A new type of technology during WW1 is the machine gun. The machine gun was the best new invention during the war. The 1914 machine gun, usually was positioned on a flat tripod. A tripod helped aim more steady and took pressure or weight off the gunners arm. The gunner would not have to hold the gun up, only aim and fire. A machine gun would require a gun crew of four to six operators. They could fire 400-600 rounds of ammunition per minute. The machine gun could fire so many rounds because it had a long metal clip that usually sat in an ammunition box with rounds that fed a fabric belt or a metal strip. The reality however was that these early machine guns would rapidly overheat and become inoperative without the aid of cooling mechanisms.
