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The first successful self-loader was the Gatling gun, a hand-cranked revolver. It was invented by Richard Jordan Gatling and fielded by the Union forces during the American Civil War. Self-loaders use energy to reload. The world's first machine gun was the Maxim gun, developed by British inventor Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884.
He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24. [3] He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries and a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms. [4]
Samuel Colt (/ k oʊ l t /; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable.
The first English source about handheld firearm (hand cannon) was written in 1473. [ 24 ] Although evidence of cannons appears later in the Middle East than Europe, fire lances were described earlier by Hasan al-Rammah between 1240 and 1280, [ 25 ] and appeared in battles between Muslims and Mongols in 1299 and 1303. [ 26 ]
A firearm that automatically re-cocks and reloads the next round with each trigger-pull is considered a semi-automatic or autoloading firearm. The first "rapid firing" firearms were usually similar to the 19th-century Gatling gun, which would fire cartridges from a magazine as fast as and as long as the operator turned a crank. Eventually, the ...
One of the earliest rifled cannons was the Armstrong gun—also invented by William George Armstrong—which boasted significantly improved range, accuracy, and power than earlier weapons. The projectile fired from the Armstrong gun could reportedly pierce through a ship's side, and explode inside the enemy vessel, causing increased damage, and ...
The first firearm (a "proto-gun"), the fire lance, from the Huolongjing. Gunpowder was invented in China during the 9th century. [21] [22] [23] The first firearm was the fire lance, which was invented in China between the 10–12th centuries.
Repeating pistols were first invented during the 1880s, and became widely adopted in the early 20th century, with important design contributions from inventors such as John Browning and Georg Luger. The first repeating gun to see military service was actually not a firearm, but an airgun.