Diagram of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1895_Colt-Browning_machine_gun" class="extiw" title="en:M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun">M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun</a>'s unique gas actuated lever operating system. <i>p</i> is the plug, which can be seen in the port on the bottom of the barrel on the left side of the upper image. When the gun is fired, hot gasses behind bullet pop the plug out of the port and cause the lever, <i>l</i>, to be driven downward. the lever is hinged near point 40 (difficult to read), so its rotates down and to the rear. This motion causes the longer operating lever, <i>c</i>, to move downward and be pushed to the rear. This presses on a sliding rod, unlabeled, which rotates the bolt upward to unlock it and then pushes it rearward against the long spring in the handle, ejecting the round. This spring pushes the bolt forward again, until it seats a newly loaded bullet and then drops downward into the tilted position seen in the upper diagram. The smaller spring, <i>s</i> in the upper diagram, pushes the small lever forward until the plug is pressed back into the port.
<ul><li>Ordnance and Gunnery: A Text-book Prepared for the Cadets of the United States *Military Academy, West Point</li>
<li>By Ormond Mitchell Lissak</li>
<li>Published by J. Wiley &amp; sons, 1907</li>
<li>Page 574</li></ul>
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