Talk:Maxim gun

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Contents 1 Claims seem overblown 2 Hillaire Belloc 3 Contradictions within Maxim Gun and Maschinegewehr 08 (sp) articles 4 Chamberings? 5 British adoption of the Maxim?

[edit] Claims seem overblown

SOme of the claims seem overblwown, cf Gatling gun, although it was clearly a marked improvement. Rich Farmbrough 13:01, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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not really, the gatling gun was just fairly good, cos even though it could fire lots of bullets, the gatling gun accuracy was strictly relative to the number of shots per second (the more shots, the more accurate it was and viceversa). one the other hand, the Maxin did not suffer such impediment, firing far more bullets than the gatling gun and with a much better accuracy than the gatling gun. The Maxim machinegun single handledly changed the whole scheme of warfare, before the maxim machine gun, the common tactic was to form all troops into positions and advance to the enemy, but since the maxim anihilated all formations, that tactic quickly died, thus changing the whole warfare strategy. The mechanism of the maxim also gave birth to modern guns, both automatic and semi-automatic guns. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 200.28.199.24 (talk • contribs) 01:14, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

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"Trials showed it could fire 500 rounds per minute, equivalent to the firepower of about 100 contemporary bolt-action rifles." -- This statement appears to claim that a contemporary bolt-action rifle would only fire five rounds a minute. The basic gunnery rate with [i]muzzle-loaders[/i] was reckoned to be between three and five rounds a minute; one of the reasons bolt-action magazine-loaded weapons caught on was that they were so much faster than muzzle-loaders. The Lee-Enfield, for example, was reckoned to be able to do between 15 and 30 rounds a minute. Which is a lot more than five. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.15.231.112 (talk • contribs) 10:23, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hillaire Belloc

put in a well-known jingle by Hillaire Belloc,

Whatever happens, we have got

The Maxim gun, and they have not.

This is not the well-known jingle I had heard before. So I did a quick google and found a source for the version I had heard:

Early 20th century British poet Hilaire Belloc summed this up in a short stanza, he said: "We shall not fear the Hottentot because we have the Maxim gun and he has not."(NATO speeches: Video Interview with Chris Donnelly, Special Advisor to the Secretary General for Central and Eastern Europe )

I found another reference that says the version in Wikipedia came from Hilaire Belloc's "The Modern Traveller", so perhapse he wrote two versions or the version given in the article is a bowdlerise version. It would be useful if the source were to be confirmed. --Philip Baird Shearer 09:02, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

"Modern Traveller"

A Mutiny resulted.

I never shall forget the way

That Blood upon this awful day

Preserved us all from death.

He stood upon a little mound,

Cast his lethargic eyes around,

And said beneath his breath :

Whatever happens we have got

The Maxim Gun, and they have not."

He marked them in their rude advance,

He hushed their rebel cheers ;

With one extremely vulgar glance

He broke the Mutineers.

( from http://ia300117.us.archive.org/3/items/moderntraveller00belluoft/moderntraveller00belluoft_djvu.txt )

11:34, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contradictions within Maxim Gun and Maschinegewehr 08 (sp) articles

Maschinegewehr 08 article lists 1884 as the year of Maxim Gun's invention, Maxim Gun article lists 1885. Also, MG 08 article references Maxim Gun as being water-cooled, but Maxim Gun article does not list such and there appears to be no water jacket on the Maxim Gun.

Hiram Maxim demonstrated his first *perfect* prototype to the public in october 1884. He applied for the first patents related to the weapon already in June 1883 (McCallum, 1999, p.46). But the weapon was by no means "a final invention" by its first patent or first prototype. There were several prototypes, and many different designs. There were many patents, in 1883-1884 and during the following years, as Maxim was quite a keen patent applicant. For more, see McCallum, 1999 and Dolf F.Goldsmith's work. --MortenB 13:45, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

PS : The first Maxims were indeed water-cooled. See this image, which more clearly shows the water jackets around the barrel.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Morten Blaabjerg (talk • contribs) 13:47, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

[EDIT : Maxim applied for the first Maxim Gun-related patents already in 1883. --MortenB 12:40, 4 January 2007 (UTC). Added link to image showing more clearly the water cooling of the gun. --MortenB 23:02, 7 January 2007 (UTC)]

[edit] Chamberings?

Would a listing of all the different chamberings be of benefit? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.118.72.9 (talk • contribs) .

Do you have a good source for such a list ? It must be a big list. Megapixie 01:11, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Not handy at the moment, but could certainly do some research. Yes, it would be on the lengthy side.

Did some research. There were a lot of them. Not sure such a list would help the article much.

[edit] British adoption of the Maxim?

The article states :

The weapon was finally adopted, under the guidance of Sir Garnet Wolseley, by the British Army in 1888 - using the same .577/450 ammunition as their Martini-Henry rifles.

Anyone got a source for the year 1888 and Wolseleys involvement? --MortenB 13:49, 3 January 2007 (UTC) (I am embarrassed, if it turns out it was my own contribution and I forgot the source).

Never mind, figured it out. Turns out McCallum mentions this connection on p. 67 of his Maxim biography. --MortenB 15:14, 22 January 2007 (UTC)