Developed by Issac Newton Lewis, a U.S. Army officer, the Lewis Gun was one of the lightest machine gun offerings of its era, coming in at 28 pounds with the distinctive barrel cooling assembly included. Unable to sell the gun to his superiors, Lewis resigned and took off for Belgium, where he made a tidy profit licensing the design to Birmingham Small Arms and Savage Arms. Among other distinctions, a Lewis Gun would be the first machine gun taken on a powered aircraft, and it saw very active use in World War I, though primarily with the other members of the Entente Powers. Ironically, the American design mostly stocked European arsenals due to Ordnance Department politics, with a reported 6,000 of these .30-06 caliber Savage manufactured M1917 Lewis Guns ordered during World War I by the U.S. Navy for the Marine Corps, and 2,500 by the U.S. Army, with the .30-06 caliber Chauchat and Hotchkiss 1909 machine guns issued overseas to the American Expeditionary Force in France instead of them, which caused some dismay among the troops who had trained with the favored Lewis Gun stateside. Blade front and folding peep rear sights, knurled steel barrel jacket, and aluminum cooling fins surrounding the barrel. Both the pistol grip and buttstock are smooth hardwood. The top of the receiver bears the U.S. nomenclature and a small "crossed cannons" stamp, with the Savage address and caliber marking on the top cover and additional Savage markings on the right side. Included with the lot are three total magazines (two standard 47 round, one high capacity 97-round for aircraft use), magazine winding tool/loading tool, clamp-on sling swivel, clamp-on anti-aircraft sight, clamp-on bipod, rare heavy duty rigid field mount clamp-on bipod, an extra gas piston and an assortment of vintage Lewis Gun Ordnance manuals. Consignor states this J. Curtis Earl owned gun comes with a loading tool used in the sting operation that attempted to capture Pancho Villa. Provenance: The J. Curtis Earl Collection; Property of a Gentleman