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Lewis gun
Sign in to saveAlso known as Lewis machine gun, Lewis automatic machine gun, Lewis automatic rifle
light machine gun
Key facts
- Type
- Light machine gun
- Place of origin
- United States (design), United Kingdom
- In service
- 1914–1953
- Used by
- See § Users
- Designer
- Samuel McClean Isaac Newton Lewis
- Manufacturer
- Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd. Savage Arms Co.
- Unit cost
- £62 in 1918
- Produced
- 1913–1942
- Number span no built
- 152,050 in World War II , 50,000 chambered in .30-06
- Variants
- See § Variants
- Mass
- 28 lb (13 kg)
- Length
- 50.5 in (1,283 mm)
- Barrel length
- 26.5 in (673 mm)
- Width
- 4.5 in (114 mm)
- Cartridge
- 6.5×53.5mmR (.256) 7.7×56mmR (.303) 7.62×54mmR 7.62×63mm (.30-06) 7.92×57mm 7.65x53mm Argentine
- Action
- Gas-operated long stroke gas piston, rotating open bolt
- Rate of fire
- 500–600 rounds/min
- Muzzle velocity
- 2,440 ft/s (744 m/s)
via Wikipedia infobox
~32 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Lewis gun (or Lewis automatic machine gun or Lewis automatic rifle) is a First World War–era light machine gun. Designed privately in the United States though not adopted there, the design was finalised and mass-produced in the United Kingdom, and widely used by troops of the British Empire during the war. It had a distinctive barrel cooling shroud (containing a finned breech-to-muzzle aluminium heat sink to cool the gun barrel), and top-mounted pan magazine. The Lewis served until the end of the Korean War, and was widely used as an aircraft machine gun during both World Wars, almost always with the cooling shroud removed, as air flow during flight offered sufficient cooling.
History
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Lewis gun” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.