The machine gun in itself was a frontier of technological ingenuity and precision. The weapon was first created in 1884 by an American businessman by the name of Hiram Maxim who at the time was in England perfecting his weapon (Spartacus). By the time Maxim completed his invention it was fitted with a tripod for portability and weighed a total of forty pounds with a water-cooling jacket. It was belt fed and reportedly fired continuous 500+ rounds per minute approximately 500 yards with a single pull of the trigger (Spartacus).
Maxim Machine Gun model 1885. Hiram Maxim Historical Society.
What made this possible was Maxim's ingenious utilization of the recoil produced from each shot fired to expel the spent cartridge and insert the next in the chain (Spartacus). The energy to produce such recoil came from the also newly created smokeless gunpowder that created more pressure in the barrel and thus, produced higher muzzle velocity and recoil energy (Britannica).
Inner workings of a German MG08/15 used in WWI. HIram Maxim Historical Society.
When Maxim first showcased his invention to the British army the following year of its creation, it performed adequately enough that it was soon taken up (or copied) by all European countries. Maxim's weapon had surpassed any other similar weapon in combined attributes in terms of rate of fire, reliability, portability, and accuracy. It was now evident that the MG had created a technological frontier in its ingenuity as a weapon.
The first trials for the machine gun were during the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) and to a lesser extent the Boer Wars (1899-1902) (Russo). In the Russo-Japanese war, land battles were much like those of World War I in that machine guns were used effectively as a defensive weapon in entrenched positions to massed infantry attacks (Russo). Not only was this war one of the first instances where machine gun trench warfare was displayed, it gave a preview of the new kind of war that had arisen with the development of the machine gun.
Russian troops awaiting Japanese advance. Russo-Japanese War Research Society
British, French, and German leaders all took backseats to witness the destructive power of the machine gun displayed by the Russian and Japanese armies, but did little in terms of tactical reform, even after huge casualties over 100,000 were being stacked up on both sides (Britannica). It is now important to note that the machine gun was not the sole reason for the large number of casualties nor the only technological revolution in weaponry. Rifled, breech loading artillery and rifles had also made their way into mainstream use (A matter of Tactics). With such improvements in accuracy and reloading time over those of the past four decades, artillery and rifles clearly supplied more damage to the already increasing destruction. Not to mention the clearly outdated tactics employed by military authority that led many to pointless deaths (Static front).
It was now evident that the machine gun had not only created a technological frontier in its ingenuity, but also its versatility as a defensive weapon. Although all major European countries had adopted a machine gun in one form or another, the power the gun possessed would not be discovered until it was practiced in total war, World War I.
