The first machine gun was invented in the year 1884 by Sir Hiram Maxim. The gun was named the Maxim gun. This was the first self powered machine gun to be made. The maxim gun operated on the Recoil force. In this way the recoil force generated by the fired bullet was used to load the next bullet. This made it automated, efficient and less time consuming. It was able to fire 600 rounds a minute.