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A somewhat facetious post, but it's a little bit of history:
J M Browning's first entry into the machine gun field resulted in the Model 1895 built by Colt and later Marlin. Called the "potato digger," it got the nickname due to the operating lever beneath the barrel. Gas from a port in the underside of the barrel a couple inches behind the muzzle impinged on the cup-like chamber on the end of the operating lever. The force of the gas on the lever cup caused the operating lever to fly backward almost 180 degrees, and a rod connected to the operating lever actuated the feed and fire mechanism in the receiver. The operating lever would swing back and forth in a blur during firing, and in some cases during use the op lever actually would dig its own little "trench" -- hence the name "potato digger."
There was one of these mounted on a tripod at a war memorial in my home town for decades, and then in May of 1986 it disappeared overnight -- during a 30 day amnesty period for registering unregistered MGs.
No, I didn't do it.
Noah
Might as well face it, you're addicted to guns . . .
Two potato diggers were featured in the movie "Rough Riders." I believe they were chambered for the 7.62X54R. (There's a good article on the movie's firearms in the August 1997 issue of Soldier of Fortune.) The Colt was available in a wide range of calibers including 7mm Mauser (a favorite
of Mexican revolutionaries) and 30-06; The Colt was - I believe -the basis for the Marlin-Rockwell machine guns of World War I.
Riamh Nar Dhruid O Spairn Lann
- motto on the Irish Regiments' flags
), to me a levergun is one where the lever is manually operated by the shooter. But an interesting post nonetheless. 