Description of the Maxim Automatic Machine-Gun. - [THE AUTOMATIC MACHINE-GUN]

London, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1885. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Contained in the April issue of Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, pp.167-197, with 8 plates. The whole issue offered here. Custom cloth box with gilt leather title on spine.

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First edition. Maxim's first announcement of his invention of the automatic machine-gun using the energy from the recoil force to eject each spent cartridge and insert the next one, Maxim came up with the single-man operated machine-gun. Earlier types of machine-guns, as the Gatling and Gardner, consisted of multiple barrels and were powered by the manual turning of a crank, which made them very heavy and caused them to require several men in order to operate them. The invention of the Maxim-mechanism allowed for a single-barrel construction, and the new machine-gun could potentially be operated by just one man, which thus led to the modern automatic machine-gun. Scarce.