peashooter85:The First True Machine Gun — The Kjellman Light Machine Gun,Most people tend to think t
peashooter85:The First True Machine Gun — The Kjellman Light Machine Gun,Most people tend to think that the Maxim machine gun was the first true machine gun, and by “true machine gun” I am refering to a weapon that is fully automatic and does not require a hand crank or volley system to function. Of course, it is generally accepted by firearms historians that the Maxin was the 1st, but there is a little known machine gun known as the Kjellman machine gun which beat out the Maxim by a few years. Originally the Kjellman was designed in 1870 by a Swedish officer named Lt. D.H. Friberg. The design was a recoil operated fully automatic design which was fed from a vertically mounted hopper. The first prototypes were produced in 1882, but it was found that the recoil mechanism could not operate using black powder cartridges, which jammed from the grit and residue of black powder. Two years later Hiram Maxim introduced his Maxim gun, which could work with black powder cartridges, so it would be fairer to say that the Maxim gun was the first practical machine gun.The Kjellman machine gun was forgotten until in 1907 it was rediscovered by Rudolf Henrick Kjellman. He improved upon the design and made it practical by modifying it to use 6.5mm smokeless powder cartridges. He also replaced the vertical hopper with a vertical detachable magazine, added a water cooling sleeve, a buttstock, a forward grip, and a bipod. Hence, the Kjellman also holds the record for being the first light machine gun. Unfortunately the Kjellman was never adopted, and only ten were produced. However the Kjellman does make one final mark in history, as its locking mechanism used in the action would later be used in the Russian DP28 and German MG42. -- source link
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