eli5 Why weren’t machine guns possible to make in the past?

Question

What stopped 18-19th century armies with guns from being able to create automatic weapons like AK-47s and Uzis?
Since they don’t use electricity I feel like they’re made with materials and technology that was already available in the 1750s, surely they could’ve put their heads together to create a machine gun and just annihilate any ops…

Thanks

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Fullimates had not yet been discovered. These chemicals were required for percussion cap. Percussion cap are required for cartridges. Cartridges are required for fully automatic guns.