M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun
The Colt–Browning M1895, nicknamed "potato digger" because of its unusual operating mechanism, is an air-cooled, belt-fed, gas-operated machine gun that fires from a closed bolt with a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute. Based on an 1889 design by John Browning and his brother Matthew S. Browning, it was the first successful gas-operated machine gun to enter service.
Colt–Browning M1895/14 machine gun in 7mm Mauser caliber, possibly used in the Mexican Revolution.
One of the later versions of the Colt-Browning M1895 machine gun is demonstrated by Captain (later Major General) Julian Hatcher. The gun is shown mid-action, with the operating lever extending downward below the front of the barrel.
USS Algonquin (1898–1946) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1898 with a 6mm machine gun mounted on a pedestal on the aft deck.
38th Battalion (Ottawa), CEF, with M1895 Colt–Browning machine guns at Prospect Camp, Bermuda, in 1915
John Moses Browning was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24. He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries and a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms.
Browning, c. 1915
Browning Brothers gun shop, Ogden, Utah Territory, 1882. From left to right: Thomas Samuel Browning, George Emmett Browning, John Moses Browning, Matthew Sandefur Browning, Jonathan Edmund Browning, and Frank Rushton
Browning with an Auto-5
Browning in his later years