page_title: Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun
section_title: Early models
hierarchical_section_title: Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun / History and design / Early models
caption_attribution_description: This image was taken at the Musée de l'Armée, Paris.
context_page_description: The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun chambered for the 8mm Lebel cartridge became the standard machine gun of the French Army during the latter half of World War I. It was manufactured by the French arms company Hotchkiss et Cie, which had been established in the 1860s by American industrialist Benjamin B. Hotchkiss. The gas-actuated Hotchkiss system was first formulated in 1893 by Odkolek von Ujezda and improved into its final form by Hotchkiss armament engineers, American Laurence Benét and his French assistant Henri Mercié.
  The Mle 1914 was the last version of a series of nearly identical Hotchkiss designs: the Mle 1897, Mle 1900 and the Mle 1909. The Hotchkiss Mle 1914 became the French infantry standard in late 1917, replacing the unreliable St. Étienne Mle 1907. The American Expeditionary Forces in France also purchased 7,000 Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine guns in 8mm Lebel, and used them extensively at the front in 1917 and 1918. Hotchkiss heavy machine guns, some being of earlier types, were also used in combat by Japan, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, and Poland.
context_section_description: The Hotchkiss was based on a design by Captain Baron Adolf Odkolek von Ujezda of Vienna, first patented in July 1889 with further patents following in the following years, tested in 1893 in Saint-Denis, near Paris. The patents had been purchased in 1894–1895 by the firm of Benjamin Hotchkiss. Benjamin Hotchkiss was no longer alive at the time of the purchase, but the Odkolek design was further developed and greatly improved under the direction of American-born Laurence Vincent Benét. In 1898 an export model was offered for international sales by Hotchkiss and sold to Brazil, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Norway and Venezuela that year. With some useful changes, such as the addition of five cooling radiator rings on the barrel, the same basic design led to the Mle 1900. The gun was tested in 1901 by two Chasseur battalions and in 1903–1904 with cavalry units. The French Army bought another 50 Hotchkiss machine guns in 1906 for comparative trials but adopted the more complex Puteaux Mle 1905 (upgraded as the St. Étienne Mle 1907) to equip the infantry in 1907–1909. Nevertheless, 600 Mle 1900 machine guns were also purchased by the French military for use in overseas colonies
caption: 8mm Lebel ammunition in a feed strip
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