Britain’s Forgotten Lightweight Machine Gun: Beardmore-Farquhar with Curatorial Assistant Joe Ford

Meet the Beardmore-Farquhar, a British light machine gun design that promised to be lighter, cheaper, and more efficient than the famous Lewis Gun… but never made it into service. In this week’s episode, Curatorial Assistant Joe takes us through its unusual gas-spring system, the trials it faced between 1916 and 1931, and why it ultimately failed to impress. Subscribe to our channel for more videos about arms and armour Help us bring history to life by supporting us here: https://royalarmouries.org/support-us... Sign up to our museum membership scheme here: https://royalarmouries.org/support-us... 0:00 Intro 0:24 Beardmore-Farquhar LMG 2:03 Competing with the Lewis Gun 4:07 Early Trials and Changes 8:50 The Troubled 1921 Trials 11:00 Stripping the Beardmore-Farquhar LMG 27:16 Later Designs and Tests 30:06 Why it Ultimately Failed 31:42 Outro Sources: Patent: https://patentimages.storage.googleap... Hotchkiss Trial images: https://www.forgottenweapons.com/ligh... Ian's Video on the Rifle:    • Shooting the British Farquhar-Hill Rifle   Farquhar Firing Video: Luce Newspaper B0536 from September 1934, Archivio Luce Cinecittà, available at:    • Una nuova mitragliatrice a fuoco rapido.   ⚔Website: https://royalarmouries.org/home ⚔Blog: https://royalarmouries.org/stories/ ⚔Facebook:   / royalarmouriesmuseum   ⚔Twitter:   / royal_armouries   ⚔ Instagram:   / royalarmouriesmuseum   We are the Royal Armouries, the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Discover what goes on behind the scenes and watch our collection come to life. See combat demonstrations, experience jousting and meet our experts. Have a question about arms and armour? Feel free to leave us a comment and we'll do our best to answer it.