Maxim "Prototype": The First Practical Machine Gun
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2019
- / forgottenweapons
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Hiram Maxim was the first person to create a truly practical and functional machine gun, based on a patent he filed in 1883. He pioneered the recoil operating system - the concept of harnessing the recoil generated by a firearm to perform the actions of reloading that firearm. His patent was based on a lever action rifle, but his intent was to create a machine gun, complete with belt feed and water cooling. After a testbed "forerunner" gun, he built this model which he called the "Prototype". It was meant as a proof of concept, and used in many public exhibitions and demonstrations.
The Prototype used a hydraulic rate of fire control system which could be set as high as 500 rounds/minute and as low as just one round per minute. The gun did not have a trigger as we would recognize it today, but rather a single lever like a vehicle accelerator which acted as both trigger and fire rate control. Only three of these Prototypes exist today, with one belonging to the USMC, one on public display at the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds, and this one in the NFC reserve collection at Leeds.
For a fantastic exploded view of all this guns working parts, check out this work by UA-cam channel vbbsmyt:
• The First Maxim Machin...
Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film this tremendously important artifact! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers:
royalarmouries.org/research/n...
You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:
royalarmouries.org/collection/
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754
This gun is actually fully fully-automatic. Set the switch and walk off.
Sentry going up
@@justforever96 It probably could be made to pivot back and forth like a rainbird lawn sprinkler...
@@pepebeezon772 "yeah yeah, thanks!" -Scout
Looks far too complex. This device will never catch on and never replace the cavalry.
The future is now old man
So this just shows us all how IИGENIOUS Maxim was - throughout the video I have learned that one Maxim can replace like a 50 physics and math sciences PhD team - it would be viable to purchase Maxims instead of modern scientists, however, his age is gone for good
Cavalry still exists. Armored, air, scouts.
@@nunyabznss5866 when you said air, I imagined men on horseback flying scout planes.
Yeah, you cannot even put a bayonet on it to charge the enemies
Maxim: Let my unattended gun just cut this tree down
I just imagined some guy hanging a pack on it and going off as the gun slowly starts working itself around with each shot. XD
Maxim was trying to make a Gunpowder powered Railway Locomotive and accidentally created the machine gun.
It doesn't look so much like a machine gun, but more like a steam locomotive shoved into a box.
This is more true than you think. A lot of old weapons manufacturers and/or inventors also made "civilian" machines. Husqvarna, for example, made sewing machines, lawn mowers and rifles. If you understood how to use cams, flywheels and pistons, you could invent anything. (Just look at the insane cam-actions on the conversion rifles Ian has featured.)
If you want to make a high-tech weapon (or lawn mower) today, you need programmers, CNC operators, metallurgists etc. It's sadly no longer possible for a tinkerer to invent world-changing machines.
@@frankkrunk any new idea good or bad starts with the fertile mind of the tinkerer instead of of going to paper and pen or stone tablet and chisel if You go back far enough
Now aday it goes through a CNC Mill or 3D printer
Off hand I think if it did make it to war ,I`d feel safer with a single shot rifle.
@@TheRealColBosch the Only this I know about the L85A1 is what Ian put out
Seems like a great addition to a steampunk story. Put a few of these on an armored train or something for a sweet heist scene.
This might be the most steampunk-looking weapons I've seen on this channel. A handcrank, sprockets and levers, and a sliding brass rate of fire selector. All it needs is a steam gauge on the side
My thoughts exactly. 😉😉😉
There should be a temperature or pressure gauge for the water jacket
How would you like your fire rate, Sir?
Medium rate would be fine Jenkins.
There are only three of these left in existence, so it would be medium rare.
@@ForgottenWeapons that reply was fucking raw.
@@ForgottenWeapons I don't know if that's an Our Dad (who art in ...) joke, or go full on Rushdie and call it a Satanic Pun
Forgotten Weapons medium rare ? Ah an aristocrat...
@@sockmon1 if you want raw fire power this is what you get in 1904
This is so gloriously Victorian. It's magnificent in it's impracticality and inefficiency, but clearly an important stepping stone on the way to the practical machine gun.
The brass, the fonts, the beauty of it all.
not enough engravings though...
N. A. Well, it was only a prototype. Good enough for the workshop, a production gun would have the proper amount of scrollwork and engraving.
@@Mrhalligan39 of course!
@@n.a.4292 ahhhh back when Engravings still offered a tactical advantage
Very cool.
What I really took away from this is that Hiram Maxim invented bumpstocks.
Wait, is his lever gun conversion technical semi auto or a bumpstock?
@@dominicksmeech2994 No idea but still looks like a early bump stock.
And as Ian said there is not much difference mechanically between a semi auto and full auto weapon.
Change or modify or mis install a couple of parts and a semi auto weapon will fire full auto.
Although in many cases neither safely or reliably.
Dominick Smeech by the looks of it he only modified the lever part of the gun so it was still semi auto but as Shaw R stated semi to full is not a huge step
Honestly, the vast majority of semi-automatic designs are full auto, with parts added to fire single shots. Full auto is far simpler to do, you don't even need a separate firing pin. Making it stop (Before it runs out of bullets) is much more complex.
Shut up you know nothing about guns you snowflake
The only gun with a hand throttle.
Maxim was a thoughtful type. He did warn his neighbours in West Norwood, a southern suburb of London, before he fired his guns on test. He had a sideline of designing fairground rides to keep the wolf from the door.
It’s funny because West Norwood is the ghetto now
@@jean-lucperez3296 By complete chance on our Remeberance Sunday , I ended up at Bordon Manor in Bexley, which has a plaque to Maxim on it. There he built and apparently flew ,a Steam powered aircraft in 1894. It crashed on third flight and he lost intrest.
Legend says if you set it to SLOW you do not need to refill your belts between the wars.
I have never been particularly interested in guns, but watching a few of your videos it is hard to imagine a field of human endeavor so full of innovation, imagination, experiment and mechanical genius as this. Truly fascinating videos, thanks.
Fuk Ya niccas I mean, you gotta figure out how to better fight your enemies somehow...
@@droh7680 I understand. Sometimes what drives us is indeed destructive, but you can still appreciate the ingenuity and the spectacular capacity of humans to explore ideas and solutions.
Sheesh 94 likes in an hour. Thanks to all, and a warm G'day from country Western Australia.
@@parsivalshorse Hi from Berlin
@@droh7680 Funny you should mention that because I think a friend of Maxim (this gun's inventor) said something about that.
Something like "I've you create an efficient way to kill people, they will line up and pay you."
"Machine gunners down!" " Its ok his weapon is giving him suppressing fire!"
Ian: 'designed for walking fire ...'
Mae: 'By who?? THE HULK??'
Othias: 'Hold my coffee....'
that man is a BEAR in clothing
You really can't beat McCollum's white glove service. Class in actions;!
You should see his full class action suit!
@@SonsOfLorgar Why? Is somebody going to shoot them?
Mickey McCollum and Steamgun Willy
1:15 Lego did a similar thing. When they patented the design we know today, they also included every other possible means of having the blocks snap together that they could think of, even though they only used one of them.
Zulus hates him! Find out how he defeated 5000 zulus with one simple click
"The bravest of the brave could never match the maxium gun."- Rhodesian Folk singer, John Edmond
@@reach483 Its quite catchy
/watch?v=hSveaJVPAGQ
@Danny Edwardo it kinda did tho
That’s all very well, but it’s rubbish for concealed carry.
@Danny Edwardo quite so. God bless Rhodesia. I refuse to use the Z word 🤬
WoW, so much (over)engineering, it really took some development to come to much simpler designs. I'm actually somewhat surprised there is no oil radiator and oil pump on this thing to prevent lubricant on all those shafts and cranks from overheating. XD
Those dual spindles in the feed mechanism remind me of the new electric Gatling guns, Maxim you genius
Exactly. The hyper-modern Minigun: a fusion of two guns from before 1900.
I know that Maxim created this as just a demonstrator, but is it possible that he intended "Gunner" to just direct the gun and have "Assistant Gunner/feeder" to feed and actually control the actual firing component?
What a beautiful device. Screams Victorian. Love that rate selector!
Knights LAMG: “great granddad?”
Can't have been popular with the neighbours in West Norwood though
Sees thumb nail - "That looks like some miniature toy."
5 seconds in - "Jesus Christ that this is a god damned unit."
Please don't take the Lord's name in vain
@A1B2C3 • 78 Years ago I have the freedom to ask him not to say that as much as he has the freedom to say whatever he wants. I'm sure he can speak for himself.
What I find really interesting about Hiram is that He created the Amateur Radio Relay League in 1914 as a response to the lack of an organized group of "relay" stations to pass messages via amateur radio. He was very influencial in early radio designs, and the station W1AW is still used to this day.
that's fascinating
I think I found GW's inspiration for the heavy bolter design.
Kyle Morgan By the Omnissiah...
If you know very early 20th century/ww1 tech and equipment, you will see that 40k is riddled with "inspired by' designs. The creators/designers/initial illustraitors were hugely into that era
The people at GW in the 80s and 90s really liked WW1 and interwar designs. Just look at the early IG tanks. The Baneblade based designs look a lot more modern, they look a lot like they are based on the Churchill Tank of WW2.
There's a GW five minutes away from The Leeds Royal Armories coincidence? I think not!
@@FreeOfFantasy The Bane/blade at least to me looks a lot like The Tortoise Heavy Assault tank from the tracks to the hull casting you can see other elements like off centre mountings for heavy weapons like on a Char 2 B or M3 Lee and of course the WW1 british side sponsons for strafing trench's the front glacis as you say is exactly like a churchill.
It's definitely a crazy design, and ahead of its time especially with the idea of being able to maintain constant fire on an enemy overnight while having a gun that can shoot variable rates of fire. You can see why they got rid of it and or didn't use that system but it's really cool to think that you could just set up a gun keep it trained on an enemy position and the gun would continuously fire and do its work without needing inputs from a soldier.
They are actually starting to use real drone guns in combat. I saw anar on a tripod with some electrical lower receiver and a camera system.
Looks like an anvil. However, the novelty of the mechanism design is worthy of note indeed.
"Keep going " gun jesus needs more mechanism action !!!
this thing is like a steam engine that spits bullets with those back and forth cams and the hydraulic buffer
Someone should make a functioning replica. Just because. It'd be an interesting exercise in machining.
DrummerTheAndre - it's too complicated.besides the rate of firing is too low compared to modern machine guns
lolololol too complicated. The turing machine is too complicated. I'm not talking for commercial or military applications, just as an exercise in machining and gun making. If I had the raw materials and the machine tools, I'd tackle it. I'd love to make something like this, to better learn where the technology came from, how it's developed since, and perhaps lead to new innovations.
@@DrummerTheAndre - so would I. Kudos to you for having such passion. Personally the mechanism is too much for me. But sir , you want to reverse engineer it. Very few dare to do that. If only I have such guts.....
@@ReptilianLepton - this world is always full of people who wants to pull others down. Damn them.
I'm fairly certain this gun is still fully operational, remember the British fired a Vickers gun, which is just the Maxim made by Vickers, in the 60's, that had seen heavy service in both World Wars, and fired all their old obsolete 14 million rounds of ammunition in a continuous fire for 7-8 days straight and afterwards the gun was in such good condition, it seemed like it came straight from the factory. These guns where built to last. But even though the chance of any of the parts breaking if fired, is miniscule, it's just that it's such an important part of technological development history, that they don't dare fire it.
My word I have seen perhaps that EXACT piece in Leeds on display when I was a boy, I remember it so clearly.
Thank you
That was actually our other, even earlier example :) It's still there.
@@jonathanferguson1211 even cooler. Please let me film the collection some time lads!
Ian. Royal armouries have a massive artillery museum just outside Portsmouth down south in England. Rail arty, part of project Babylon and ottoman artillery. Check it out. It’s over at Fort Nelson, I used to spend a lot of time there. Great place
Far better than Leeds. Over Three thousand Exhibits! is Leeds boast- What they dont tell you is some 2,500 are the bayonets on the wall up the central staircase. Where as Portsmouth! After Fort Nelson, if you still have the energy, The Dockyard , HMS Victory , Warrior, the Mary Roase and Explosion- The musuem of naval firpower , with a collection of small arms from the High Seas fleet! Go do a story on that place.
51WCDodge oh hell yeah. So glad I got to grow up around here
@@shugo541 Not to mention straight of the motorway into the car park and the bus fare included in parking. Brilliant idea.
Can you say that again, but this time happier and with your mouth more open?
Leo EUGGGGHHHHHHH
This is kind of exactly how i imagined the first machine gun would look and operate.
The view of this monster next to Ian cracked me up good))
Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not.
With the front site post on the left side of the gun and the "trigger/speed controller" on the right, I would assume that this is crew served and the (I'll call him "ammo handler") also starts the firing process by setting the trigger to "on"... While the "gunner" holds the spade handle and aims the gun. That would keep everyone out of harms way of the charging handle.
great video Ian , lovely to see the forerunner of the machine gun amazing how Maxim got his head around it and how it developed into the WW1 Maxim / Vickers , it certainly changed the way wars were fought even if it did take some of the top brass a while to catch on to the fact that bayonet or cavalry charges against emplaced machine guns was not going to work , an expensive lesson paid for in brave mens lives !!
Ahoy should someday cover the Maxim MGs and it's descendants someday, some things are just that important in the history of mankind
Yayo' Ariowibowo They’ve covered several modern gun systems already have they not?
@@slaughterround643 Battlefield 1 along with a few other WW1/WW2 games. They most often just get listed as "mounted machinegun" or "placed machinegun" though.
@@slaughterround643 Company of Heroes 2 and Steel Division 2 feature Maxim guns.
I honestly think he'll cover the M2 before then.
Благодарю Вас, что показали прародителя всего автоматического оружия! Да еще показали кинематику его работы не 3Д роликом, а открыв его внутренние части! Смотрю на первый пулемет Максима, и вспоминаю романы Жуля Верна!
Thank you for showing the progenitor of all automatic weapons! Yes, they also showed the kinematics of his work not with a 3D film, but by opening its internal parts! I look at the first Maxim machine gun, and I remember the novels of Jules Verne!
I’ve always been fascinated by these early Maxims, so glad you did a video on one. Thanks!
Do you have duplicate accounts or something I see you everywhere even on random videos
offdeadeye88 I get around
A machine gun with essentially an 'on/off' switch. Amazing. Either it's constantly shooting, or it isn't. First round accuracy definitely isn't a thing here lol
shout out from Sangerville Maine!
Thank you very much for this interesting video - enjoy your time in the UK!
You can see where some elements of the Gatling gun are in the way the feed mechanism is. But in this you can really see the granddaddy of the delinking and loading mechanism of modern mini guns and also chain guns.
Hiram Maxim invented the bump stock...
"You could take this out in public and do demonstrations with it" 3:10
The Good Ol Days when you could fire a machine gun in a public place and not only not be shot/arrested, but instead be awarded a military contract.
I can imaine Maxim making a demonstration and manyu people disbeliefing him and walking away, then suddenly he cranks the acceleretor-trigger and people jaws opens in awe! Maxim was such a visionary! He certainly new stuff WAY ahead of his contemporany colleagues! Maxim is no doubt one of the most influencial minds of the XIX century
i bet that's bloody heavy
matspurs Every gun back then was bloody heavy.
It's kinda funny that he used a Winchester for his Semiautomatic prototype, since Browning did the same thing for his gas operated design.
browning had a long history redesigning winchesters
@@AsbestosMuffins well he did make most of them.
12:55 I suspect the rate of fire adjustment may also have been for demonstrating the mechanism. He could have the top covers open, and reduce the rate of fire so people could watch the internals working.
Maxim - Also the inventor of the world's first gun mounted exhaust filter.
I was always curious about this kludge. Good show, Ian.
This is like the Ford model T of guns, you didn't have a gas pedal in that car, you had a throttle regulator on the steering wheel that looked just like this.
Yup!
Well hell, now you gotta do the Browning Flapper Rifle and subsequent prototypes so we can get the first gas operated guns outta the way.
British Colonial Theory:
It is good that we have got
The Maxim Gun
And they have not
Hilair Bellock, though he was half French, The Modern Traveller.
Excellent. I always like your talks and shows. The only what I miss is to see how some of there rares are firing real ammunition.
You came to Leeds UK and didnt even bother coming to see me and stop for a cuppa/biscuits : ) , I would of showed you around my museum, maybe next time you are here send me a PM.
It sounds great like one of the macanical calculautors out of the fifty's. amazing machiene thanks Ian for the video
~7:15 i think a loader would have handled the activation of the firing and a separate person did the aiming. therefore no moving an arm where it can get whacked
simply beautiful............
screams PIONEER
Ian would you ever be interested in producing a video series or maybe just one long video all about gunpowder and the various forms of propellant used for military purposes? Ex. Answer the questions: What is smokeless powder? What are grains? Why choose one form of propellant over another? Especially the historical parts of all these questions like who, when and where were all of these things developed?
In awe, At the size of this lad. Absolute Unit.
That was ALOT bigger than I was expecting...
Keep up the good work.Respect.
I love this channel
That trigger mechanism is bizarre! But the mechanism for controlling the rate of fire is awesome :) While we're on the subject of early machine guns, are you ever going to do a video on one of the Colt "potato-diggers?" :)
Very cool to see :) Thanks Ian!
Woa, from the thumbnail to the first image of Ian next to the gun is a bit of a scale shock. That is a big gun!
Ok we need a miniseries on "Forgotten Boots" because WTF are those?
For a prototype, what a piece of engineering jewelry !
It is so interesting to compare the refined, educated engineering mind of Maxim, to the caveman appearance of Browning’s prototype machine guns. Browning didn’t believe a finished appearance was necessary, and he was right. The flawless performance sold them. He also had a knack for a minimum number of moving parts. A master of the K.I.S.S. principle,
his designs won out and are still in use today. But holy cow.....this Maxim gun is extraordinary !!! 😳
HOW DARE THEE INSULTS THE FATHER OF GUN JESUS; THE CREATOR OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IN THE SHOOTING WORLD; JOHN BROWNING
Crazy that Maxim guns are still on the battlefield today in Ukraine if only in a limited role
Relevant now
Cool piece.
This thing is just fascinating.
This highly portable MG demonstrator is possibly the most ridiculous yet ingenious design I think I've yet seen on Forgotten Weapons. I love it! Choo-choo!
That thing is steampunk as hell and I love it! Awesome video!
Yeah that fire rate adjustment system is sweet definitely want to build one of them
Holy sheet.. I can't believe you got hold of this one. Nice!
Not bad, when you die your gun keeps shooting at enemys ;)
Very cool!
The one-shot-minute thing is kind of ingenious. Especially if they’d figured out a rig to pivot the gun each shot. You could just aim it at a section of enemy trench and harass them all night with a single 500-round belt.
Ian, I know you're in Britain, but the rest of us are here in the US. You can't just keep us up late with all this great content man. I just got off work, it's 5 AM. I need sleep Ian... You can't be this amazing, you can't make so many good videos, and release them right as I'm about to fall asleep. It's not right man.
He is based in Arizona. He has his videos preloaded on UA-cam and they release on a timer.
Its mainly the other way around.
How dare you question gun Jesus!!!
Amazing. Thank you.
Absolute unit.
This is one of the best guns I've seen on this channel to date. Very cool. Steampunk
If you used this gun in cold weather, wouldn't the viscosity of the oil in the buffer (and therefore rate of fire) change dramatically?
What I'm saying is that this gun obviously needs an oil heating/cooling system.
Love the sound of it cycling! I could fall asleep to it.
You know a gun is special when ian pulls out the gloves
What a genius design. It baffles me how anyone could ever come up with stuff like this.
That is a beautiful artefact in its own right--the definition of Steam Punk!
The loading and cartridge handling mechanism seems very similar to the GE Minigun you demonstrated a couple of years ago. That used metal links though I seem to recall.
One of my dream guns is a Maxim in 450 martini
I wonder if in the back of his mind Maxim was slightly annoyed with the invention of smokeless powder, a missed opportunity to solve a problem that didnt exist anymore
When ever the episode starts with Ian in gloves you know it's going to be good
To solve the smoke problem he could have mounted a propeller using the barrel as an axle. Then he could have invented some clips to hold the operators eyes open in the 150 mph smokey wind generated by the prop. The clips could then be made to open the eyelids one at a time so they would always have one eye open on the target, and the other in a very short recovery behind it's eyelid. Seems like there's something that he could be doing with the mouth to harness the screaming of the shooter. Maybe another propeller, but proportionally smaller.
The forerunner is a wicked name for a firearm
What an interesting piece. What an opportunity! Thanks Ian.
Also, unrelated, is the image in the logo for forgotten weapons the OSS's Flying Dragon?
Most steampunk death machine ever...
The video of the animated exploded view of the gun is amazing, make sure to give it a look!!!
Thank You.