Successfully leading a group of military experts to develop the Maxim M1884 Rifle was not easy for Maxim, as he also needed to work on modifying his machine gun to develop a new generation of machine guns compatible with smokeless powder ammunition.
The discovery of smokeless powder was a huge change for rifles, and its impact on machine guns might be even greater than on rifles.
Because machine guns rely on high firing rates for suppressive fire, it means they produce much more smoke than rifles when fired.
As long as the smoke issue can be resolved, the power of machine guns can at least double. If we also consider the increased power of bullets due to smokeless powder, a machine gun compatible with smokeless powder machine gun rounds would certainly be several times more powerful than a machine gun loaded with black powder rounds.
It must be admitted that Maxim indeed had an extraordinary obsession with machine guns.
