User:Dcclemen/Gun

This article does appear to be neutrally written and the content is completly relavant to the history of guns.

Arquebus and Musket

Arquebus and musket[edit]

The arquebus was a firearm that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the early 15th century. Its name is derived from the German word Hackenbüchse. It originally described a hand cannon with a lug or hook on the underside for stabilizing the weapon, usually on defensive fortifications. In the early 1500s, heavier variants known as "muskets" that were fired from resting Y-shaped supports appeared. The musket was able to penetrate heavy armor, and as a result armor declined, which also made the heavy musket obsolete. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, it was the term musket which remained in use up into the 1800s. It may not be completely inaccurate to suggest that the musket was in its fabrication simply a larger arquebus. At least on one occasion the musket and arquebus have been used interchangeably to refer to the same weapon, and even referred to as an "arquebus musket." A Habsburg commander in the mid-1560s once referred to muskets as "double arquebuses."

A shoulder stock was added to the arquebus around 1470 and the matchlock mechanism sometime before 1475. The matchlock arquebus was the first firearm equipped with a trigger mechanism and the first portable shoulder-arms firearm. Before the matchlock, handheld firearms were fired from the chest, tucked under one arm, while the other arm maneuvered a hot pricker to the touch hole to ignite the gunpowder.

The Ottomans may have used arquebuses as early as the first half of the 15th century during the Ottoman–Hungarian wars of 1443–1444. The arquebus was used in substantial numbers during the reign of king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (r. 1458–1490). Arquebuses were used by 1472 by the Spanish and Portuguese at Zamora. Likewise, the Castilians used arquebuses as well in 1476. Later, a larger arquebus known as a musket was used for breaching heavy armor, but this declined along with heavy armor. Matchlock firearms continued to be called musket. They were used throughout Asia by the mid-1500s.

Musket

Moore states “Therefore, firearms development in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries came mostly from private gunsmiths attempting to appease hunters and sportsmen, not military officers.”. The military not utilizing the musket gave private gunsmiths ample time to develop the musket to its true potential. He sums it up in the next paragraph by explaining “By the late seventeenth century, muskets had become refined and reliable enough to be accepted as general issue to armies and began to replace older weapons like bows and spears.”. Not only did the musket make these primitive weapons obsolete after some modifications, but it also only kept getting better. Moore explains “While one industry faded away, a new industry was born. The musket reached perfection and made the greatest impact on the battlefield and in industry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.”. He ends the article saying “However, in the eighteenth century, the musket reigned supreme, and the various systems that were conceived to produce them are a unique example of how commodities and their production can have an effect on history.”. He further explains how great of an impact the musket had on not only firearms but history and commodities in general.

Modern guns[edit]

Several developments in the 19th century led to the development of modern guns.

In 1815, Joshua Shaw invented percussion caps, which replaced the flintlock trigger system. The new percussion caps allowed guns to shoot reliably in any weather condition.

In 1835, Casimir Lefaucheux invented the first practical breech loading firearm with a cartridge. The new cartridge contained a conical bullet, a cardboard powder tube, and a copper base that incorporated a primer pellet.

W.Y. Carmen states “Terry and Prince, in 1853 and 1858 respectively, produced their versions of guns on the bolt principle. The Terry rifle only used the bolt to insert the cartridge and it had to be fired by means of a percussion cock, still on the outside. The combination of the two ideas appeared in the needle-gun of 1869 in which the bolt pushed the shot home and being made secure by a quarter turn to the right, was now ready to fire by means of the needle.”

The person who took the next step would be described as “James Lee, A Scottish watchmaker who had lived in North America for many years, had designed a bolt-action which was combined with the seven grooved rifle barrel of Metford-mentioned before. The Bore was now fixed at .303 and this combined work came to be known as the Lee-Metford rifle, used for the first time in a standard British weapon the new idea of a magazine.”

A major next step stated is “It is said that the Winchester Arms Company was the first to produce a popular automatic rifle, in 1903. The Winchester repeater was famous from early days, when it was developed on a mechanism designed in 1849 by Messrs.

Machine guns[edit]

In 1861, Richard Jordan Gatling invented the Gatling gun, the first successful machine gun, capable of firing 200 gunpowder cartridges in a minute. It was fielded by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s. In 1884, Hiram Maxim invented the Maxim gun, the first single-barreled machine gun.

The world's first submachine gun (a fully automatic firearm which fires pistol cartridges) able to be maneuvered by a single soldier is the MP 18.1, invented by Theodor Bergmann. It was introduced into service in 1918 by the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of the Stosstruppen (assault groups specialized in trench combat).^{[citation needed]}

In civilian use, the captive bolt pistol is used in agriculture to humanely stun farm animals for slaughter.

The first assault rifle was introduced during World War II by the Germans, known as the StG44. It was the first firearm to bridge the gap between long range rifles, machine guns, and short range submachine guns. Since the mid-20th century, guns that fire beams of energy rather than solid projectiles have been developed, and also guns that can be fired by means other than the use of gunpowder.^{[citation needed]}

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia states “Machine Gun, gun in which the operations of loading, extraction, and firing are performed by automatic mechanisms, and which thus is capable of sustained or continuous fire.”. Sleeman states “There are practically three distinct classes of machine guns, viz., those of rifle caliber, firing only rifle bullets; those of one-inch caliber, firing only solid shot; and those of one-and-a-quarter-inch caliber and upward, which by the Geneva Convention are entitled to fire shells.” These give a very broad but effective definition of what a machine gun is. It continues by stating “They can automatically feed and fire cartridges as long as the trigger is depressed. Semiautomatic guns, by contrast, automatically reload but require that the trigger be pulled each time a round is fired.”.

Operating Principles

Most guns use compressed gas confined by the barrel to propel the bullet up to high speed, though devices operating in other ways are sometimes called guns. In firearms the high-pressure gas is generated by combustion, usually of gunpowder. This principle is similar to that of internal combustion engines, except that the bullet leaves the barrel, while the piston transfers its motion to other parts and returns down the cylinder. As in an internal combustion engine, the combustion propagates by deflagration rather than by detonation, and the optimal gunpowder, like the optimal motor fuel, is resistant to detonation. This is because much of the energy generated in detonation is in the form of a shock wave, which can propagate from the gas to the solid structure and heat or damage the structure, rather than staying as heat to propel the piston or bullet. The shock wave at such high temperature and pressure is much faster than that of any bullet, and would leave the gun as sound either through the barrel or the bullet itself rather than contributing to the bullet's velocity.

Operating Systems

These are not all the different types of firing operation available, but it covers many firearms used in today’s world.

1. Recoil Operation

"When the cartridge is fired, the barrel and bolt are allowed to recoil rearward for a short distance while locked together. The bolt and barrel are then unlocked, further rearward movement of the barrel stopped, and the bolt allowed to continue rearward against the pressure of the recoil spring. At the end of the bolt's travel, the recoil spring returns the bolt and barrel into battery. The length of bolt travel determines whether the system is short- or long-recoil. For short-recoil, the bolt travel is less than the overall cartridge length. This system is very popular, as it is compact and light. For long-recoil, the bolt travel distance is the same or more than the overall cartridge length. This system is rare, as it is expensive and heavy."

2. Gas Operation

"This operating mechanism uses hot, expanding propellant gases bled from the barrel or trapped at the muzzle to cycle the action. There are two basic systems of gas operation. The first is direct impingement on the bolt via gas tube. In this case, propellant gases bled from the barrel through a small hole travel through a gas tube to be directed against a surface on the bolt. The energy in the gas causes the bolt to unlock and move rearward against recoil spring pressure. The second type of gas operation system is direct impingement via piston and rod."

3. Short-Stroke Piston

"Propellant gases are bled from the barrel through small axial hole(s) into a gas block. The gas block redirects the gas flow against a captive but movable piston in the gas block, a fixed piston on the operating rod or an indeterminate piston rod. The short power stroke acts on the operating rod(s), causing them to move rearward, unlocking the bolt and pushing it rearward against the pressure of the recoil spring."

4. Long-Stroke Piston

"Propellant gases are bled from the barrel through small axial hole(s) into an expansion tube where they act directly on a gas piston attached to the operating rod. Many systems of this type have an adjustable valve assembly that enables teh shooter to vary the amount of gas bled into the expansion tube to suit climatic conditions and ballistic variations. Also common are gas vent holes in the expansion chamber to bleed off any excess gas pressure."

5. Muzzle Gas Trap

"This type of system traps propellant gas at the muzzle in a chamber that redirects the gas pressure against a piston attached to the operating rod. This system has not proven popular."

6. Blowback/Inertia Operation

"There are two types of blowback/inertia operation. The first is direct or straight. The unlocked bolt is pushed rearward against its own inertia and recoil spring pressure by the back thrust from the breech pressure to drop to safe levels. This system is suitable for use with cartridges developing less than 40,000 psi of breech pressure. The second is delayed. Engagement surfaces or gas pressure delay the opening of the bolt until the breech pressure drops to safe levels. This system is suitable for use with cartridges having average breech pressures in excess of 40,000 psi. This system requires a fluted chamber."

Ammunition

Cartridge Based Ammunition “The cartridge is a self-contained unit comprising the cartridge case, the primer, the propellant (powder), and the projectile or ‘bullet’ (Figure 2). All weapons that fi re cartridge-based ammunition have a barrel, which is integral to the process of delivering energy, momentum, and direction to the bullet.”. Cartridge-based ammunition is the most common ammunition in today’s society.