers...

[@Predator42ID]

@@carloshenriquezimmer7543 Or media for that matter. Browning saw fame and reporters as a waste of time. That is why it took forever to get a quote out of him.

[@user-ii1iy8fz1d]

They sure knew how to moustache back then ❤ no wispy soystach nonsense In the ranks!❤

[@wittsullivan8130]

After they invented electric motors, the US Navy mounted motors onto the firing mechanisms of the later model Gatling guns and developed large ammo drums. They could fire up to 1000 rounds per minute. They were mounted on the rails of ships to provide supporting and harassing fire from offshore. They were used during the Mexican American War in Puerto Rico. They were called "rail guns" and powered from the ship's generators. After the US military adopted Colt's Potato Digger, Vickers guns, and French Chauchats, they did away with the electrically fired Gatling gun until the 50's when they needed guns with high firing rates to mount into fighter jets and the Vulcan gatling cannon was born. Later GE invented gatling guns in 7.62 used on helicopters, cargo planes, and ground vehicles with high rates of fire (4000 rpm was ideal, they beat themselves to death at 6000 rpm). In the US the legal definition of a machinegun is a gun that fires more than one round per function of the trigger. Hand cranked gatling guns, guns with bump fire stocks, firing cranks, forced reset triggers, or binary triggers are not machine guns, but if you attach a motor of any kind to a mechanism that pulls the trigger for you, the motor becomes a machine gun. A friend of mine is a licensed SOT (Special Occupation Taxpayer) which means he can sell items restricted by the National Firearms Act like machineguns, sound suppressors, and short barreled weapons to approved customers. He can't convert and sell machineguns made after 1986 to unlicensed customers, but he can register newly converted or manufactured machineguns and sell them to other licensed dealers and government entities. As soon as he got one of the Tippman Ordnance 9mm Gatling guns that uses Glock pistol magazines, he had an adaptor made for a Bosch cordless drill he had laying around and had it registered with the US Treasury as a "machinegun" because whilte the gun is not a machinegun the motor temporarily mounted to the gun is a machinegun. He also had a sound suppressor custom made, which makes it incredibly fun to shoot, sounding like a steam locomotive when it fires, "CHOOFCHOOFCHOOFCHOOF!" :)

[@fatrobin72]

A machine gun, even a 140 year old design machine gun... is better than no machine gun.

[@vic5015]

Always wonfered why the Gatling gun didn't qualify.

[@roban2799]

Very interesting! Would love to see a video about the M2 Browning as well

[@BTM666-t7r]

Simon has already done a vid on Ma Deuce.

[@PitFriend1]

The Russian version of the Maxim has a particularly Russian feature. The water jackets on them have a large cap in the top of them instead of the usual small filler port. This is so troops can shovel snow into the thing instead of just using liquid water. This is very handy considering the winters they have.

[@akyhne]

The Madsen machine gun is also impressive. It was the first lught machine gun, meaning you can run around with it, lay down and shoot. You can also fire it, Rambo style. Developed in 1902, it was in service in many armies and police forces, until very recently (2010s). But is still in use by partisans, drug dealers erc.

[@troiscinq7650]

What retires first the Browning M2 or Maxim variants

[@garyneilson1833]

Vickers didn't just make it in .303 they tweaked the design and the Vckers was lighter than the MG08

[@scottrobinson3281]

The self-loading machine gun only became viable with the invention of effective smokeless powder by Paul Vielle in 1884. There is a jaunty Soviet war time song titled "Dva Maksima" (Two Maxims).

[@pyronuke4768]

Maxim: "This gun can replicate the firepower of an entire platoon, meaning you can achieve the same effectiveness as three dozen men with just a half dozen, leading to smaller armies and therefore fewer casualties." Top Brass: "Or, just throwing stuff at the wall here, it can double the firepower of a platoon, meaning the opposition has to commit double the resources and manpower to take an objective! It's brilliant!!" Maxim: "No, wait, that's not what I ment-" Top Brass: "And, if all three dozen in that platoon were converted into crews for these things, we could get like six of them in exchange; BRILLIANT!!!"

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

It was a wonderful explanation and introduction to the made history of Maxim machine gun designed in the US .manufactured in Britain 🇬🇧, expanded utility by European countries armies . What was notable was that both British and American intellectuals had the same opinion about Europeans even before WW1 and WW2...

[@501Mobius]

So, a Gatling gun is not a machinegun. hmmm.

[@echomande4395]

Under many countries' laws, no. They are not fully automatic in that they have to be cranked. If you motorized that crank then that would be another matter entirely. Personally I'm not too worried about a rash of robberies carried out by Gatling toting thugs (in which case props to the thugs for being able to lift the guns).

[@erichollar5503]

I tried some multiplayer game that Simon recommended one time - got into play and the community killed me off in about 12 seconds. I did that two or three times and all the fun just went right out if it. I never was able to find some sort of training mode that would at least allow me to learn how to control the vehicle. Seems like the developers should allow for inexperienced users to have a shot at getting up to speed.

[@harrisonbergeron9746]

Schwarzlose was not a Maxim derived design

[@Chris_Garman]

Although it has some downsides compared to what is available today, the thing just works. If you treat it right you will have trouble wearing it out.

[@ChicagoFaucet.etc.]

Fun Fact about the British and machines guns in Africa. A bullet is precisely weighed, designed, and shaped to be able to be effective as a bullet. Another example of this are hypodermic needles. They have to be of very specific shape, size, and material in order to even work properly. At one battle in Africa, the British were using their machines guns against a local uprising. I forget which one. Anyway, the bullets that were being used weren't fully tested, or weren't supposed to be used in those machine guns, and what resulted were particularly thin bullets that moved much, much faster than they were supposed to. These bullets were so streamlined, and moving so fast, that they were passing right through the bodies of the Africans, seemingly without them even noticing, or even being mortally harmed. The British had no idea what was going on. Either the machine guns were almost never hitting their targets, or these locals had somehow become bulletproof.

[@sempersteel2799]

Fun fact about that definition of a machine gun, and how it relates to a gatling gun. Because the gatling gun is not self-loading, and instead requires continual input from the shooter to function, gatling-style (hand cranked) guns are perfectly legal to own in the USA with no permits. Depending on your local and state laws, of course. But as far as the feds are concerned, go hog wild!

[@Inubis9]

The german variant MG 08/15 (introduced 1908, revisioned 1915) lead to a a saying in German. You would use it describing something completely ordinary and common. For example, the food in a restaurant could be described as 08/15 if it is okay, but nothing special.

[@MisterOcclusion]

Barthas book, Poilu, is worth the read. He was an older soldier, with the viewpoint of a mature man

[@RandomGreymane]

A really cool history teacher once taught a friend of mine about why machine guns weren’t the be-all-end-all weapon people think they are. They set up a miniatures table. Teacher: “Okay you can be the British or the Zulu.” Student: “I’ll take the British! They have machine guns!” Student: “Okay! I have my troops form square!” Teacher: “Ready? Here’s my FIRST box of 1000 Zulu warriors!” Student: “…” Needless to say the lesson was well taught. ;-)

[@reappermen]

That's actually not a very good lesson at all. Sure you can overwhelm anything if your throw mpre bodies at it, but that is obvious. A hand grenade is a better throwing weapon than a stone, but if you face 1000 enemies and have 10 grenades you will loose. But there are plenty of problems/downsides to machine guns in practice that could have been though, especialy for old stationary machine guns. They were easy targets for artillery, suceptible to flanking, and for the time were very expensive to operate. Remember back then bullets were comparatively expensive, and if memory servers from the british procurement at the maxom/early vickers stage a single full belt of ammo would cost nearly a months salary of the average solider. Thats also why there weren't to many machine guns around, there was neither the tsctical use for them, nor the ammo supplies.

[@paulperano9236]

Sometimes simple is better. Keep the barrel cool and stitch the belts together ....

[@randomprofilelol]

whats the song at 6:11??

[@hctim96]

Excellent vid, thanks

[@jonathanmatthews4774]

Insane to stop and think that 140 years later it's still being used.

[@RGD2k]

A more accurate, precise definition for a machine gun has little to do with the fully automatic fire. It's the same difference in precision and accuracy that a machine tool has over a mere power tool. It's all in the tripod, and the attached means to precisely train long range fire. For that to work, the 'fully automatic' bit needs to be sorted such that every suceeding round goes repeatably where the gun is trained. Something that the hand-cranked multibarreled guns before could not do. It also needs to be something that can be sustained. And this is now what we call a 'heavy machine gun'. It's not perfectly accurate, but it is precise enough to have a 'beaten zone' - which actually makes it better at is unique role. What it really does is let you set it up on a hill, and so deny much ground from the enemy, essentially for as far as you can see. For, if the enemy were to dare to cross those fields, you can ensure they do not do so lightly. The counter for it is the Tank - the vehicle specifically designed to assault across such "no man's land". So really, a machine gun is a kind of light, nearly-direct-fire but longer range than rifle, artillary. The 'light machine gun' is an automatic thing you can carry with you, to use to deter the opponent from mounting a rapid counterattack: Make them at least think you might have a machine gun aimed in their direction, even if automatic fire without the advantages of the heavy tripod is not nearly as effective. But this is why we now call what were 'machine guns', 'heavy machine guns'. And so also the 'assault rifle': Specifically born to be lighter to run with than the battle rifle, this is for running under fire (which is what 'assault' really means in a military context). It's for taking positions with. You know, those places the enemy have defended with machine guns. The aforementioned battle rifle is the final semi-automatic (or sometimes full automatic) evolution of the rifle, firing the 'full size' rifle rounds traditional to bolt-action rifles and originally so sized to accomodate compressed black powder propellant. Whether or not it's fully automatic doesn't matter, because the recoil is such that you are not going to be hitting anything with more than one round of a trigger pull anyway, unless at desparately close range. Spray 'n Pray! The submachine gun: An automatic pistol for close range slaughter, perhaps no more effective than a pistol with a stock and a large magazine, but it turns out that fully-automatic trigger mechanisms are simpler and cheaper to make. The much smaller recoil of pistol rounds allows this to even be controllable. Give this to the soldiers who you're sure can murder, because apparently murder is something that humans do so poorly that no more than 1 in 20 trained soldiers could do so without flinching. And the most deadly weapon? Well, that's a shotgun loaded with buckshot at close range: Think of it as a sort of 'hyper-automatic' machinegun that fires a burst of 9 deadly rounds, all at once! This is more effective than the submachinegun. And remains so.

[@bryanparkhurst17]

The wildest part of this video was the photo at the end of the 2 slightly more than middle age gentlemen smoking period appropriate pipes for when that gun was made wearing modern BDU's.

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

Even the mustaches are period appropriate.

[@matthewking2274]

First widely adopted machine gun but definitely not the first.

[@26betsam]

The bullet that hits you doesn't care where it came from or how old the gun that fired it.

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

I'm sure Hiram Maxam would be proud that his invention is still being used, mostly unchanged from his design. And no, I am most certainly not being sarcastic. Irregardless of what it does and how it has been used, Hiram made the best machine he could with what he had available and it still works.

[@acmelka]

It makes great sense to use a water cooled Maxim in static trench warfare. They can be hooked up to an external water tank and shoot for hours. They can be used as area denial weapons saturating an area up to 4000 meters away via plunging fire.

[@georgehh2574]

​​@@acmelka That's not what area denial means, unless it can shoot miniature anti-personnel mines. Mines and traps are examples of area denial weapons. To deny the enemy the area.

[@acmelka]

@@georgehh2574 oh... Maybe I am quoting someone who misunderstood the term. In WW1 a machine gun barrage was often laid on important crossroads or other areas behind the front and sustained over many hours to keep the area unusable. Not sure what to call that.

[@acmelka]

@@georgehh2574 nuther thought, persistent gasses like mustard gass, is that an area denial weapon?

[@SoMuchFacepalm]

@@georgehh2574 Supressing fire is technically area denial. It just has an off switch.

[@v1e1r1g1e1]

According to legend, Maxim believed that the effectiveness of his gun would see rival powers reluctant to engage in war, because they would know how devastating the machine would be to armies. Either the man was utterly naive... or a total fool. Has there EVER been a weapon developed that hasn't been used? And here we are telling ourselves that having nuclear weapons will guaranteed peace because of MAD. Yeah. Right. It's all just a matter of time.

[@petarpopovic3306]

I'm guessing that it felt like a bigger leap than previous inovations. It is probably fueled with a little bit of vain (after all, it was HIS bih invention) but you could say that, going through history, first guns were just a "small" upgrade of bows and arrows. Then improvement of guns could seem as a slow and steady evolution, while, in the eyes of a naive inventor a machine gun would be a leap, and gamechanger. Agreed, it was very naive, especially with 20/20 hindsight

[@Jameywells777]

I love this Gun on RD2.

[@sergeychmelev5270]

The Russian/Soviet-made Maxims could be filled with snow instead of water thanks to the very wide opening at the top of the cooling jacket that can be seen at the end of this video.

[@infin1ty850]

What's great about the definition of a machine gun is that gatling guns are totally legal, I'm the US, to own without having to go through the NFA process. You'll go broke paying for the ammunition, but you'll have a damn fun time doing it.

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

This and the point about it beying a weapond built before 1893 (I guess, maybe it is 1891). Any and all weapons built before that are considered obsolete and nor a "firearm" but a weapon/gun, like a musket.

[@infin1ty850]

@@carloshenriquezimmer7543 Depends on the date of manufacture, not the original release date. There were plenty made after the NFA was passed then that would require going through the NFA processes, assuming it was registered before the 80s ban.

[@MinnesotaHomesteading]

​@@infin1ty850 nope. Even copies of antique non gun guns are not regulated. That is why you can have a modern built muzzle loader shipped to your door.

[@christopherconard2831]

If a Gatling isn't enough, flamethrowers aren't considered firearms and are fully legal in most states. Though there is again, the expense of feeding it.

[@Retarmyaviator]

@@MinnesotaHomesteading That is not correct, you need to read the ATF regs on this subject. Muzzleloading firearms are specifically exempt from the definition of firearms under the GCA, some states such as NJ still consider them firearms. Firearms manufactured before 1898 are not considered firearms or copies of the same unless fixed ammunition is readily available, those manufactured after 1898 are considered firearms under the GCA. 27 CFR 478.11 Antique firearm. (a) Any firearm (including any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system) manufactured in or before 1898; and (b) any replica of any firearm described in paragraph (a) of this definition if such replica (1) is not designed or redesigned for using rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition, or (2) uses rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition which is no longer manufactured in the United States and which is not readily available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade.

[@rodox2832]

The battle of bembezi

[@KaceyBarraza-r9f]

Schiller Point

[@timdanaher]

Hiram Maxim is buried in West Norwood Cemetery, London SE27. True story.

[@SouthernSultan阿力]

Just like gunpowder, sailing ships and aircraft.....

[@dinsdalemontypiranha4349]

Another great Megaprojects video Simon. Thanks for including their use in Ukraine.

[@PaulBryson-u1z]

IS IT THE BRAIDS?!????

[@JACKSONLEWISOFCANADA]

Maxims early prototypes were 577/450 black powder rifle cartridges…..

[@thepax2621]

Humans are always so creative, when it comes to inventing new ways to off each other 😅

[@ObsidianQuasar]

“They don’t make them like they used to” I think seeing them in Ukraine images

[@laurinjoelschafhausen]

Interesting video. With the mentioned definition a M134, or any other western gatling or chain gun are not machine guns because the do not use gas but external energy to cycle. I have my doubt that this is the case 🙂

[@laurinjoelschafhausen]

I would say the definition is that one can pull the trigger, and the gun shoots automatically.

[@simanothername3035]

Ever heard of the puckel gun? Or at a pinch the ribauldaquin. A shipping manifest for the Puckel gun from 1722 describes it as a machine gun.....nevermind what arc say.

[@honeybadger6493]

Was that a Lewis gun at 17:49?

[@VacuousCat]

Maxim gun and machine gun sound eerily similar.