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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Maxim-gun 'gunmetal' water jacket


Guest Clinton Brunt

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Guest Clinton Brunt

Fellows,

While reading the 1915 reprint of the 1911 'Handbook for the .303 and .303 Converted Maxim-gun', the water jacket is described as 'gunmetal' rather than brass as with earlier versions. It is however still without fluting.

I've turned to the Skennerton series of the List of Changes but these don't contain any of the Maxim changes so that's a dead-end. Does anyone have an idea when the change from brass to steel happened?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Sincerely,

Clinton

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Mr Brunt will be happy to learn that gunmetal is, in fact, nothing more than an alloy of copper and tin (also known as bronze, bell-metal, shroff-metal, etc.), from which cannon were formerly cast. It looks very much like brass and behaves in much the same way. Best regards. Bert
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There are various grades of Gunmetal I would suggest that the Gunmetal used on the Maxim Machine Gun would be of a grade LG1 which comprises of 86.5% Copper, 2 % Tin, 7.5% Zinc, 4% Lead. There is a total of 5 grades of Gun Metal all of various tensil strengths for various purposes.

John

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