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Inventions

The Gatling gun was designed by the American inventor Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861 and patented on November 4, 1862.Gatling wrote that he created it to reduce the size of armies and so reduce the number of deaths by combat and disease, and to show how futile war is.Although the first Gatling gun was capable of firing continuously, it required a person to crank it; t.. Read More..

The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known in the Soviet documentation as Avtomat Kalashnikova (Russian: ??????? ???????????). It is also known as Kalashnikov, AK, or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year of World War II (194.. Read More..

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of three to eighteen hundred rounds per minute.Fully automatic weapons are generally categorized as submachine guns, machine guns, or autocannons. Submachine guns are hand-held automatic weapons f.. Read More..

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with its target or in proximity to it.Historically, it was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive or fish torpedo; colloquially called a fish. The term torpedo was or.. Read More..

Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, using diatomaceous earth, or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued. Dynamite was invented by the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Ger.. Read More..

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The term "revolver" refers to a handgun, but other weapons may also have a revolving chamber. These include some models of grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles.HistoryIn the development of firearms, an important limiting factor was the ti.. Read More..

A flamethrower is a mechanical incendiary device designed to project a long, controllable stream of fire. They were first used during World War I, and widely used in World War II.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure.. Read More..

A repeating rifle is a single barreled rifle containing multiple rounds of ammunition. These rounds are loaded from a magazine by means of a manual or automatic mechanism, and the action that reloads the rifle also typically recocks the firing action. The term repeating rifle is most often applied to weapons in which the next cartridge is loaded by a manual action, as.. Read More..

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy blade. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the victim's head. The device is noted for long being the main method of execution in France and, more particularly, for its use during the French.. Read More..

Poudre B was the first practical smokeless gunpowder. It was perfected between 1882 and 1884 at "Laboratoire Central des Poudres et Salpetres" in Paris, France. Originally called "Poudre V", from the name of the inventor, Paul Vieille, it was arbitrarily renamed "Poudre B" to distract German espionage."Poudre B" is made from 68.2% insoluble nitrocellulose, 29.8% solub.. Read More..

A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-determined, in a similar fashion to a regular naval depth charge.The inventor of the first such bomb was the British engineer Bar.. Read More..

A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on top of the tower and shoot into the fortification. Because the towers wer.. Read More..

TT-30 is a Russian semi-automatic pistol. It was developed in the early 1930s by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Soviet military to replace the Nagant M1895 revolver that had been in use since Tsarist times, though it ended up being used in conjunction with rather than replacing the M1895. It served until 1952, when it was replaced by the Makarov pistol.Deve.. Read More..

The Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva is a Soviet semi-automatic battle rifle. The SVT-40 saw widespread service during and after World War II. Intended to be the new service rifle of the Soviet Red Army, production was disrupted by the German invasion in 1941 resulting in a change back to the older Mosin–Nagant bolt-action rifle for the duration of WWII. After the w.. Read More..

A semi-automatic pistol is a type of handgun which utilizes the energy of the fired cartridge to cycle the action of the firearm and advance the next available cartridge into position for firing. One round is fired each time the trigger of a semi-automatic pistol is pulled.Early HistoryDuring the early and mid 1800s, single-shot pistols began to lose popularity as rev.. Read More..

Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually. They relied almost entirely on the shell's velocity for their lethality. The munition has been obsolete since the end of W.. Read More..

A volley gun is a gun with several barrels for firing a number of shots, either simultaneously or in sequence. They differ from modern machine guns in that they lack automatic loading and automatic fire and are limited by the number of barrels bundled together.The ribauldequin was the earliest attempt at a volley gun. Also known as an “infernal machine” or an “o.. Read More..

Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is a chemical explosive—the earliest known. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer.Because of its burning properties and the amount of heat and gas volume that it generates, gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in f.. Read More..

An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and generally armed with weapons, which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. It is not uncommon for AFVs to be simply referred to as "armour".Invention HistoryNikolay Lebedenko was a Russian military engineer known as t.. Read More..

The Livens Projector was a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with flammable or toxic chemicals.Invention HistoryIt was created by the British army officer Captain William H. Livens of the Royal Engineers.Later, in World War II he worked on petroleum warfare weapons such as the flame fougasse and various other flame throwing weapons.A large .. Read More..

From 1852 to 1885, perforated pipe systems were used in textile mills throughout New England as a means of fire protection. However, they were not automatic systems, they did not turn on by themselves. Inventors first began experimenting with automatic sprinklers around 1860. The first automatic sprinkler system was patented by Philip W. Pratt of Abington, MA, in 1872.. Read More..

A Taser or conducted electrical weapon is an electroshock weapon sold by Taser International. It fires two small dart-like electrodes, which stay connected to the main unit by conductors, to deliver electric current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles causing "neuromuscular incapacitation".Early use of an electronic control device, like the TASER, by law enforceme.. Read More..

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal and securing it with barbs or toggling claws, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal. A harp.. Read More..