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
they did, full auto was the goal, it took years to as you said “put their heads together” research takes time, some one smarter (more imaginative) then every one else, luck, money. things don’t just appear over night
do you even know how much engineering and moving parts go in to a semi or full auto gun?
1911 semi auto pistol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjQrhDKDWFk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjQrhDKDWFk)
ar-15 full auto rifle
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omv85cLfmxU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omv85cLfmxU)
Manufacturing at scale and advancements in material technology.
Could some smart guy make a machine gun in 1750 if they realized the knowledge? Probably. Would it last more than a few dozen rounds? Unlikely. Manufacturing good steel springs ain’t easy.
They didn’t even have cartridges until the 1800s (first was 1808) and they didn’t have smokeless powder until almost the 20th century (1889).
The answer is they didn’t have the technology.
Another hurdle was perceived need. While an M16 is viewed as better for soldiers than previous guns, adoption of even semi auto rifles was slow and only accepted as armies with them dominated. It takes actual application to realize the flaws in your plans.
Once bullets and powder were combined into one piece, machine guns weren’t far behind that.
Prior to that, each projectile needed its own powder to be added (per shot) to create propulsion. Once they were combined into an all-in-one package, it opened up the door to a whole new world of firearms.
~~The earliest repeating firearm was I believe the puckle gun made in the 18th century.~~ *Apparently not quite– there were flintlock repeaters as early as 1630. Then came the Gatling gun in the 19th. The biggest obstacle to making those more portable was most likely manufacturing tech, and they just couldn’t figure out a way to make them portable enough for a single person to carry and wield.
But what held firearms back for the longest time in general was setting up the shot: you needed powder, the projectile, a way to spark it, keep it all under pressure so it actually went bang instead of just burning ineffectively, and strong enough not to explode and hurt the soldier. Once we figured out how to do that with metallic cartridges which could be stored in magazines and manipulated by mechanisms inside the gun, machine guns followed shortly after.
Precision machining ain’t the easiest thing man. You’d have to hammer out the parts over an anvil. Hell, even modern machine guns jam. Can you imagine the situation where the metal was more warped or uneven?
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