Submachine Gun
Submachine guns are small, portable machine guns intended for use at close range. The first submachine gun was made by Hugo Schmeisser, a German firearm designer, toward the end of World War I. He experimented with semiautomatic pistols, which fired rounds at lower velocities than standard guns. His weapon, the MP1918, had an 8-inch (20.32cm) barrel and fired 9mm rounds, which were originally used in pistols. The MP 1918 operated using blowback, a simple system during which spent cartridge cases were blown backward out of the chamber due to the gases created when the weapon was fired. This action forced the bolt back against a spring and tripped the mechanism that ejected the old cartridge. After the gases dissipated, the spring pressed the bolt forward as a new cartridge was introduced to the chamber. This cycle continued as long as the trigger was held. Schmeisser used a heavy bolt to minimize the spring's motion so the gun would not operate faster than the mechanism could handle. As a result, this first submachine gun fired about 400 rounds per minute.
Others soon followed with variations on Schmeisser's design. Vasily Degtyarev(1890-1959) of the former Soviet Union built a submachine gun capable of firing 900 rounds per minute, a speed too great for accuracy. In the 1920s, John Taliaferro Thompson (1860-1940), an American army officer and armament consultant, developed and patented a submachine gun that was later called the Tommy gun; it had a large drum magazine, which was later replaced by a box magazine, and fired the same.45 caliber cartridges used in the Colt pistol. This gun was closely connected to the gangland wars in American cities during the 1920s and 1930s.
World War II saw the creation of many more submachine guns. The Germans came out with a version of the Schmeisser, often called the "burp gun" by the Allies. It was made of inexpensive sheet metal and fired at a rate of 500 rounds per minute. It used a box magazine that did not jam as easily as the drum variety did. The United States introduced the M3, often called the grease gun because it looked like a car mechanic's device. The M3 used a piece of heavy wire with a bend in it as a shoulder stock. It was also made of inexpensive sheet metal with a long, narrow magazine that fit into the bottom of the gun. It could fire effectively up to 100 yards (91.44m).
Since World War II, there have been mostly minor modifications to these weapons. The British and German submachine guns were reconfigured to take the NATO standard 9-mm cartridge. A big change occurred in 1948, when Vaclav Holec created a telescoping bolt in a Czechoslovakian gun. This bolt was hollowed out and slid partially over the barrel when a round was brought into the chamber. With this innovation, guns could have a much shorter barrel. Perhaps the best example of this configuration is the Uzi, designed by an Israeli army major, Uziel Gal, following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. The Uzi is approximately 25 inches (65 cm) long and weighs about 8 pounds (3.5 kg). While the submachine gun is now less prevalently used by the military, it has found its niche as a police and anti-terrorist weapon.
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