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This can depend on the definition of "machine gun."

Among the first automatic weapons were the multi-barrelled Gatling guns that were built beginning in 1862. These first used hand cranks to rotate the cylinders. (The general design still exists in some modern multi-barrel weapons.)

The Maxim machine gun, patented in 1883, was the first to use the recoil from the barrel to drive the loading mechanism. It set the standard with its canvas-belt cartridges and water-cooled barrel.

John Browning created his own model of a machine gun in 1917, and along with it the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), a hand-carried model. Also designed for World War I were the double-barreled Villar Perosa anti-aircraft gun, the Beretta 9mm submachine gun, and the German MP-18 long-stock gun. In 1919, the Thompson (tommy gun) was introduced, which with a stick magazine became the military M1928A1.

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7y ago

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