Hotchkiss Mle 1900
Hotchkiss et Cie · Machine Gun · Discontinued · 1900
Also known as: Mitrailleuse Hotchkiss Modele 1900, Hotchkiss Model 1900, Hotchkiss M1900, Mle 1900 Hotchkiss
Overview
The Hotchkiss Mle 1900 was a French gas-operated, air-cooled heavy machine gun and the principal export-and-service refinement of the pioneering Hotchkiss design lineage that began with the Mle 1897. Built by the Parisian firm Hotchkiss et Cie and developed by the company's American-born chief engineer Laurence V. Benet together with the French engineer Henri A. Mercie, the Mle 1900 was chambered for the 8x50mmR Lebel cartridge and fed from a distinctive 24-round rigid metal strip loaded transversely into the left side of the receiver. Its defining improvement over the Mle 1897 was the replacement of the earlier brass barrel cooling rings with more durable steel cooling fins and the adoption of a fully adjustable tripod mount, allowing reliable sustained fire from a heavy finned barrel without the water jacket that encumbered contemporary Maxim and Vickers guns. As the first genuinely practical gas-operated machine gun family, it drew propellant gas through a port near the muzzle to drive a long-stroke piston cycling a rotating bolt. The Mle 1900 achieved wide international sales, going to Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Norway and other nations, and the Japanese examples became the direct technical ancestor of the later Type 3 heavy machine gun. It served as the immediate predecessor of the famous Mle 1914, which standardized and refined the same action for French service throughout the First World War.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 25000 g (881.8 oz) |
| Overall Length | 1250 mm (49.21") |
| Barrel Length | 787 mm (30.98") |
| Action Type | Gas Operated Long Stroke |
| Firing Mechanism | Hammer Fired |
| Trigger Type | Single Stage |
| Magazine Capacity | 24 rounds |
| Magazine Type | Stripper Clip |
| Muzzle Velocity | 724 m/s (2375 fps) |
| Muzzle Energy | 3355 J (2475 ft·lbf) |
| Effective Range | 2000 m (2187 yd) |
| Maximum Range | 3800 m (4156 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 500 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | Right Hand |
| Rifling Twist | 240 mm (9.45") |
| Number of Grooves | 4 |
| Frame Material | Steel |
| Barrel Material | Steel |
| Finish | Blued |
Calibers
- 8x50mmR Lebel · primary — also known as 8mm Lebel, Cartouche Mle 1886, Balle D, Balle 1886 M
Features
- Firing modes: Full Automatic
- Feed systems: 24 Round Rigid Metal Strip, 30 Round Rigid Metal Strip
- Safety mechanisms: Manual Safety
- Features: Air Cooled Barrel, Steel Cooling Rings, Strip Fed, Tripod Mounted, Sustained Fire Capable, Adjustable Tripod Mount, Rate Of Fire Adjuster, Gas Regulator, Rotating Bolt, Long Stroke Gas Piston
Variants
- Hotchkiss Mle 1897 - Original Production
- Hotchkiss Mle 1909 (Benet-Mercie) - Light Machine Gun Variant
- Hotchkiss Mle 1914 - Standard Wwi Heavy
Base model
Service history
Operators
- French Army · adopted 1900 · as Mitrailleuse Hotchkiss Modele 1900
- Imperial Japanese Army · adopted 1902 · as Type 35 / Hotchkiss (basis of Type 3)
- Mexican Army · adopted 1903 · as Ametralladora Hotchkiss Mle 1900
- Brazilian Army · adopted 1908 · as Metralhadora Hotchkiss
- Spanish Army · adopted 1907 · as Ametralladora Hotchkiss
- Kingdom of Norway · adopted 1898 · as Hotchkiss mitraljose
Conflicts
- Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
- Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
- World War I (1914-1918)
Production
Production years: 1900-1917
Several thousand Mle 1900 guns were produced by Hotchkiss et Cie for French service and a broad export market including Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Norway. Exact totals are not well documented and are eclipsed by the roughly 47,000 successor Mle 1914 guns and the very large Japanese Type 3/Type 92 derivative production that the Hotchkiss action ultimately spawned.
Origin
Country of origin: France
Designer: Laurence V. Benet and Henri A. Mercie
Discontinued: 1917
Notes
The Mle 1900's most important change from the Mle 1897 was metallurgical: the brass cooling 'donut' rings around the chamber were replaced with steel ones and the barrel was reworked with lower-carbon steel to extend service life under sustained fire, while a wholly adjustable tripod and (in later production) a rate-of-fire adjuster were added. Like all guns of the family it feeds from flat rigid metal strips rather than cloth belts, trading capacity for imperviousness to damp and dirt. The Mle 1900 was an export success well before any major war demonstrated the machine gun's battlefield dominance, and Japanese purchases of the type directly informed the indigenous Type 3 heavy machine gun developed during and after the Russo-Japanese War. Specifications vary between sources and export chamberings; figures here reflect the standard French 8mm Lebel pattern.
Background
Hotchkiss had no major war to prove its gun when the Mle 1900 appeared, so the Parisian firm sold it abroad: Japan bought a batch that its engineers reverse-studied so thoroughly the strip-fed, gas-operated, finned-barrel Hotchkiss became the genetic blueprint for every Japanese heavy machine gun through the Second World War. The same action, refined into the Mle 1914, would later arm both the French and American armies on the Western Front - a French gun designed by two American expatriates, whose export ancestor had quietly seeded the machine-gun doctrine of an empire on the far side of the world.