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

>Since they don’t use electricity I feel like they’re made with materials and technology that was already available in the 1750s

You need at least a steam engine to power the necessary mills and lathes.

It’s only when those machines were developed that mass production of precision parts became possible.

You need a pretty versatile industrial complex to be able to produce automatic firearms.