9780889351318 - Devils Paintbrush von Goldsmith, D. (2 Ergebnisse)

Second Edition, Expanded and Revised, 367 pages, Hard cover with a dust jacket, Over 500 illustrations. Maxim invented a self-powered machine gun, which performed all the necessary functions--loading, cocking, locking, firing, unlocking, extracting, ejecting, indexing and reloading--by means of the gun's own ammunition-instigated recoil energy, which others had described as "at best useless, and at worst dangerous". As the sun set forever on the era of the hand-cranked mahcine gun, consolidations and licensed production agreements turned the Maxim into a worldwide phenomenon. During World War I the Maxim earned the singular if somewhat dubious distinction of being the only gun used in virtually identical versions by both sides: "The Devel's Paintbrush" was an expression coined during the Great War by allied correspondents to describe the ghastly carnage wreaked by MG08 Maxims in the hands of elite German machine gun crews. Prototype and production versions of every sort of Maxim from over a dozen user countries are described and illustrated, along with the incredibly varied and ingenious array of accessories an ancillaies produced around the world during the Maxim's eighty-year lifespan. A fascinaing and valuable reference. Long out of print. A beautiful Very Fine As New copy at a reasonable price.

Hardcover. Zustand: Near Fine. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good. 2nd Edition. The definitive history. pp.[xiii]387. Illus. Figs. Tables. Frontis. DW in archival sleeve; sunned.