in 1917, before the united states joined the first world war, john browning brought two weapons to washington, d.c. these were: a water-cooled machine gun (later named the m1917 browning machine gun) and an automatic rifle. back then, this automatic rifle was called the browning machine rifle or bmr. both of these weapons fired the standard u.s. cartridge. john browning had set up a demonstration of the weapons at congress heights. congress heights is just outside of washington d.c. on 27 february 1917, browning tested the automatic rifle in front of 300 people. the crowd was so impressed that he was immediately given a contract for the weapon. it was quickly brought into service. the water-cooled machine gun was tested further.