off smoothly." Design and features Superficially, the Bailey Machine Gun resembled the Gatling gun, as it also had multiple barrels and was hand cranked. The similarity was only superficial though, as the firing mechanism of the Bailey Machine Gun was significantly different than that of the Gatling gun. The Bailey Machine Gun used a belt feed system that did not remove the cartridges from the belt as the weapon was fired. Other rapid-fire weapons of this era used a drum or hopper to hold the ammunition. The belt-feed was considered to be very innovative, and many later machine guns would end up using belt-feed mechanisms of some sort. When the handle was cranked, the barrels as well as the firing mechanism rotated. The round was fired from the top barrel, and the weapon was designed so that a round could not be fired until the round and its associated barrel reached the top position on the weapon. This prevented accidental premature discharges. See also References "The Machine Gun, History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons" by George M. Chinn, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC. Prepared for the Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, 1951 Early machine guns Machine guns of the United States Multi-barrel machine guns