A '''A machinegunmachine gun''' is and an automatic weapon that is capapble capable of a rapid rate of sustained fire. The machinegun was first used way before WWI, in the 19th century.
The first machinegun could fire seven rounds per minutepredecessor to the modern machine [[gun]] was developed in 1718, by James Puckle, an Englishman. This gun, it was known as "The Gardner" or the "Puckle's Gungun". The first well-known machinegun was the Gatling Gun, the original of which fired two-hundred rounds per minute.The machinegun was placed on top of a metal tripod and required a crew of about five people to operate it. They could fire four to six hundred around nine bullets per minute at . However, the beginning of the war and nearly double that by its conclusion. The machinegun Puckle gun was not quite as perfect as it soundsa flintlock weapon, and overheated approximately every two minutes, and had to cannot be cooled with water before further use. The machinegun changed the lives of soldiers it did not kill by conserving time wasted by loading considered a machine gun before every shot. The time used in loading rifle is at least three times that used in shooting. The machinegun eliminated that waste of time and allowed soldiers to fire bullets continuously. This ability significantly increased the chance modern sense of mortally wounding the enemy instead of giving him a chance of recoveryword.
With the development of preloaded cartridges auto-repeating guns were quickly developed. The first modern machine gun was the [[Gatling gun]], a crank-operated weapon capable of firing over a hundred rounds per minute. It was invented for use in the [[American Civil War]]. Though relatively easy to use, the barrels would soon overheat with successive volleys and the mechanism jammed. This type of machine gun used a magazine that could hold 20 to 50 rounds of ammunition.
The first automatic machine gun was the [[Maxim gun]], invented by [[Hiram Maxim]]. The Maxim gun used the recoil energy of the round fired to operate the reloading mechanism. The Maxim gun also saw the first use of a coolant system, in the form of a water jacket; the barrel of the gun was surrounded by a "jacket", or sheath filled with water. In addition, the ammunition was fed into the block mechanism by means of a continuous metal belt, several of these belts could be linked together to enable a sustained rate of continuous fire. These improvements greatly increased the sustained fire time of the gun. Maxim was an American inventor who lost some patent battles with [[Thomas Edison]] on the [[light bulb]] and other inventions, and was persuaded to move to [[Europe]] and make improvements to weaponry there.
The gas-operated machine gun, which uses gas pressure vented from the barrel during firing to operate the reloading mechanism, was invented several years later by American inventor John Browning. Browning introduced this new principle in the Model 1895 Browning 'potato digger' machine gun.
== See also ==
* [[M-16]] and [[M-14]]
* [[Uzi]]
* [[Rifle]]s
* [[List of military strategies and concepts]]
==References==
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[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Military Strategies and Concepts]]
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Firearms]]
[[Category:Rifles]]
[[Category:Long Guns]]
[[Category:Survivalism]]
[[Category:Tools]]