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Gatling gun
The Gatling gun was invented by Richard Gatling in 1862 and is known for its use in the American Civil War. Although considered a machine gun, it required someone to operate a crak so it was not truly automatic. It did however pave the road to modern machine guns. -
The Maxim Gun
The Maxim gun was created by Sir Hiram Stevens maxim in 1884 and was the first recoil-operated machine gun. The weapon used the energy from the recoil to eject the spent cartridge and load the next. Maxim also designed a water-cooled barrel so that the gun could fire for a much longer period of time than air-cooled guns like the gatling. It was used widely in British colonial warfare and was later accepted by european armies and navies. The gun was not accepted in america until 1904 -
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
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Thompson Submachine Gun (Thompson or Tommy Gun)
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Bren Light Machine Gun
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M60 Machine Gun
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M61 Vulcan
