By Matija Šerić
Wars are as old as humanity itself. The well-known saying that the history of mankind is the history of wars holds much truth. Wars are the most destructive human invention, inherently devastating infrastructure, people, the environment, animals, plants, and everything else in their path. However, in some cases, wars can also have positive side effects. They can accelerate scientific and technological discoveries, both in civilian and military sectors.
During the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century, the development of military logistics and transportation was crucial for troop mobilization, but also for the advancement of civilian transportation. In the same century, prolonged wars accelerated the conclusion of the Industrial Revolution. During the American Civil War and the Crimean War, the development of rifles and artillery improved the accuracy and efficiency of warfare. One of the weapons that brought about revolutionary changes in land warfare was the Maxim machine gun.
The Inventor: Hiram Maxim
Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American-British engineer and inventor born in 1840 in the U.S. state of Maine. Over the course of his prolific career, he invented many useful devices such as hair curlers, mousetraps, steam pumps, smokeless gunpowder (with his brother Hudson), a bronchitis inhaler, and he improved automatic rifles and the production of weapons and aircraft. Allegedly, he also discovered the electric light bulb, though this invention was never publicly credited to him.
In 1884, he moved to London and founded the Maxim Gun Company, which later became part of Vickers Ltd. Maxim became world-famous and was even knighted as Sir in 1901, thanks to his invention of the Maxim machine gun in 1884. It was the first fully automatic machine gun, mercilessly eliminating enemy soldiers who came into its line of fire. Through the invention of his machine gun, Hiram Maxim secured his eternal place in history.
Warfare Before Maxim
Before the sudden emergence of the Maxim machine gun at the end of the 19th century, which revolutionized warfare and transformed soldiers’ habits on the battlefield, armed conflicts were fought much more primitively. During most of the 18th and 19th centuries, armed forces relied on traditional weapons such as rifles, cavalry, and swords. Battles were mostly fought at close to medium ranges. Soldiers from opposing armies would form infantry and trench lines, engaging in frontal assaults—often “hand-to-hand” combat.
Although rudimentary versions of machine guns existed before Maxim, such as those using manual cranks, their effectiveness could not be compared to the Maxim’s. Soldiers relied on the traditional use of artillery, but its precision and firepower were far inferior to the new technologies. Wars were more physically demanding, but in some ways, also slightly safer for soldiers. Death in battle largely depended on the strategic skills of commanders and troops, as well as numerical superiority or inferiority.
Technical Characteristics
“I was in Vienna, where I met an American I had known in the United States. He said: Forget chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will allow these Europeans to cut each other’s throats more easily,” Hiram Maxim later revealed in an interview. This happened in 1882, and the listener took the advice seriously. Over the next three years, Maxim spent most of his time in his London workshop, where he invented the innovative Maxim machine gun.
This new weapon fundamentally changed the nature of warfare and the experience of soldiers in combat. The Maxim gun was the first machine gun to use the recoil energy of a fired round to automatically reload, enabling continuous fire without the need to manually reload after each shot. It was less labor-intensive than other rapid-fire weapons of the time. The gun operated using gas energy (gas-operated mechanism) and had a single, water-cooled barrel to prevent overheating. The first version of the Maxim gun had a caliber of 0.45 inches (11.43 mm) and could fire about 500 to 600 rounds per minute. It weighed approximately 27 kilograms and was about 120 cm long.
It could be mounted on tripods on land, vehicles, or even ships. Typically, a crew of four to six men was required for loading, aligning, carrying, and maintaining the Maxim gun. At least one crew member had to be on standby with water and ammunition. Although relatively heavy and long (these were its drawbacks), the Maxim gun was far more efficient and accurate than previous alternatives, especially in colonial conflicts between European powers and African or Asian tribes.
The Maxim gun had an effective range of 500 to 800 meters, depending on conditions and shooting accuracy. While it was capable of hitting targets at longer distances, its practical precision decreased compared to modern machine guns. In actual use, it was most effective when firing large volumes of ammunition at enemy positions between 300 and 600 meters away.
