Machine guns
In the latter half of the 19th century Richard Jordan Gatling emerged as the revolutionary designer of the Gatling Gun; a means of firing rounds in support of infantry and cavalry attacks rapidly via a manually worked machine.
The improvement of cartridge cases enabled Hiram Maxim to develop an automatic blow-back machine gun in 1880 and as various designers, such as Hotchkiss and Lewis, worked further on gas-operated systems World War I witnessed the horrific power of the highly efficient machine gun to full effect.
World War II saw many early designs still in use around the world together with some remarkable developments in reliability and rates of fire. Much of this was possible because of the consistent quality of ammunition, the fuel to drive the machine.
