Chapter 223 The Birth of the Maxim Machine Gun

Not long after the signing of the second arms trade order with Russia, another good news came from the Royal Arsenal.

Maxim, the weapon design engineer and chief expert in machine gun design of the Royal Arsenal, came to the palace in person to report the good news to Carlo, that is, the Maxim machine gun that Carlo had been thinking about for six and a half years finally had certain results.

Carlo invited the Maxim brothers to come to Spain to take up important positions in January 1871. In the past six and a half years, the Maxim brothers have been weapons design engineers of the Royal Arsenal, mainly responsible for the design of machine guns and the development of smokeless gunpowder.

At the beginning, the machine gun development project team only had the Maxim brothers, but as the Royal Arsenal obtained a large number of military talents, the number of gunsmith engineers in the machine gun development project team has increased, and now it has reached more than 30 people.

In addition to the famous Maxim, the gunsmith engineers who can join the machine gun development project team are also famous gunsmith engineers in Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Spain.

And only gunsmith engineers who have completely immigrated to Spain will be invited by Carlo to join the machine gun development project team. Machine guns are known as the king of all guns, and their role in war is much higher than that of rifles.

In the era of manual rifles, a truly fully automatic machine gun will completely change the situation of war.

Currently, Russia and the Ottoman Empire are using human wave charge tactics on the Balkan battlefield. Russia has gained a great reputation with its human wave charge tactics, which is also the reason why European countries are afraid of Russia.

But during World War I, after the armies of various countries were fully armed with machine guns, the conventional human wave tactics had lost their effect.

Cluster charge is tantamount to suicide for machine guns, which is nothing more than consuming more bullets and increasing kd.

It is precisely because of this that machine guns are very important to Spain, and they should be kept secret if they can be kept secret.

As soon as he learned that the machine gun had been developed, Carlo came to the Royal Arsenal weapon test site on the outskirts of Madrid to appreciate Spain's first truly automatic firearm.

The Royal Arsenal placed the weapons test site in the mountains outside Madrid. To the north is the Central Mountains, which can be said to be sparsely populated. There is no need to worry about causing panic among residents and the attention of foreign spies during weapons testing.

Riding Benz's latest improved "car", at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers per hour, Carlo and his party quickly arrived at the weapons test site.

Following Carlo to watch the machine gun test were the current Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Serrano, Chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense Marca Anthony Fletcher, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Spanish Army Evan Bradley and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Spanish Navy Grayson Ruiz.

It can be said that because of this small test of the machine gun, the Spanish military leaders came one after another.

Minister of Defense Serrano is a marshal, Chief of the General Staff Fletcher, Army Commander-in-Chief Evan and Navy Commander-in-Chief Grayson are all generals.

This also shows the importance the military attaches to weapons such as machine guns. Carlo has also mentioned the role of automatic weapons such as machine guns, and the military has long conducted research.

If it is confirmed that the machine gun manufactured by Maxim is not much different from the machine gun described by Carlo, then the military will order at least thousands of machine guns to greatly enhance Spain's firepower.

Of course, in order to maintain the greatest degree of confidentiality, the machine guns will not be equipped to the troops now, but a brand new unit will be formed to conduct machine gun training.

When the war on Spain breaks out in the future, these troops specializing in machine gun training will be divided into multiple small units and dispersed among the various infantry divisions in Spain.

When Carlo and his party arrived at the weapons testing site, Maxim had already been waiting respectfully outside the site with a group of experts who developed machine guns.

"Your Majesty." Seeing Carlo get off the carriage, Maxim walked up quickly and saluted Carlo respectfully.

It was Carlo who gave him the opportunity to use his abilities in his favorite position as a gun engineer. Carlo also gave him enough budget so that he could conduct his own experiments as he pleased without worrying about funding issues.

After six and a half years of hard work, this Maxim machine gun seemed to be quite perfect. It was Maxim's reward for Carlo's trust in him.

"Well done, Mr. Maxim." Carlo nodded, and was quite kind to Maxim and the gun experts behind him.

Carlo did a good job in valuing talents. As long as these talents are willing to contribute to Spain, Carlo is willing to treat them well and provide them with more generous rewards and salary.

Under the leadership of Maxim's experts, everyone quickly walked into the weapons test site, where a Maxim machine gun and ten Spanish Vitali M1872 rifles had been placed.

"Your Majesty, generals, please look, this is our research and development results, a real machine gun.

Mr. Gatling's rotary machine gun gave us some inspiration, but what we made is completely different from Mr. Gatling's machine gun, a real automatic machine gun.

The muzzle diameter of this machine gun is 11.43 mm, and the weight of the whole machine gun is 27.2 kg. It can fire single shots and bursts, and the rate of fire can also be adjusted by the rate of fire regulator.

Because the rate of fire of the machine gun is extremely fast, we adopted the canvas belt feeding method, and the maximum capacity of the belt is 333 rounds.

We use the most advanced recoil spring, shell ejection system, belt feeding mechanism, and acceleration mechanism in the machine gun. With gunpowder gas as the power, a series of actions such as feeding, firing, and ejecting shells can be completed by pulling the trigger.

With such a machine gun, soldiers no longer need to load bullets while firing, which saves most of the time and strengthens the firepower of the machine gun itself.

According to our estimates, the maximum rate of fire of this machine gun is 600 rounds per minute, and the service life of the barrel is 3330 rounds of bullets.

At present, the biggest problem of this machine gun is that the heat of the barrel will make the whole machine gun scrapped, and it is difficult to have time to replace the barrel on the battlefield.

We are developing a water-cooled machine gun. In the case of water source, this machine gun can dissipate heat more effectively than an air-cooled machine gun, and the service life of the barrel will be extended to more than 7,000 rounds of bullets.

But even with the above shortcomings, this machine gun can still provide firepower that rifles cannot achieve in 5 to 10 minutes, helping our army to have greater advantages in attack or defense. "Maxim slowly introduced the machine gun he developed, and was quite confident when mentioning its shortcomings.

The reason for Maxim's confidence was naturally that the machine gun he developed had extremely powerful firepower compared to rifles.

The Vitali M1872 rifle, the standard rifle of Spain, could only fire 10 to 15 bullets per minute at most, even if it was used by extremely skilled soldiers.

The maximum firing rate of the Maxim machine gun was 40 to 60 times that of the Vitali M1872 rifle, which also meant that the firepower of 50 soldiers firing at full force could barely compete with a machine gun.

However, the Maxim machine gun was not without shortcomings in terms of firepower. Because the Maxim machine gun weighed 27.2 kilograms, at least two people were needed to carry this 50-pound machine gun during marches and battles.

Because the firing rate of the machine gun Very fast, machine guns also need a large supply of bullets. These bullets also need a lot of people to carry, which means that in addition to the main and deputy machine gunners to operate the machine gun, a machine gun also needs additional loaders, transport soldiers and messengers.

According to Maxim's own estimation, in order to maximize the firepower of the machine gun, each machine gun needs at least 5 to 8 soldiers to be responsible.

However, compared with the current rifles, the firepower of machine guns is still quite superior. 5 to 8 soldiers can exert the firepower that can only be exerted by 50 soldiers using rifles, which is quite obvious on the battlefield.

Hearing Maxim's various introductions, Carlo nodded with satisfaction, and then said with a smile: "Mr. Maxim, these guys are already looking forward to the machine gun you mentioned. When can the test be started? I also want to see if this so-called machine gun is so magical?"

"It's ready, and we can start now. "Hearing Carlo's question, Maxim immediately answered.

This test has been prepared for a long time by the Royal Arsenal, and the purpose is to directly show the powerful firepower of the machine gun to Carlo and the generals behind Carlo.

"Let's start." Carlo nodded.

With Carlo's order, several experts familiar with the Maxim machine gun began to prepare for the work before the test.

This machine gun experiment is divided into several parts. The first is to directly show the maximum firepower of the machine gun and the design of single-shot bursts. The second is to compare with ten rifles to reflect the powerful firepower of the machine gun.

Then it is to test the service life of the machine gun barrel and the time required to test the machine gun for reloading.

A correct version in 16-9-1 book-1 bar!

After completing all these experiments, the advancement and power of this machine gun can be fully demonstrated. For these military leaders, they can also judge whether this machine gun is useful on the battlefield.

The preparations were soon completed, and the test of the machine gun officially began.

The most The first thing to test is the maximum firepower of the machine gun. The test method is also very simple. After changing the bullet, it will be fully output directly, and one minute will be counted at the same time.

Dadada! Dadadadadada!

As the expert in charge of timing gave a start gesture, the Maxim machine gun operated by two machine gunners began to vent its firepower.

Bullets were shot out from the muzzle quickly, and the bullets were connected into a line, making the muzzle of the Maxim machine gun look like it was on fire.

The trunk of a big tree 50 meters away was madly shot by continuous bullets, forming huge craters.

Before even a minute had passed, the tree was cut in half by the destruction of bullets. A group of senior military officials couldn't help but applaud. They were obviously quite satisfied with the firepower of the machine gun.

"Time is up. "The expert in charge of timing quickly notified the two machine gunners after seeing that the one-minute time had come.

The machine gun also stopped firing quickly, and the two machine gunners were responsible for counting how many bullets the machine gun had fired in total.

In fact, it is easy to calculate. A canvas belt has a total of 333 bullets. Only one and a half belts are consumed in this minute. You only need to count the number of bullets remaining in the second belt to know how many bullets the Maxim machine gun has fired in total in one minute.

After a brief count, the experts finally gave a very satisfactory number, 592 bullets.

Of course, there is a certain amount of time from the end of the time signal to the cessation of shooting. But what is certain is that the maximum firepower of this Maxim machine gun within one minute is at least 550 bullets.

Although Carlo did not express his attitude, the smile on his face showed that he was quite satisfied with the performance of the machine gun in front of him.

Needless to say, the military leaders, including Grand Duke Serrano, were staring at the machine gun after the data of 592 bullets was obtained, as if they were going to sleep with it.

"The next test is single shot and continuous shooting." The expert in charge of the test first explained to Carlo and the military leaders, and then began to prepare for the test.

Single shot and continuous shooting are very useful for machine guns. After all, it is difficult for logistics to meet the bullets needed by machine guns, which consume a lot of bullets.

In some cases, single shot shooting can also make the machine gun work in the absence of bullets. Moreover, if the machine gun is fired continuously, the barrel of the machine gun will soon be scrapped due to overheating, which will make the entire machine gun lose its combat effectiveness for a long time.

The replacement of the machine gun barrel is still quite troublesome, and it is necessary to wait for the barrel to cool completely before replacing it. Soldiers on the battlefield do not have any heat-insulating gloves. If they want to avoid getting their hands burned, they can only wait for the barrel to cool completely.

The time wasted in this way is at least half an hour. This also means that if the machine gun barrel is scrapped, the machine gun will be completely useless for the next half an hour.

Da da da!

Da!

Da!

Under the control of two machine gunners, the Maxim machine gun demonstrated its single-shot and continuous shooting methods, and the free switching was quite stable.

This also made the military leaders more satisfied with the Maxim machine gun, and they even wanted to place an order for the Maxim machine gun now.

If it were not for the relevant tests that followed, I am afraid that the military leaders would have already pulled Maxim to discuss the order.

It is worth mentioning that although Maxim and others belong to the Royal Arsenal, the machine gun research and development project team came out separately, and the Maxim machine gun belongs to the machine gun research and development project team.

Everyone in the project team is naturally Carlo. Carlo holds 95% of the shares of the machine gun R\u0026D project team, and the remaining 5% of the shares are divided among other firearms experts.

These experts who develop heavy machine guns will also get 5% of the profits earned from future heavy machine gun orders.

This is the reward Carlo gave them, and the purpose is to improve their efficiency and give them sufficient motivation when developing and improving machine guns.

Of course, in addition to 5% of the shares, the rewards are also indispensable. Carlo was quite satisfied with the machine gun test this time. After all the tests were completed, Carlo issued a series of rewards including checks and real estate to all the firearms experts in the machine gun R\u0026D project team.

As the head of the R\u0026D team, Carlo gave Maxim the most generous reward. He not only received a property in the center of Madrid, but also a check with a face value of up to 10,000 pesetas.