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The first fully automatic machine gun was invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884. Unable to interest the US Army in the gun, Maxim marketed it in Europe. The Maxim or its variant made by Vickers was adopted by many of the major powers that fought in WW I: Great Britain as the Vickers-Maxim; Germany as the Spandau (after the arsenal); Russia as the Maxim. Eventually the US Army got around to purchase the gun (about 300+) from Vickers as the M1916 .30 Heavy Machine Gun. The later Browning .30 M1917 machine gun was far superior to the M1916 Vickers.

There is a funny story about Maxim and his gun in Russia. Maxim arrived in Russia with his gun to demonstrate to to a bunch of Czarist officers. While he was awaiting the demonstration date and his gun and belted ammunition to arrive at the site, he was shadowed by the Czar's secret police, the Okhrana.

When the demonstration day came, Maxim explained the operation of his gun to the Czar's officers who had no idea what an automatic machine gun was. These officers’ only exposure had been to the manually cranked Gatling (called Gorloff by the Russians). When Maxim explained about the cocking handle and how it cycled with the gun, one officer said he'd like to see a soldier move the handle at 660 rounds per minute!

Maxim inserted a belt, cocked the gun twice to index the belt and chamber a round. He then pushed the trigger bar and fired the whole belt of 300 rounds without touching the cocking handle — that continued flipping back and forth as the gun fired.

The Russian officers were absolutely dumbfounded by what they had witnessed. The recommendation was the Maxim be adopted in numbers for the Russian Army. The Maxim soldiered with the Russian Army from 1910 and into the 1950s before it was replaced by lighter and newer designs.