Chapter 225: Birth of the Maxim Machine Gun

Not long after the time for signing the second arms trade order with Russia passed, the Royal Military Factory brought another good news.

Royal Military Factory weapon design engineer and chief machine gun design expert Maxim came to the palace in person to report this good news to Gao Da, which is that the Maxim machine gun that Gao Da has been thinking about day and night has finally achieved certain results after six and a half years of R&D.

The time Gao Da invited the Maxim brothers to come to Spain to serve in important positions was January 1871; for these six and a half years, the Maxim brothers have been serving as weapon design engineers at the Royal Military Factory, mainly responsible for the design of machine guns and the R&D of smokeless gunpowder.

At the beginning, the machine gun R&D project team only had the two Maxim brothers, but as the Royal Military Factory obtained a large number of military industrial talents, the number of firearms engineers in the machine gun R&D project team also became more and more, currently reaching more than 30.

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

And only firearms engineers who have completely immigrated to Spain will be invited by Gao Da to join the machine gun R&D project team. The machine gun is a firearm known as the King of Ten Thousand Guns, and its role in war is much higher than that of rifles.

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

Currently on the Balkan battlefield, both Russia and the Ottoman Empire are using human wave assault tactics. Russia has made a great reputation relying on human wave assault tactics, which is also the reason why European countries are wary of Russia.

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

Cluster-style assaults are no different from suicide in formation for machine guns; it is nothing more than consuming some more bullets and increasing some kd.

Precisely because of this, the machine gun is very important to Spain, and it should be kept secret if possible.

At the first moment of learning that the machine gun had been developed, Gao Da came to the weapon testing ground of the Royal Military Factory in the suburbs of Ma Deli to appreciate Spain's first automatic firearm in the true sense.

The Royal Military Factory placed the weapon testing place in the mountainous area in the suburbs of Ma Deli, and further north is the Central Mountains, which can be said to be inaccessible, and weapon testing does not need to worry about causing panic among residents and the attention of foreign spies.

Riding in the latest improved "car" from Benz, at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers per hour, Gao Da and his party soon arrived at the weapon testing place.

Following Gao Da to watch the machine gun test were the current Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Serrano, Chief of General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense Mark Antonio Fletcher, Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Royal Army Evan Bradley, and Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Royal Navy Greyson Ruiz.

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

Minister of National Defense Serrano has the rank of Marshal, and Chief of General Staff Fletcher, Army Commander-in-Chief Evan, and Navy Commander-in-Chief Greyson all have the rank of General.

This can also show the degree of importance the military attaches to weapons like machine guns. Gao Da had also mentioned the role of automatic weapons like machine guns, and the military had long conducted discussions.

If it is determined that the machine gun manufactured by Maxim is not much different from the machine gun described by Gao Da, then the military will order at least thousands of machine guns to significantly strengthen Spain's firepower.

Of course, in order to maximize secrecy, the machine gun will not be equipped to the troops now, but a brand-new unit will be formed to conduct training on the machine gun.

When the war concerning Spain breaks out in the future, these units specially trained for machine guns will be split into multiple small units and dispersed into various infantry divisions of Spain.

When Gao Da and his party arrived at the weapon testing field, Maxim had already brought a group of experts who developed the machine gun and waited respectfully outside the field.

"Your Majesty." Seeing Gao Da get off the carriage, Maxim stepped forward quickly and saluted Gao Da respectfully.

It was Gao Da who gave him the opportunity to exert his ability in the firearms engineer position he loved. Gao Da also gave him enough budget, allowing him to not worry about funds and conduct his experiments as he pleased.

After six and a half years of hard work, this machine gun that Maxim thought was already quite perfect is exactly Maxim's reward for Gao Da's trust in him.

"Well done, Mr. Maxim." Gao Da nodded, showing a quite gentle attitude toward Maxim and the group of firearms experts behind him.

Gao Da has done quite well in valuing talents; as long as these talents are willing to contribute to Spain, Gao Da is also willing to treat them well and provide them with more generous rewards and salary treatment.

Under the guidance of Maxim and a group of experts, everyone soon walked into the interior of the weapon testing field, where a Maxim machine gun and ten Spanish Vitali M1872 rifles had already been placed.

"Your Majesty, Generals, please look; this is our R&D result, a machine gun in the true sense.

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

The muzzle diameter of this machine gun is 11.43 millimeters, the weight of the entire machine gun is 27.2 kilograms, and it can perform single-shot and burst-fire shooting, and can also adjust the machine gun's rate of fire through a rate-of-fire regulator.

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

We used the most advanced firearms with recoil springs, shell ejection systems, belt feeding mechanisms, and acceleration mechanisms in the machine gun, relying on gunpowder gas as power, and only need to pull the trigger to complete a series of actions such as feeding, firing, and shell ejection.

Using such a machine gun, soldiers no longer need to load bullets while firing, saving most of the time and strengthening the machine gun's own firepower.

According to our estimation, the maximum rate of fire of this machine gun is 600 rounds per minute, and the service life of the barrel is 3,330 rounds of bullets.

Currently, the biggest problem with this machine gun is that the barrel heating will cause the entire machine gun to be scrapped, and it is difficult to have time to replace the barrel on the battlefield.

We are developing a water-cooled machine gun; this kind of machine gun can dissipate heat more effectively than an air-cooled machine gun when there is a water source, and the service life of the barrel will also 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 reach in 5 to 10 minutes, helping our army possess greater advantages when attacking or defending." Maxim introduced the machine gun he developed slowly, and he was quite confident when mentioning the shortcomings.

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

Spain's standard rifle, the Vitali M1872 rifle, even if used by extremely skilled soldiers, fires at most 10 to 15 bullets per minute.

The maximum rate of fire of the Maxim machine gun is 40 to 60 times that of the Vitali M1872 rifle, which also means that the firepower of 50 soldiers firing at full strength can barely compete with one machine gun.

However, the Maxim machine gun is not without shortcomings in terms of firepower. Because the Maxim machine gun weighs 27.2 kilograms, it needs at least two people to lift this 50-plus-jin machine gun for marching and combat.

Because the machine gun's rate of fire is extremely fast, the machine gun also needs a large supply of bullets. These bullets also need many people to carry, which leads to the fact that one machine gun, in addition to the main and deputy machine gunners to operate the machine gun, also needs additional loaders, transport soldiers, and messengers.

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

However, compared to the current rifles, the machine gun's firepower is still quite superior. 5 to 8 soldiers can exert firepower close to that which nearly 50 soldiers using rifles can exert; this role on the battlefield is already quite obvious.

Hearing Maxim's various introductions, Gao Da nodded quite satisfactorily, and then said with a smile on his face: "Mr. Maxim, these guys are already quite looking forward to the machine gun you mentioned. When can the test start? I also want to see if this so-called machine gun is really that magical?"

"It's already prepared; it can start now." Hearing Gao Da's inquiry, Maxim answered immediately.

This test is something the Royal Military Factory has prepared for a long time, and the purpose is to directly demonstrate the power of the machine gun's firepower to Gao Da and the several generals behind Gao Da.

"Then let's start." Gao Da nodded.

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

This machine gun test is divided into several parts; first is to directly demonstrate the maximum firepower of the machine gun and the single-shot and burst-fire design methods, and second is to conduct a comparison with ten rifles to reflect the powerful firepower possessed by the machine gun.

Then there is the experiment on the service life of the machine gun barrel, and testing the time required for the machine gun to change magazines.

Doing all these experiments can fully demonstrate the advancement and power of this machine gun. For these high-level military personnel, they can also judge whether this machine gun has any role on the battlefield.

The preparation work was soon completed, and the machine gun test officially began.

The first test is the maximum firepower of the machine gun; this test method is also very simple, which is to output at full strength directly after changing the magazine, while one side performs a one-minute timing.

Da da da! Da da da da da!

Following a start gesture given by the expert responsible for timing on the side, the Maxim machine gun operated by two machine gunners began to vent its firepower.

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

The trunk of a large tree 50 meters away was frantically strafed by the continuous bullets, forming huge bullet holes one after another.

Even before a minute had passed, this tree was cut in half under the ravages of the bullets. The high-level military group also couldn't help but clap and cheer; they were obviously quite satisfied with the machine gun's firepower.

"Time's up." The expert responsible for timing, seeing that the one-minute time had arrived, hurriedly prompted the two machine gunners.

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

Actually, it is easy to calculate; a canvas-style magazine has a total of 333 bullets, and the magazines consumed within this minute were only one and a half; one only needs to count the number of bullets remaining in the second magazine to know how many bullets the Maxim machine gun fired in one minute.

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

Of course, there is also a certain time from the end of the report to the stop of shooting. But it is certain that this Maxim machine gun had a maximum firepower of at least 550 bullets within one minute.

Although Gao Da did not express his attitude, one could also see from the smile on Gao Da's face that Gao Da was quite satisfied with the results achieved by the machine gun in front of him.

As for the high-level military personnel, there is no need to say more; after obtaining the data of 592 bullets, all high-level military personnel, including Grand Duke Serrano, were staring at this machine gun with undivided attention, as if they wanted to hold this machine gun to sleep.

"Next is the second test, single-shot shooting and burst-fire shooting." The expert responsible for the test first explained to Gao Da and the high-level military personnel, and then began to prepare for the test.

Single-shot shooting and burst-fire shooting are very useful for machine guns; after all, machine guns are gluttonous beasts that consume a large amount of bullets, and logistics are difficult to satisfy the bullets needed by machine guns all the time.

In some cases, performing single-shot shooting can also allow the machine gun to play a role in the absence of bullets. Moreover, if it is always burst-fire shooting, the machine gun's barrel will also soon be scrapped because of overheating, which will cause the entire machine gun to lose combat effectiveness for a long time in the future.

The replacement of the machine gun barrel is still quite troublesome, and it also requires waiting for the barrel to cool down completely before it can be replaced. Soldiers on the battlefield do not have any heat-insulating gloves; if they want to avoid their hands being scalded, they can only wait for the barrel to cool down completely.

The time wasted in this back-and-forth process is at least half an hour. This also means that if the machine gun barrel is scrapped, the machine gun will completely lose its role for the next half hour.

Da da da!

Da!

Da!

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

This also made the high-level military personnel even more satisfied with the Maxim machine gun, and they even wished they could discuss the order regarding the Maxim machine gun with Maxim now.

It is worth mentioning that although Maxim and others belong to the Royal Military Factory, the machine gun R&D project team is separated, and the Maxim machine gun belongs to the machine gun R&D project team.

Everyone in the project team is naturally Gao Da. Gao Da occupies 95% of the shares of the machine gun R&D project team, and the remaining 5% of the shares are divided by other firearms experts.

The experts who developed the heavy machine gun will also share 5% of the profits earned by future heavy machine gun orders.

This is the reward Gao Da gives them, and the purpose is precisely to improve their efficiency, allowing them to have sufficient motivation when developing and improving machine guns.

Of course, in addition to the 5% shares, the rewards that should be given are also not lacking at all. Gao Da was quite satisfied with this machine gun test, and after all the tests were completed, Gao Da issued a series of rewards including checks and real estate to all firearms experts in the machine gun R&D project team.

As the person in charge of the R&D team, Gao Da gave Maxim the most generous reward. He not only obtained a piece of real estate in the city center of Madrid but also obtained a check with a face value as high as 10,000 Peseta.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 226 =====

(End of chapter)