The Salvator-Dormus M1893 also known as Skoda M1893 was a

heavy machine gun A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or ...

of Austro-Hungarian origin. It was patented by

Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria it, Carlo Salvatore Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Filippo Jacopo Gennaro Lodovico Gonzaga Raniero , image = Karl Salvator Austria 1839 1892.jpg , birth_date = , birth_place= Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Austrian Empire , death_dat ...

and Count George von Dormus and was manufactured by Skoda Works

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabitants. The city is known worldwid ...

. The Salvator-Dormus was chambered in the 8x50mmR round fed from an overhead magazine and was

water-cooled Cooling tower and water discharge of a nuclear power plant Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and n ...

with an oil lubrication device. There was also a pendulum adjustment in the trigger mechanism that allowed the operator to select the cyclic

rate of fire Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. This can be influenced by several factors, including operator training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and weapon condition. In m ...

, anywhere from 180 to 250 rounds per minute. The M1893 was cheaper than the

Maxim gun The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian ...

but was gradually replaced by the Schwarzlose MG M.07/12. One of these machine guns was taken to Peking by sailors from the SMS ''Zenta'' and used during the successful 1900 defence of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy in

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. Although secondary sources often cite the gun needing a stationary mounting limited to ships and fortifications, this machine gun had both a tripod and landing carriage mounting as evidenced by period photographs. It appears but is not yet confirmed that the mounting used in the successful defense at Peking during the Boxer Rebellion was a landing carriage mount with a shield. Although referred to as a "Maxim" gun, the 1893 could have easily been mistaken for such due to its brass water jacket. A 1901 photograph below shows the gun with such a brass water jacket on a light landing carriage with ammunition boxes mounted on the carriage, typical of Naval landing carriage mountings.

Sources

Fowler, W., Sweeny, P. (2007, 2011). "The World Encyclopedia of Rifles and Machine Guns", JG Press

United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division U.S. Government Printing Office, 1902, "Notes of Military Interest for 1901, Issue 36", page 129 Medium machine guns Early machine guns 8 mm machine guns World War I Austro-Hungarian infantry weapons Machine guns of Czechoslovakia World War I machine guns {{machinegun-stub