Women making Browning machine guns general view of polishing shop, Winchester Repeating Arms Company, New Haven, Connecticut. During WWI, women started working jobs that were traditionally filled by men. These jobs included police officer, bank clerk, ticket seller, elevator operator, chauffeur, street car conductor, railroad trackwalker, section hand, locomotive wiper and oiler, locomotive dispatcher, block operator, draw bridge attendant, and employment in machine shops, steel mills, powder and ammunition factories, airplane works, boot blacking and farming. The M1917A1 Heavy Machine Gun was one of many weapons designed by the legendary John M. Browning. It was first used in World War I as the M1917 HMG. Nearly 70,000 of these weapons were produced in 1917-1918. After the armistice, many of these weapons were placed in long term storage.