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. It's design and and association with mass death makes it a great and powerful weapon. Two men, Hiram Maxim and Richard Gatling, made huge impacts in the development of the Machine Gun and bringing it to use in the military. These two brilliant men designed capable and reliable versions of Machine guns in a time when everyone was making unreliable models. However before we get into discussion about the inventions of Hiram Maxim and Richard Gatling, it's important to understand how machine guns were developed. â€Å"Volley Guns† (Chivers, 2010, p.26) or also known as â€Å"Organ Guns† (Ellis, 1975, p.10) were first attempts at increasing firepower by adding several barrels at the firing itself, rather than simply attempting to increase the rate of fire. â€Å"Gunsmiths had long ago learned to place barrels side by side on frames to create firearms capable of discharging projectiles in rapid succession. These unwieldy devices, or volley guns, were capable in theory of blasting a hole in a line of advancing soldiers† (Chivers, 2010, p.26). An example of such weapons can be seen on July 28, 1835 when Giuseppe Fieshi unleashed terror on King Louis-Phillipe in Paris, France. He fired his 25 barrel â€Å"volley gun†, killing 18 of the king's entourage and grazing the King's skull. The weapon was ineffective however. Four of the barrels failed and another four ruptured. Two other barrels had exploded inside, grievously wounding Giuseppe. (Chivers, 2010, p. 27) These kinds of weapons were impractical for military use, but attracted many people to the arms race for weapons that could sweep the battlefield. â€Å"They had limitations in practice, among them slow re... ...rounds per minute, all with just the pull of the trigger. The recoil operation was a milestone in machine gun development. Warfare had truly changed. â€Å"Point a machine, and killing men was like killing bugs† (Chivers, 2010, p.85). It used new forms of cartridges which were placed on a belt that was automatically fed into the gun via the recoil operation. By World War I, most countries involved had used the Maxim Machine gun. Russia, Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland bought Maxim machine guns. Russia and Germany each had about 16,000 Maxim guns. The United States however remained true to the Gatling (Chivers, 2010, p.90). They were either not yet interested in the Maxim or could not due to the fact it was still under orders to purchase American-made arms. Machine guns had made their mark, and their deadly force was becoming even more apparent.