Section I. Early repeating weapons. 1. Repeating weapons from the ancient world -- Section II. Without black powder. 2. Perkin's steam gun and other oddities -- Section III. The black powder era. 3. Early military rockets ; 4. Early black powder weapons ; 5. Early repeating pistols and Colt's percussion revolvers ; 6. The rimfire revolver and Rollin White's patent ; 7. Pinfire and centerfire revolvers ; 8. Repeating rifles and shotguns ; 9. Early machine guns and repeating cannon ; 10. The Gatling gun: Gatling's 150-year-old masterpiece -- Sectio0n IV. The smokeless powder era. 11. Maxim's automatic machine gun: "the devil's paintbrush" ; 12. Smokeless powder and repeating rifles ; 13. Self-loading or semiautomatic pistols -- Section V. The machine-gun era. 14. The development of repeating and multi-fire weapons in the early 20th century ; 15. Light machine guns in World War I ; 16. Medium and heavy machine guns in World War I ; 17. Submachine guns, semiautomatic rifles and postwar changes ; 18. Light machine gun development after World War I ; 19. Heavy machine gun and automatic cannon development after World War I ; 20. Assault rifles and the rise of the "Woolworth's" gun ; 21. Perspectives.
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Summary
Based largely upon new research, this book explores the history of repeating and multi-fire weapons, beginning with the Chinese repeating crossbow in the 4th century BCE, and ending with the world's most common firearm, the Kalashnikov AK-47.
