Twin anti-aircraft installation of the Lewis (2x7.7 mm) machine gun

The idea of the machine gun design belonged to Samuel McLean. Unable to independently receive orders and start production of a new weapon, the developer sold the patent rights for its production to Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis of the US Army, who later moved on to the idea of developing a light machine gun with forced air cooling of the barrel. However, Lewis failed to convince the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army of the need to adopt his machine gun, retired and left the United States in 1913. Initially, he went to Belgium, and soon to the UK. In Belgium, he founded the company Armes Automatique Lewis to produce a machine gun. In the UK, Lewis worked closely with Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) to produce weapons. The Lewis machine gun turned out to be successful, distinguished by the reliability of automation and excellent performance. The design of the machine gun consisted of 88 parts. The weight of the weapon, without cartridges and bipod, was 10.63 kg. The rate of fire is 500-600 rounds per minute. The power supply is a 47—round disc magazine.