“How did you come to invent the automatic gun?”
“Many years ago, while firing at a target with a military musket, I
was much surprised at the force of the recoil. It appeared to me that
this waste of energy might be profitably employed in loading and firing
the weapon, but it was not until I went to Europe and found myself in
Paris with insufficient work to keep me fully employed, that I tried to
make an automatic gun. I first made a drawing, which I afterward took
to London; and, having obtained and equipped a small factory there, I
commenced experiments with the view of evolving a gun which would load
and fire itself. There were no data to refer to. No one had ever before
spent a single cent in experimenting with automatic guns. I first
thought of employing the recoil to working existing forms of mechanism,
but found that impracticable. I then designed and constructed a totally
new machine and a totally new system of feeding.
“In the spring of 1884, I constructed the first apparatus ever made in
which the recoil of one cartridge would load another cartridge into
the barrel and fire it. This is now in the South Kensington Museum, in
London, labeled: ‘This apparatus loads and fires itself, by force of
its own recoil, and is the first machine ever made in which energy from
the burning powder is employed for loading and firing the arm.’
“When I made my first gun and found that it would really load and
fire itself, I knew it would have a great future. A few friends
came in to see it. They told others, and very soon a great number
of people came to see the new wonder. In fact, everybody, from the
Prince of Wales down, came to see the gun and fire it. No less than
two hundred thousand rounds of ammunition were used in explaining
the gun and showing it to visitors. At first, no one would believe
that an automatic gun had really been made. No one was prepared to
believe, without seeing it. In fact, I may say that they were unable
to understand that the gun actually loaded and fired itself. It was
considered a nine days’ wonder. The English Government was the first
to give an order. It asked for a gun which would not weigh over one
hundred pounds, and would fire four hundred rounds per minute. I made
one that weighed forty pounds and fired two thousand rounds in three
minutes, with one pull of the trigger. This is a result that no one
else has ever attained. I showed my gun to Lord Wolseley at Hythe,
where I fired at a target. That leader and Colonel Tongue were standing
by the gun while I was firing it. I heard the latter say that it was
the best firing that had ever been seen; that the accuracy was much
better than had ever been known before; and that the rapidity of fire
was without parallel. Everyone seemed astonished, and it was then that
Lord Wolseley approached me and said: ‘Mr. Maxim, I have seen your gun.
It is simply wonderful. It is the most remarkable invention I ever saw
in my life, and I congratulate you heartily upon your success; but,’
he continued, ‘it is of no good, as you will observe that the cloud of
smoke is very large indeed. Unless you can get smokeless powder, I am
afraid your gun will be of little use.’ It was then that I began to
think in earnest about smokeless powder, one of the directors having
said that I was just the man to invent it. When I told him that I was
not a chemist at all, as compared with Professors Fred. Adel and Dewar,
his reply was: ‘You know all the chemistry that is necessary in the
matter, and, moreover, you have an imagination, and the others have
not. If you take the matter up, I am sure you will go ahead of them.’”