Maxim gun

The Maxim gun is a recoil-operatedmachine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun.

The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian Martin Gilbert, and was heavily used by colonial powers during the Scramble for Africa. Afterwards, Maxim guns also saw extensive use by different armies during various conflicts, including the Russo-Japanese War and the First and Second World Wars.

The Maxim gun was greatly influential in the development of machine guns, and it has multiple variants and derivatives, such as the Vickers, PM M1910, and MG 08. Some are still in service to the present day and used in contemporary conflicts, such as the Russo-Ukrainian War.