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
Firearms had existed since the 13th century, and were imported to Europe in the 14th. (You can argue before in both cases, it depends on your definition of what a firearm is)
These were limited primarily by the poor metallurgy of the time, lack of precision machining to make consistent bullets and barrels, and the fact that you had to load the bullet, powder, and wadding separately.
Cartridges is the real answer.
As soon as the technology existed to make cartridges with the bullet and powder encased together, fully automatic weapons weren’t that far behind.
The technology and precision machining needed to make both are hand-in-hand.
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