John T. Kewish was born in 1868 in Smithtown, New York, and was the principal creator of the primer-actuated blowback machine gun in 1918, which is covered by U.S. patent no. 1,472,126. John C. Garand was assigned 25% as a co-inventor. Kewish was also a contributor to several later automatic firearm developments. He died on March 1, 1945, in New York, NY.