It is no good blaming England for machine -guns ( although they probably invented the name, which was used to officially describe the twin-barrelled,lever-operated Gardner-gun when it entered British army service )------ Doctor Richard Jordan Gatling must take the credit for that, at least as far as the first mechanical,or hand operated ( cranked ) machine-gun was concerned.Later on,of course, another American, Hiram Maxim, gave the world the first practical,automatic-firing,belt-fed machine gun. Then followed ever more American " machine " or "sub-machine " gun inventors-----Benjamin Berkeley Hotchkiss, whose guns were widely used and copied in France and Japan. Isaac Newton Lewis, whose guns were used by all the allies in WW1 EXCEPT the Americans !! ( Because US Chief of Ordnance ,General Tozier, didn"t like Lewis !! ) Brigadier -General Thompson, and his famous "Trench Broom " Tommy -Gun , John Moses Browning, and his also famous .30 calibre "potato-digger" and the immortal BAR squad light -machine gun-----the list goes on !! So ,please, do NOT blame the Brits, or the English, for the Machine-Gun , OK ????   This is all out of my head, not off the internet, so sorry for any mistakes !! ( like I can"t remember Thompson"s first name ! )