page_title: Montigny mitrailleuse
section_title: Specifications
hierarchical_section_title: Montigny mitrailleuse / Specifications
caption_attribution_description: English: Chinese officers with Montigny Mitrailleuse
context_page_description: The Montigny mitrailleuse was an early type of crank-operated machine-gun developed by the Belgian gun works of Joseph Montigny between 1859 and 1870. It was an improved version of the "Mitrailleuse", invented by Belgian Captain Fafschamps in 1851 which was a fixed 50-barrelled volley gun.
  The Montigny mitrailleuse was designed to defend narrow defensive positions such as the moats of fortresses. The Belgian army initially purchased Fafschamps volley guns. Only later did they acquire Montigny mitrailleuses.
  Joseph Montigny also promoted and sold the weapon for offensive field use by placing the weapon on an artillery carriage.
context_section_description: The weapon consisted of 37 barrels of 11 mm inside a cylindrical protective casing. Loading was performed with a loading plate containing 37 cartridges. It was inserted against the breech in one stroke and locked in with a hinged loading lever attached to the rear of the gun. The ammunition had a brass head and thin rolled brass foil body and was fired by needle pins. With the rotation of a crank, all shots were fired simultaneously, although later improvements used a cam which permitted the progressive firing of the 37 shots. Around 150–250 shots per minute could be fired depending on the skills of the operators. The whole weapon was very heavy, weighing 2,000 pounds (910 kg).
  The Montigny Mitrailleuse was built in numbers and used mostly to defend Belgian forts and other defensive positions.
caption: Chinese Qing Empire officers with Montigny mitrailleuse.
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