The Machine Gun Essay -- Weapon, Volley Guns, Gatlings Gun

No other weapon in my opinion has changed the face of the battlefield as has the machine gun. Its design and and fellowship with mass death makes it a great and powerful weapon. Two men, Hiram saw and Richard Gatling, made huge impacts in the development of the Machine Gun and convey it to use in the military. These two brilliant men designed competent and reliable versions of Machine guns in a time when everyone was making perfidious models. However before we get into discussion about the inventions of Hiram Maxim and Richard Gatling, its serious to understand how machine guns were developed. Volley Guns (Chivers, 2010, p.26) or also known as Organ Guns (Ellis, 1975, p.10) were first attempts at increasing firepower by adding several place at the firing itself, rather than simply attempting to increase the rate of fire. Gunsmiths had unyielding ago learned to place barrels positioning by side on frames to create firearms capable of discharging projectiles in rapid successio n. These unwieldy devices, or volley guns, were capable in theory of blasting a kettle of fish in a line of advancing soldiers (Chivers, 2010, p.26). An example of such weapons good deal be seen on July 28, 1835 when Giuseppe Fieshi unleashed terror on King Louis-Phillipe in Paris, France. He fired his 25 barrel volley gun, violent death 18 of the kings entourage and grazing the Kings skull. The weapon was ineffective however. Four of the barrels failed and other four ruptured. Two other barrels had exploded inside, grievously lancinating Giuseppe. (Chivers, 2010, p. 27)These kinds of weapons were impractical for military use, but attracted many people to the arms festinate for weapons that could sweep the battlefield. They had limitations in practice, among them slow re... ...rounds per minute, all with just the pull of the trigger. The sound off operation was a milestone in machine gun development. war had truly changed. Point a machine, and killing men was like killing b ugs (Chivers, 2010, p.85). It used new forms of cartridges which were placed on a belt that was mechanically fed into the gun via the recoil operation.By World War I, roughly countries involved had used the Maxim Machine gun. Russia, Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland bought Maxim machine guns. Russia and Germany each(prenominal) had about 16,000 Maxim guns. The United States however remained true to the Gatling (Chivers, 2010, p.90). They were either non yet interested in the Maxim or could not delinquent to the fact it was still under orders to purchase American-made arms. Machine guns had made their mark, and their blistering force was becoming even more apparent.