1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 502 Chapter 508: Machine Gun

Author: fish nest

Chapter 502 Chapter 508: Machine Gun

Liang Yao personally played with the Volcanic Stone Lever Rifle improved by the Volcanic Stone Repeating Arms Company.

Although it is only an improvement, the performance and reliability of the prototype gun provided to him by Kony a few months ago have been completely different.

What caused this change was not the structure of the firearm itself, but the bullet.

With breakthroughs in precision machining, gunpowder manufacturing, ballistics, metallurgy, chemical engineering and other fields, California already has the theoretical and industrial foundation to light the revolutionary ammunition of center-fire ammunition.

With a little hint and guidance, it is no longer a fantasy to create a center-fire bullet.

The technical talents in California did not disappoint Liang Yao.

Liang Yao held the mid-range bullet in his hand. The bullet was so small that a child could easily hold it and play with it.

But just such a gadget will become the most lethal ammunition in human history in the future.

Until the 21st century, the light weapons used by humans are still the ammunition invented in the 19th century.

In the subsequent more than 100 years of history, humans have only improved the manufacturing process and materials of this bullet, but the basic structure has not changed substantially.

Liang Yao stuffed the bullets in his hand into the chamber of the volcanic stone lever rifle one by one. Only after seven bullets were stuffed, he raised the gun and fired.

The shooting process was very silky and smooth, and there were no mechanical failures.

After polishing off the seven bullets in the built-in bomb compartment, Liang Yao was very happy. He originally spent US$185,000 to invest in the Volcano Repeating Weapons Company, but the money was not wasted.

Just the research result of center-fire ammunition, which has subverted the entire pattern of small arms, cannot be measured in dollars.

"On the premise of ensuring reliability, the military is willing to purchase this weapon at a unit price of US$50 a piece," Liang Yao said.

Although the Sacramento Arsenal and the Volcano Repeating Weapons Company are in a competitive relationship, Sutter's evaluation of this weapon is still very fair.

The two fatal shortcomings of being unable to shoot from a lying position and being too expensive make this weapon impossible to become the mainstream individual weapon for army infantry.

Only firearms that are cheap, durable and reliable can become the standard light weapon for the army's leading soldiers.

The most important one is that it is cheap.

The reason why the Springfield m1842 rifle, whose performance has become outdated, is still the most commonly equipped small weapon for US infantry until now is not because this gun is cheap.

Although the lever gun was a successful weapon in later generations, and the elite troops equipped with this firearm also performed brilliantly in the civil war, this complex-structured firearm has never been very popular with the military. Instead, it shines in the civilian market.

, became the standard weapon of western pioneers and cowboys, and became a symbol of an era.

Kony didn't dare to agree to this request rashly. After the production line was set up and the output increased, he might be able to reduce the unit price to US$60 a piece, but he was really not sure about reducing the unit price to US$50.

"As long as the general provides us with an order, we can provide the military with a purchase price of US$50 a handful."

Winchester, the president of Volcanic Stone Repeating Weapons Company, stood up and said.

"The materials used in these prototype guns are very solid and there are some surpluses. If mass production is carried out, there is still a lot of room for cost reduction while ensuring reliability."

When he heard that Winchester was going to reduce the purchase price of the volcanic rock lever rifle to the military to 50 US dollars a piece, Coney became anxious. He hurriedly pulled Winchester aside and said in a low voice: "Winchester

Chester, are you crazy? According to this purchase price, we will lose money! Others don’t know the production cost of this gun, don’t you? How can you tell lies with your eyes open?”

Winchester was calm and said confidently: "Chairman, of course I know this. Didn't Mr. Sutter say that? This gun can be used as a toy for them."

"What does this have to do with the $50 purchase price you promised General Liang?" Kony wondered.

"Of course it does matter. There are a lot of wealthy people in California and there are a lot of immigrants. They need weapons that are more powerful and have a longer range than pistols, and are lighter and easier to carry than rifles for self-defense and hunting.

Although the market prospects of our weapon in the military are very limited, in the civilian market, our prospects are immeasurable.

If you think about it again, what is the biggest gap between us and the Sacramento Arsenal?" Winchester said.

"The gap between the Volcano Repeating Arms Company and the Sacramento Arsenal is huge. They can still build cannons. Do we have the strength?" Coney couldn't help but roll his eyes at Winchester.

"It's fame!" Winchester said very seriously.

"We may not make any money from the military's orders, or even lose a little money, but we can gain fame. The military's purchase orders are our best advertisement. The purchase price for the military is low, but we can increase our sales.

The selling price in the civilian market makes up for the loss of military orders."

"That makes sense."

Kony quickly understood. He walked up to Liang Yao again and promised Liang Yao.

"General, Volcano Repeating Weapons Company can provide the military with a purchase unit price of US$50. I wonder how big an order the general wants to place?"

"Bet 1,500 first." Liang Yao thought for a while and said.

He planned to purchase 1,500 to equip the cavalry regiment and his guard company.

At the beginning of the year, Liang Yao purchased 120 volcanic stone lever rifles for trial use by the cavalry battalion.

Soldiers in the cavalry battalions who have used it before have given this gun mixed reviews, with both love and hate.

I like his cavalry because this gun has better range and power than the Colt revolver, but I hate it because the failure rate of the volcanic stone lever gun that uses edge needle bullets is really high.

Now that these problems have been solved, Liang Yao can purchase this weapon as the standard weapon of the cavalry regiment, instead of just trying it out on a small scale.

The Volcano Repeating Weapons Company received a large-scale order from the military for the first time, which annoyed Sutter, the director of the Sacramento Arsenal.

Previously, the Sacramento Arsenal had been monopolizing arms orders for the Western Brigade. The emergence of Volcano Repeating Weapons Company gave Sutter a sense of crisis.

Liang Yao has a different attitude. Firstly, he is the major shareholder of the Sacramento Arsenal and the Volcano Repeating Weapons Company. Secondly, he likes that more arms companies in California will compete with each other and develop more high-quality and low-priced weapons.

Cheap weapons.

It is not spring when a single flower blooms alone, but it is spring when hundreds of flowers bloom.

"Convene the gunsmiths from the Sacramento Arsenal and the Volcano Repeating Weapons Company to come to Sacramento for a meeting. The military wants a new type of weapon and would like to invite your two companies to participate in the bidding.

Both of your companies are the pride of the California military community, and I hope you can produce products that satisfy the military."

In Liang Yao's hand, he held a center-fire bullet manufactured by the Volcanic Stone Repeating Arms Company. This kind of copper-cased lead-core bullet filled with black powder. Although this type of bullet has just come out, it has the advantages of simple structure and easy manufacturing.

The price of this bullet is only 6 cents a piece, which is cheaper than the rim needle bullet used in the Walter M1851 rifle currently in service in the Western Brigade.

In the Western Brigade, because bullets are expensive, the expense of guns is not the biggest expense, but the consumption of ammunition is the biggest expense.

What's more, center-fire ammunition is not only cheaper, has a simple structure, is more reliable, is easier for soldiers to carry, and can also reduce logistical pressure.

Any of the above are enough reasons to replace the rim shot with center-fire bullets.

Of course, the most important reason is that the emergence of medium-fire ammunition made it possible to develop real repeating weapons, that is, machine guns.

The emergence of medium-fire ammunition can be said to have provided an important technical foundation for the invention of machine guns.

Compared with edge needle bullets where the primer is located on the edge of the bullet and the primer is raised like a genital wart on the penis, the primer of the center-fire bullet is located in the center of the cartridge case, which can automatically complete the ignition of the primer and gunpowder. This structure makes the firing of the center-fire bullet

The speed and stability are relatively high, which can better adapt to the needs of continuous shooting.

In the middle of the 19th century, precision machining was already quite advanced and had the ability to manufacture automatic weapons. The reason for the delay in the advent of automatic weapons was not the machining itself, but the chemical industry, which had just started and was relatively backward. To put it bluntly, bullets were too backward.

Unable to meet the needs of automatic weapons.

The first machine gun in history was invented by American Richard Gatlin in 1861. This machine gun uses a hand-operated rotating drum to feed ammunition and can fire continuously, reaching 200-400 rounds per minute.

The rate of fire.

However, center-fire bullets had not yet come out at this time, and the earliest Gatling guns still used the .58-caliber Maini bullet (a smaller version of the rifle's rim pin bullet).

Therefore, problems with Gatling arose one after another in the early days. It was not until the advent of center-fire ammunition that the reliability problem of the Gatling gun was solved, and the Gatling gun was able to shine and become one of the most efficient killing machines in human history.

In addition to continuous-fire weapons, Liang Yao also wants to equip the Western Brigade with medium-fire rifles as individual weapons in the future.

Perhaps California's current industrial capabilities cannot develop a Lebel 1886 rifle that uses smokeless powder ammunition, can shoot bullets at supersonic speeds, and has a magazine capacity of up to 5 rounds.

However, single-shot loading rifles such as the German Mauser 1871 rifle and the British Martini-Henry rifle, which entered service in 1871 and use medium-round ammunition, can still be developed with California's current industrial capabilities.

After all, California has now taken the lead in developing center-fire ammunition and is at the forefront of the times.

The gunnery divisions of the Sacramento Armory and the gunnery divisions of the Volcano Repeating Arms Company gathered at the Sacramento Armory for a meeting.

In addition, Liang Yao also specially invited the inventors of center-fire ammunition, Walter and Nobile, to participate in this meeting to explore the possibility of developing new rifles and machine guns using center-fire ammunition.

After all the top technical talents in California's arms industry gathered, Liang Yao first gave each of them a center-fire ammunition manufactured by the Volcanic Stone Repeating Arms Company, and took them to the shooting range to see the test firing of the Volcanic Stone lever rifle.

(End of chapter)