St . Étienne Mle 1907 The French St . Étienne Mle 1907 ( ) was a gas operated air - cooled machine gun in 8mm Lebel which was widely used in the early years of the First World War . It was not derived from the Hotchkiss machine - gun , as often repeated erroneously . It was instead a gas operated blow - forward design borrowed from the semi - automatic Bang rifle of 1903 . The Bang system was transposed in 1905 to the French Puteaux APX Machine Gun which soon proved to be unsatisfactory . Then , two years later , the Mle 1907 " St - Etienne " machine gun followed as an improved redesign of the " Puteaux " machine gun . However the Mle 1907 " Saint Etienne " was only a partial redesign : the original blow - forward gas piston , rack - and - pinion system and bolt mechanism of the Mle 1905 " Puteaux " machine gun had all been kept unmodified inside the newer weapon . Eventually a total of over 39 , 000 " St - Etienne " Mle 1907 machine guns were manufactured between 1908 and late 1917 . They were widely used by French infantry during the early part of WW - 1 until their replacement by the simpler and more reliable Hotchkiss M1914 machine - gun . History . Around the turn of the century the French military evaluated machine guns made by the private French firm of Hotchkiss et Cie . While the tests were technically convincing , following which Hotchkiss machine - guns were purchased for French alpine and colonial troops , it was decided for political reasons that a machine gun for French line infantry had to originate from state - owned arms manufactures . A first attempt by a French government arsenal near Paris ( APX ) was the Puteaux M1905 machine gun inspired by the first gas actuated blow forward Bang rifle system of 1903 . It was a deliberate attempt to develop an infantry machine gun that would be mechanically different from the patented Hotchkiss Mle 1900 machine gun design . However the M1905 Puteaux machine gun soon proved to be unsatisfactory . Consequently , the national arsenal at Saint Étienne ( MAS ) thoroughly reworked and modified the Puteaux machine gun resulting in some measure of improvement but also increased complexity — 64 component parts for the St Etienne Mle 1907 vs only 32 parts for the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 . Barrel changes on the Mle 1907 St Etienne were much easier than on the M1905 Puteaux and its firing rate could be set at any point between 8 rounds per minute and about 600 rounds per minute . Either metal strips or fabric belts , the latter introduced in 1916 , for the 8mm Lebel ammunition could be used . George Chinn notes about the 1907 model that : " While it was gas actuated by means of a piston , the French reversed the conventional principle . Instead of the piston thrust rearward furnishing the source of energy to operate the piece , the gas propels the piston forward to unlock the bolt . The piston is attached by a spring - loaded rod to a gear rack . This in turn engages a spur gear which is fastened to an actuating lever . When the lever is in the forward horizontal position and engages a cam slot in the bolt , the gun is locked . Upon firing , the gas drives the piston forward , compressing the spring and causing the spur gear to rotate clockwise . The actuating lever turns with the gear for a half revolution , retracting the bolt and stopping at the rear horizontal position . The driving spring then forces the piston rearward , which reverses the action and returns the bolt to battery . " Nevertheless , in the muddy environment of trench warfare the mechanically complex St Étienne Mle 1907 suffered from frequent stoppages and was difficult to maintain by front - line soldiers . A quote from a French post - war military evaluation says it all : " admirable weapon , patented clockwork but highly temperamental and sparing its whims only for the most meticulous of machine - gun virtuosos " . The Mle 1907 St Etienne had to be taken away from the front lines , beginning in July 1917 , and progressively replaced by the simpler and much more reliable Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun . Large numbers of the M1907 St Etienne machine gun were then transferred to military units in the rear , to the French colonies and also to the Italian Army . Many also ended up in the Greek Army during the 1920s . Altogether 39 , 700 Mle 1907 St Etienne machine guns had been manufactured when the decision to close down their last assembly line was taken in November 1917 .