Maxim Gun: Recoil-Powered Fire, Water Jackets and the Failed Extra Light

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Before Hiram Maxim, rapid-fire weapons such as the Gatling and Nordenfelt guns were hand cranked, and a panicked gunner could throw the mechanism out of sync and jam it. Working in Hatton Garden, London, Maxim took British patents in 1883 and showed a working prototype in October 1884. His toggle lock worked like a locked knee: recoil pushed the barrel back a fraction of an inch, a cam folded the joint to eject the case, and a spring straightened it to chamber and fire the next round. The prototype fired 600 rounds a minute, and a water jacket boiled off the heat. That November he won backing from Albert Vickers and founded the Maxim Gun Company.

European generals distrusted machine guns after hand-cranked models jammed in battle, and black powder smoke blinded the gunners, a problem eased by smokeless powder, which his brother Hudson Maxim helped develop in the United States. Maxim gave a gun to Henry Morton Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition in 1886 and toured Russia in 1887, winning an order for just 12 guns. At the Shangani in 1893, 700 colonial soldiers with five Maxims broke a charge by about 5,000 Matabele warriors. By 1914 the Vickers, the German MG 08 and the Russian PM M1910 were all Maxim descendants.

• Charles Callwell's 1906 manual Small Wars cited hand-cranked guns jamming at Ulundi, Dogali and Abu Klea.
• Switzerland bought 72 guns between 1891 and 1894 and had mountain gunners rest the rear on their knees in leather padded rings.
• An Iranian officer who mastered the gun was nicknamed Reza Maxim and later became Reza Shah.
• Rushed out against John Browning's air-cooled Colt in 1895, Maxim's 27-pound Extra Light overheated after about 400 rounds and only 135 were made.
• Ukrainian units fit century-old PM M1910s with modern mounts and red dot sights, valuing the water jacket for hours of sustained fire.