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107-692: Although there are many theories about when Taishō Democracy began and ended, 1905 is often said to be the starting year of the Democratic era. 1905 was the year when Bloody Sunday happened in Russia, which subsequently led to the Russian Revolution . Bloody Sunday was instigated by loss of faith in the Tsarist government as a result of public discontent with the results of the Russo-Japanese War. In other words,

214-486: A Portuguese fleet sent to India to take part in a colonial war in the 1740s. Also in 1737, it was mentioned that a German engineer had invented a 10-pounder cannon capable of firing 20 times in a minute. In 1740, a cannon able to shoot 11 times per minute was developed by a Frenchman called Chevalier de Benac. Meanwhile, not long after in England, in 1747 a cannon able to simultaneously charge and discharge itself 20 times in

321-620: A fully automatic and rifled firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges . Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ) are typically designed more for firing short bursts rather than continuous firepower and are not considered true machine guns. Submachine guns fire handgun cartridges rather than rifle cartridges, therefore they are not considered machine guns, while automatic firearms of 20 mm (0.79 in) caliber or more are classified as autocannons rather than machine guns. As

428-446: A limited government . As a result, the power of capitalists or finance experts got stronger than before. Moreover, people began the movement of abolition of tax and claimed a disarmament. Education for its own sake, independent of other concerns, was also advocated. University leadership and the press became independent of government, and people gained the ability to express their own opinions, independent from government views. Moreover,

535-421: A swivel gun that did not need cleaning or muzzle-loading and was capable of being made to any dimensions and used as an ordinary cannon at a moment's notice and firing 40 shots a minute was invented by a native of Ireland. Also in 1828 a revolver cannon capable of firing 12 shots a minute and worked by 2 artillerymen was invented by a Frenchman called Lesire-Fruyer. In 1854 this cannon would be put on display at

642-516: A tripod or on a vehicle; when carried on foot, the machine gun and associated equipment (tripod, ammunition, spare barrels) require additional crew members. Light machine guns are designed to provide mobile fire support to a squad and are typically air-cooled weapons fitted with a box magazine or drum and a bipod; they may use full-size rifle rounds, but modern examples often use intermediate rounds. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on

749-416: A French artist known as Renard invented a piece of ordnance that could be operated by one man and fired 90 shots a minute. Also in 1792, a French mechanic called Garnier invented a musket battery made up of 15 barrels capable of firing 300 shots in 2 minutes for a total rate of fire of 150 shots a minute or 10 shots per minute per barrel and of being operated by one man. In the early and mid-19th century,

856-411: A bipod and drum in the light machine gun role or a tripod and belt feed in the medium machine gun role. Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. A common aiming system for direct fire is to alternate solid ("ball") rounds and tracer ammunition rounds (usually one tracer round for every four ball rounds), so shooters can see the trajectory and "walk"

963-407: A breech-loading volley gun , similar to the later mitrailleuse, was invented by a Frenchman called Du Perron which was worked by 3 or 4 men and capable of discharging 24 barrels 10 times a minute for a total rate of fire of 240 shots per minute. In 1776, a gun capable of charging and discharging itself 120 times 'by the motion of one hand only' in a minute was invented in England by an inventor from

1070-525: A campaign to overthrow Kiyoura Keigo 's cabinet. The campaign grew into what came to be called the Second Constitutional Movement ( 第二次護憲運動 ) . Minpon Shugi is one form of democracy based on monarchical sovereignty that the political scientist Yoshino Sakuzo put forward in " Kensei no hongi o toite sono yushu no bi o nasu no michi o ronzu ( 憲政の本義を説いて其有終の美を済すの途を論ず ) ". According to this thesis, Minpon Shugi has two main points. First, it

1177-431: A cartridge to overheat and detonate even when the trigger is not pulled, potentially leading to damage or causing the gun to cycle its action and keep firing until it has exhausted its ammunition supply or jammed; this is known as cooking off (as distinct from runaway fire where the sear fails to re-engage when the trigger is released). To guard against cook-offs occurring, some kind of cooling system or design element

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1284-644: A class of military kinetic projectile weapons, machine guns are designed to be mainly used as infantry support weapons and generally used when attached to a bipod or tripod , a fixed mount or a heavy weapons platform for stability against recoils . Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, features not normally found on other infantry firearms. Machine guns can be further categorized as light machine guns , medium machine guns , heavy machine guns , general-purpose machine guns , and squad automatic weapons . Unlike semi-automatic firearms , which require one trigger pull per round fired,

1391-618: A common feed source. The continuous nature of the rotary action and its relative immunity to overheating allow for a very high cyclic rate of fire , often several thousand rounds per minute. Rotary guns are less prone to jamming than a gun operated by gas or recoil, as the external power source will eject misfired rounds with no further trouble; but this is not possible in the rare cases of self-powered rotary guns. Rotary designs are intrinsically comparatively bulky and expensive and are therefore generally used with large rounds, 20 mm in diameter or more, often referred to as Rotary cannon – though

1498-442: A day. Although some workers still had a paternalistic relationship with their employer, factory employers were more present and active than the noble landowners that previously had ownership of the serfs. Under serfdom, peasants had little, if any, contact with their landowner. In the new urban setting, however, factory employers often used their absolute authority in abusive and arbitrary manners. Their abuse of power, made evident by

1605-443: A full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles , while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles . Assault rifles are a compromise between the size and weight of a pistol-caliber submachine gun and a full-size battle rifle, firing intermediate cartridges and allowing semi-automatic and burst or full-automatic fire options (selective fire), sometimes with both of

1712-424: A given amount of heat, while at the same time they are also much better at shedding the excess, as the extra barrels provide a larger surface area from which to dissipate the unwanted thermal energy. In addition to that, they are in the nature of the design spun at very high speed during rapid fire, which has the benefit of producing enhanced air-cooling as a side-effect. In weapons where the round seats and fires at

1819-497: A grossly unbalanced system that clearly favoured employers. This caused the continuation of strikes and the first major industrial strike in Russia in 1870 in St. Petersburg. This new phenomenon was a catalyst of many more strikes in Russia, which increased until they reached a peak between 1884 and 1885 when 4,000 workers went on strike at Morozov's cotton mill. This large strike prompted officials to consider regulations that would restrain

1926-475: A long time from taxation for the war.". Some Christians and women's liberationists expressed similar anti-war attitudes. The Russo-Japanese war ended in 1905, and the peace treaty was signed. Although Japan won, the general populace was disappointed by the result of the peace treaty. The Japanese people saw the peace treaty, which lacked major Russian territorial cessions and monetary reparations, as foreshadowing more sacrifice without benefits. Public anger toward

2033-563: A machine capable of firing 600 balls in a few minutes. In 1720, a French inventor called Philippe Vayringe invented a small cannon that could fire 16 shots in succession, which he demonstrated before the Duke of Lorraine. In 1737, it was mentioned that Jacob de Weinholtz, a Dane who was serving in the Portuguese army, had invented a cannon capable of firing 20 to 30 shots a minute though requiring 15 people to work it. The cannons were brought along with

2140-494: A machine gun is designed to continue firing for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays, the term is restricted to relatively heavy crew-served weapons , able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition feeding is replete. Machine guns are used against infantry , low-flying aircraft , small boats and lightly/un armored land vehicles , and can provide suppressive fire (either directly or indirectly ) or enforce area denial over

2247-549: A minute of use. Because they become very hot, the great majority of designs fire from an open bolt , to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, or removable barrels which allow a hot barrel to be replaced. Although subdivided into " light ", " medium ", " heavy " or " general-purpose ", even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy machine guns are either mounted on

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2354-496: A minute though the rate of fire was limited by the overheating of the barrel. In 1819, an American inventor from Baltimore designed a gun with 11 barrels that could fire 12 times in a minute for a total rate of fire of 132 shots a minute. In 1821, a muzzle-loading repeating cannon capable of firing 30 shots in 6 minutes or 5 shots per minute was demonstrated in England by the French-American "Fire King" Ivan Ivanitz Chabert. It

2461-793: A minute was invented by James Allis and presented to the Royal Society of England. In 1750, in Denmark, a Prussian known as Captain Steuben of the Train of Artillery invented a breech-loading cannon worked by 4 people and fed by paper cartridges capable of firing 24 times in a minute and demonstrated it to the King of Denmark along with some other high-ranking officials in the same year. In 1764, Frenchman Ange Goudar wrote in his work The Chinese Spy that he had assisted in Paris in

2568-415: A multi-shot weapon by a Palmer during this period appear to be referring to a somewhat more common Kalthoff repeater or Lorenzoni-system gun . Despite this, there is a reference in 1663 to at least the concept of a genuine automatic gun that was presented to Prince Rupert , though its type and method of operation are unknown. In 1708, it was reported from Constantinople that a French officer had invented

2675-658: A number of rapid-firing weapons appeared which offered multi-shot fire, mostly volley guns. Volley guns (such as the Mitrailleuse ) and double-barreled pistols relied on duplicating all parts of the gun, though the Nock gun used the otherwise-undesirable "chain fire" phenomenon (where multiple chambers are ignited at once) to propagate a spark from a single flintlock mechanism to multiple barrels. Pepperbox pistols also did away with needing multiple hammers but used multiple manually operated barrels. Revolvers further reduced this to only needing

2782-430: A pre-prepared cylinder and linked advancing the cylinder to cocking the hammer. However, these were still manually operated. In 1805, a British inventor from Northampton designed a cannon that would prime, load and fire itself 10 times a minute. In 1806, a Viennese copper engraver and mechanic known as Mr Putz invented a machine cannon that could load, fire and clean itself once every second or potentially up to 60 times

2889-402: A reasonable rate of fire and reliability. In contrast to the rotary format, such weapons have a single barrel and a recoil-operated carriage holding a revolving chamber with typically five chambers. As each round is fired, electrically, the carriage moves back rotating the chamber which also ejects the spent case, indexes the next live round to be fired with the barrel and loads the next round into

2996-462: A reduced rate of fire. Some designs – such as the many variants of the MG42 – are capable of rates of fire in excess of 1,200 rounds per minute. Motorized Gatling guns can achieve the fastest firing rates of all, partly because this format involves extra energy being injected into the system from outside, instead of depending on energy derived from the propellant contained within the cartridges, partly because

3103-598: A sector of land with grazing fire . They are commonly mounted on fast attack vehicles such as technicals to provide heavy mobile firepower, armored vehicles such as tanks for engaging targets too small to justify the use of the primary weaponry or too fast to effectively engage with it, and on aircraft as defensive armament or for strafing ground targets, though on fighter aircraft true machine guns have mostly been supplanted by large-caliber rotary guns. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours; other automatic weapons overheat after less than

3210-528: A series of separate collisions at the bridges or other entry points to the central city. The column led by Gapon was fired upon near the Narva Gate . Around forty people were killed or wounded there, although Gapon himself was not injured. As late as 2 pm large family groups were promenading on the Nevsky Prospekt as was customary on Sunday afternoons, mostly unaware of the extent of the violence elsewhere in

3317-411: A strain on traditional Russian society. Peasants "were confronted by unfamiliar social relationships, a frustrating regime of factory discipline, and the distressing conditions of urban life." This new group of peasant workers made up the majority of workers in urban areas. Generally unskilled, these peasants received low wages, were employed in unsafe working environments, and worked up to fifteen hours

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3424-414: A time when close. It was also claimed to be able to shoot 5 or 6 times before infantry came within musket range or cavalry within pistol range and with no more space between each shot than the time needed to prime a pistol, cock it and release the hammer as well as being nearly as manoeuvrable as cavalry. An alternative and heavier version was said to be able to throw grenades and it was also proposed to equip

3531-492: A tripod. The heavy machine gun is a term originating in World War I to describe heavyweight medium machine guns and persisted into World War II with Japanese Hotchkiss M1914 clones; today, however, it is used to refer to automatic weapons with a caliber of at least 12.7 mm (0.5 in), but less than 20 mm (0.8 in). A general-purpose machine gun is usually a lightweight medium machine gun that can either be used with

3638-436: A very light cannon that could fire from a single barrel 30 shots in 2 and a half minutes for a total rate of fire of 12 shots a minute. In 1711, a French lawyer called Barbuot presented to the parliament of Dijon a crank-operated 'war machine' made up of 10 carbine barrels and loaded via a 'drum' capable of firing in vollies. It was said to be accurate at 400 to 500 paces and to strike with enough force to pierce 2 or 3 men at

3745-542: Is "the policy in exercising political power of valuing the profit, happiness, and opinions of the people." Second, it demands that "in the final determination of policies, the people's opinions must be valued highly." In short, Minpon Shugi does not fully specify where sovereignty lies, and it can coexist with the monarchical system. At that time, people criticized Minshu Shugi, the concept of democracy based on popular sovereignty, because people were afraid of Minshu Shugi violating their monarchical system. Yoshino tried to change

3852-559: Is a revolving arquebus , produced by Hans Stopler of Nuremberg in 1597. True repeating long arms were difficult to manufacture prior to the development of the unitary firearm cartridge; nevertheless, lever-action repeating rifles such as the Kalthoff repeater and Cookson repeater were made in small quantities in the 17th century. Perhaps the earliest examples of predecessors to the modern machine gun are to be found in East Asia. According to

3959-888: Is locked into the chamber. Almost all machine guns have a "safety" sear, which simply keeps the trigger from engaging. The first successful machine-gun designs were developed in the mid-19th century. The key characteristic of modern machine guns, their relatively high rate of fire and more importantly mechanical loading, first appeared in the Model 1862 Gatling gun , which was adopted by the United States Navy . These weapons were still powered by hand; however, this changed with Hiram Maxim 's idea of harnessing recoil energy to power reloading in his Maxim machine gun . Dr. Gatling also experimented with electric-motor-powered models; as discussed above, this externally powered machine reloading has seen use in modern weapons as well. While technical use of

4066-619: Is required. Early machine guns were often water-cooled and while this technology was very effective, (and was indeed one of the sources of the notorious efficiency of machine guns during the First World War ), the water jackets also added considerable weight to an already bulky design; they were also vulnerable to the enemies' bullets themselves. Armour could be provided, and in WW I the Germans in particular often did this; but this added yet more weight to

4173-543: Is the recoil actuated type, which uses the gun's recoil energy for the same purpose. Machine guns, such as the M2 Browning and MG42 , are of this second kind. A cam, lever or actuator absorbs part of the energy of the recoil to operate the gun mechanism. An externally actuated weapon uses an external power source, such as an electric motor or hand crank, to move its mechanism through the firing sequence. Modern weapons of this type are often referred to as Gatling guns , after

4280-569: The Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II . Bloody Sunday caused grave consequences for the tsarist authorities governing Russia: the events in St. Petersburg provoked public outrage and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly to the industrial centres of the Russian Empire. The massacre on Bloody Sunday is considered to be

4387-456: The Nordenfelt gun . The first known ancestors of multi-shot weapons were medieval organ guns . An early example of an attempt at the mechanisation of one of these would be an 'engine of war' produced in the mid-1570s in England capable of firing from 160 to 320 shots 4, 8, 12 or 24 bullets at a time at a rate of fire up to roughly 3 times the rate of fire of the typical arquebusier of the day. It

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4494-545: The Social Revolutionaries disapproved of the procession due to its lack of political demands. Fr. Gapon even encouraged his followers to tear up leaflets that supported revolutionary aims. The majority of Russian workers retained their traditional conservative values of Orthodoxy , faith in the autocracy, and indifference to political life. The workers of St. Petersburg wished to receive fair treatment and better working conditions; they decided, therefore, to petition

4601-689: The 1890s, resulting in the restriction of the workday to eleven and a half hours in 1897. A leading role in these events was played by a Priest Georgy Gapon . Fr. Gapon was a charismatic speaker and effective organizer who took an interest in the working and lower classes of the Russian cities. The "Assembly of the Russian Factory and Mill Workers of the City of St. Petersburg", otherwise known as "the Assembly", had been headed by Fr. Gapon since 1903. The Assembly

4708-486: The Assembly, although the plant manager asserted that they were fired for unrelated reasons. Virtually the entire workforce of the Putilov Ironworks went on strike when the plant manager refused to accede to their requests that the workers be rehired. Sympathy strikes in other parts of the city raised the number of strikers up to 150,000 workers in 382 factories. By 21 January [ O.S. 8 January] 1905,

4815-553: The Palace Square to meet them, his absence from the city, against at least some advice, reflects a lack of imagination and perception that he was to show on other occasions. The killing of people, many of whom had seen the tsar as their "Little Father", resulted in a surge of bitterness towards Nicholas and his autocratic rule. A widely quoted reaction was "we no longer have a Tsar". Soviet actor, film director and screenwriter Vyacheslav Viskovsky  [ ru ] (1881–1933) told

4922-658: The Wu-Pei-Chih, a booklet examining Chinese military equipment produced during the first quarter of the 17th century, the Chinese army had in its arsenal the 'Po-Tzu Lien-Chu-P'ao' or 'string-of-100-bullets cannon'. This was a repeating cannon fed by a hopper containing balls which fired its charges sequentially. The way it worked was similar to the Perkins steam gun of 1824 or the Beningfield electrolysis gun of 1845 only slow-burning gunpowder

5029-456: The abuses of employers and ensure safety in the workplace. A new law was passed in 1886 that required employers to specify working conditions in their factories in writing. This included the treatment of workers, workers' hours and the safety precautions taken by the employer. This new law also created factory inspectors who were charged with preserving industrial peace. Despite these changes, strike activity again reached high proportions during

5136-619: The assistance of writer and political activist Maxim Gorky . This event was seen by the British ambassador as inflaming revolutionary activities in Russia and contributing to the Revolution of 1905 . Media commentary in Britain and the United States was overwhelmingly negative towards the actions of an already unpopular regime. The writer Leo Tolstoy was emotionally affected by the event, reflecting

5243-580: The attention of the tsar's administration. They could be submitted to the Petitions Prikaz (office) in Moscow , or directly to the tsar or his courtiers when the tsar was making an appearance outside the palace. The march on the Winter Palace was not a revolutionary or rebellious act, though it was done against the permission of public authorities. Political groups, such as the Bolsheviks , Mensheviks , and

5350-445: The attitude of the Russian peasants and workers. Previously the tsar had been seen as the champion of the people: in dire situations, the masses would appeal to the tsar, traditionally through a petition, and the tsar would respond to his people promising to set things right. The lower classes placed their faith in the tsar. Any problems that the lower classes faced were associated with the boyars of Russia; however, after Bloody Sunday

5457-461: The basis of size; those using shotgun cartridges are almost always referred to as automatic shotguns . The term personal defense weapon (PDW) is sometimes applied to weapons firing dedicated armor-piercing rounds which would otherwise be regarded as machine pistols or SMGs, but it is not particularly strongly defined and has historically been used to describe a range of weapons from ordinary SMGs to compact assault rifles. Selective-fire rifles firing

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5564-406: The chamber. The action is very similar to that of the revolver pistols common in the 19th and 20th centuries, giving this type of weapon its name. A Chain gun is a specific, patented type of Revolver cannon, the name, in this case, deriving from its driving mechanism. As noted above, firing a machine gun for prolonged periods produces large amounts of heat. In a worst-case scenario, this may cause

5671-433: The cities to supplement their incomes retained their ties to the land and their masters. Although the working conditions in the cities were horrific, they were only employed for short periods of time and returned to their village when their work was complete, or when it was time to resume agricultural work. The emancipation of the serfs resulted in the establishment of a permanent working class in urban areas , which created

5778-580: The city had no electricity and no newspapers whatsoever and all public areas were declared closed. The decision to prepare and present a petition was made in the course of discussions during the evening of 19 January [ O.S. 6 January] 1905, at the headquarters of Gapon's movement – the "Gapon Hall" on the Shlisselburg Trakt in Saint Petersburg. The petition, as drafted in respectful terms by Gapon himself, made clear

5885-663: The city. Amongst them were parties of workers still making their way to the Winter Palace as originally intended by Gapon. A detachment of the Preobrazhensky Guards , previously stationed in the Palace Square where about 2,300 soldiers were being held in reserve, now made its way onto the Nevsky and formed two ranks opposite the Alexander Gardens. Following a single shouted warning a bugle sounded and four volleys were fired into

5992-534: The combination of the burden on the workers and general populace and the remote and costly war against Japan contributed greatly to the public unrest which sparked the 1905 revolution. Meanwhile, a similar combination existed in Japan. During the war and even before the war, Japanese socialists stated that the war would need sacrifice from the people. Heimin Shinbun pointed out on 14 February 1904 that "The people will suffer for

6099-613: The concept of democracy based on people's sovereignty (Minshu Shugi), to a concept of democracy based on monarchical sovereignty (Minpon Shugi), in order to fit "democracy" into Japanese society. After WWI, Minpon Shugi became the ideology of the Taishō Democracy Movement. The Taishō Democracy Movement was led by activists who were inspired by the Minpon Shugi that Yoshino advocated. The Russo-Japanese War caused serious damage to Japan's finances. Japan used foreign debt to start

6206-644: The country and gradually exposed the people's dissatisfaction with their government. Over time, the movement transformed into the Movement to Protect Constitutional Government, thereby igniting the Taishō political crisis ( 大正政変 ) . This was the first instance of a popular movement trying to replace the cabinet in Japanese history, and the Katsura cabinet collapsed only 53 days after its formation. The rice riots of 1918 ( 米騒動 ) and

6313-538: The county of Westmoreland. In 1777, Philadelphia gunsmith Joseph Belton offered the Continental Congress a "new improved gun" , which was capable of firing up to twenty shots in five seconds; unlike older repeaters using complex lever-action mechanisms, it used a simpler system of superposed loads , and was loaded with a single large paper cartridge . Congress requested that Belton modify 100 flintlock muskets to fire eight shots in this manner, but rescinded

6420-411: The early morning of 9 January from Reval and Pskov . The troops, who now numbered about 10,000, had been ordered to halt the columns of marchers before they reached the palace square but the reaction of government forces was inconsistent and confused. Individual policemen did salute the religious banners and portraits of the tsar carried by the crowd or joined the procession. Army officers variously told

6527-596: The establishment of the Hara Cabinet are considered to be a major milestone in Taisho democracy. When the rice riots subsided, the universal suffrage movement ( 普選運動 ) was in full swing and became a nationwide political movement. The general election law ( 普通選挙法 ) was enacted under the subsequent cabinet of Takaaki Kato ( 加藤高明 ) . In 1932, Rikken Seiyūkai ( 政友会 ) , Kenseikai ( 憲政会 ) , and Kakushin Club ( 革新倶楽部 ) launched

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6634-519: The fire into the target, and direct the fire of other soldiers . Many heavy machine guns , such as the Browning M2 .50 BMG machine gun, are accurate enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War , Carlos Hathcock set the record for a long-distance shot at 7,382 ft (2,250 m) with a .50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight . This led to

6741-476: The front to make up the leading ranks. A report had been made to the tsar at Tsarskoe Selo on Saturday night on the measures being taken to contain the marchers. Substantial military forces were deployed in and around the environs of the Winter Palace. These comprised units of the Imperial Guard, who provided the permanent garrison of Saint Petersburg and Cossacks , plus infantry regiments brought in by rail in

6848-607: The government gradually grew, and eventually led to the foundation of the movement against the Russo-Japanese war peace treaty. There are many theories about the timing of the Taishō Democracy, but many historians agree that the following events are crucial to Taishō Democracy. First of all, there was the Russo-Japanese War peace treaty protest movement and the Hibiya incendiary incident that accompanied it. The movement grew across

6955-508: The guidance of truly Russian educated laymen and clergy, to foster among the workers a sober, Christian view of life and to instill the principle of mutual aid, thereby helping to improve the lives and working conditions of laborers without violent disruption of law and order in their relations with employers and the government. In December 1904, six workers at the Putilov Ironworks in St. Petersburg were fired because of their membership in

7062-568: The guns. Air-cooled machine guns often feature quick-change barrels (often carried by a crew member), passive cooling fins, or in some designs forced-air cooling, such as that employed by the Lewis Gun . Advances in metallurgy and the use of special composites in barrel liners have allowed for greater heat absorption and dissipation during firing. The higher the rate of fire, the more often barrels must be changed and allowed to cool. To minimize this, most air-cooled guns are fired only in short bursts or at

7169-497: The increase in the literacy rate allowed people to read more books and get more information. The social system of patriarchy still existed in Japan at that time; however, there had been a gradual change to the traditional position of women. Itō Noe , a feminist and editor of the magazine Seitō ("Bluestocking"), complained that women did not have the same rights as men. Itō Noe, along with other women's activists such as Hiratsuka Raichō and Yoshiya Nobuko , tried to make changes to

7276-452: The industrial outskirts of St Petersburg. Holding religious icons and singing hymns and patriotic songs (particularly " God Save the Tsar! "), a crowd of "more than 3,000" proceeded without police interference towards the Winter Palace , the tsar's official residence. The crowd, whose mood was quiet, did not know that the tsar was not in residence. Insofar as there was firm planning, the intention

7383-507: The introduction of .50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles , such as the Barrett M82 . Other automatic weapons are subdivided into several categories based on the size of the bullet used, whether the cartridge is fired from a closed bolt or an open bolt , and whether the action used is locked or is some form of blowback . Fully automatic firearms using pistol-caliber ammunition are called machine pistols or submachine guns largely on

7490-591: The inventions mentioned in the book, it is uncertain if it was ever built. It is sometimes claimed (i.e. in George Morgan Chinn's the Machine Gun ) that in 1663 the first mention of the automatic principle of machine guns was in a paper presented to the Royal Society of England by Palmer, an Englishman who described a volley gun capable of being operated by either recoil or gas. However, no one has been able to find this paper in recent times and all references to

7597-524: The latter presents. Many machine guns are of the locked breech type, and follow this cycle: The operation is basically the same for all locked breech automatic firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. There are also multi-chambered formats, such as revolver cannon , and some types, such as the Schwarzlose machine gun etc., that do not lock the breech but instead use some type of delayed blowback . Most modern machine guns are of

7704-510: The locking type, and of these, most utilize the principle of gas-operated reloading , which taps off some of the propellant gas from the fired cartridge, using its mechanical pressure to unlock the bolt and cycle the action. The first of these was invented by the French brothers Claire, who patented a gas operated rifle, which included a gas cylinder, in 1892. The Russian PK machine gun is a more modern example. Another efficient and widely used format

7811-412: The long working hours , low wages , and lack of safety precautions, led to strikes in Russia. "The Russian term for strike, stachka , was derived from an old colloquial term, stakat’sia - to conspire for a criminal act." As such, Russian laws viewed strikes as criminal acts of conspiracy and potential catalysts for rebellion. The governmental response to strikes, however, supported the efforts of

7918-438: The machine with a bellows for clearing smoke that built up during firing. Another early revolving gun was created by James Puckle , a London lawyer, who patented what he called "The Puckle Gun " on May 15, 1718. It was a design for a manually operated 1.25 in. (32 mm) caliber, flintlock cannon with a revolver cylinder able to fire 6–11 rounds before reloading by swapping out the cylinder, intended for use on ships . It

8025-440: The marchers that they could proceed in smaller groups, called on them to disperse or ordered their troops to fire into the marchers without warning. When the crowds continued to press forward, Cossacks and regular cavalry made charges using their sabres or trampling the people. The first instance of shooting occurred between 10 and 11 am. There was no single encounter directly before the Winter Palace, as often portrayed, but rather

8132-431: The nation's decisions. In other words, people began to think for themselves, beyond what they were told by national leadership, and tried to exert political power to express their opinions. Political movements such as launching party and the movement for universal suffrage are some examples. The tendency of independence of the capital occurred and people sought to be free from the regulations. In other words, people demanded

8239-430: The next round can be inserted simultaneously with or before the ejection of the previous cartridge case, and partly because this design intrinsically deals with the unwanted heat very efficiently – effectively quick-changing the barrel and chamber after every shot. The multiple guns that comprise a Gatling being a much larger bulk of metal than other, single-barreled guns, they are thus much slower to rise in temperature for

8346-406: The official estimate was 132 people killed. Leon Trotsky did not put forward a precise figure but claimed that hundreds were killed and that many of the dead were secretly buried by the authorities. Nicholas II described the day as "painful and sad". As reports spread across the city, disorder and looting broke out. Gapon's Assembly was closed down that day, and Gapon quickly left Russia with

8453-413: The order when Belton's price proved too high. In 1779, a machine made up of 21 musket barrels worked by 3 men was produced by a British inventor called William Wilson Wright which he claimed could be fired 3 times quicker than a single man could load and fire a musket 3 times. In 1788, a Swiss soldier invented a machine worked by 10 men capable of discharging 300 balls in 3 minutes. Also in 1788, it

8560-413: The original inventor (not only of the well-known hand-cranked 19th century proto-machine gun, but also of the first electrically powered version). They have several barrels each with an associated chamber and action on a rotating carousel and a system of cams that load, cock, and fire each mechanism progressively as it rotates through the sequence; essentially each barrel is a separate bolt-action rifle using

8667-400: The panicked crowd, many of whom had not been participants in the organized marches. The total number killed in the day's clashes is uncertain. The tsar's officials recorded 96 dead and 333 injured; anti-government sources claimed more than 4,000 dead; moderate estimates still average around 1,000 killed or wounded, both from shots and being trampled during the panic. Another source noted that

8774-417: The people with a duma ; however, the autocracy eventually resorted to brute force near the end of 1905 in order to curtail the burgeoning strike movement that continued to spread. Between October 1905 and April 1906, an estimated 15,000 peasants and workers were either hanged or shot; 20,000 were injured and 45,000 sent into exile. Perhaps the most significant effect of Bloody Sunday was the drastic change in

8881-521: The problems and opinions of the workers and called for improved working conditions, fairer wages, and a reduction in the working day to eight hours. Other demands included an end to the Russo-Japanese War and the introduction of universal suffrage . The idea of a petition resonated with the traditionally minded working masses. From the 15th to the early 18th centuries individual or collective petitions were an established means of bringing grievances to

8988-408: The proofing of a 'great gun' capable of firing 60 times in a minute. In 1773, another cannon capable of firing 23 or 24 times in a minute and cleaning itself after every shot was invented by Thomas Desaguliers . In 1775, it was mentioned that in England two large cannons invented by an unidentified matross at Woolwich had achieved a rate of fire of 59 shots in 59 and a half seconds. Also in 1775,

9095-438: The public reaction was the exact opposite. The people had sacrificed a great deal for the Russo-Japanese War. The government had imposed higher taxes on the citizens to pay for the war, and the peasants had had to pay most of their profits in taxes. The tax also dealt a blow to small and medium-sized businesses, and even during the war, the nation's silk cloth manufacturers' associations, wholesale brokers, union representatives, and

9202-447: The retail trade association came to Tokyo to oppose it. The same kind of opposition arose towards the salt monopoly. Thus, dissatisfaction with the war grew from rural areas across the country to urban areas. The nation's trend towards universal democracy and independence can be seen as products of Taishō Democracy. These effects can be seen in various fields in that era, for example: People started to express more of their opinions about

9309-461: The revulsion of liberal, socialist and intellectual opinion within Russia itself. The immediate consequence of Bloody Sunday was a strike movement that spread throughout the country. Strikes began to erupt outside of St. Petersburg in places such as Moscow, Warsaw , Riga , Vilna , Kovno , Reval , Tiflis , Baku and Batum . In all, about 414,000 people participated in the work stoppage during January 1905. Tsar Nicholas II attempted to appease

9416-521: The rifle-calibre Minigun is an exception to this. Whereas such weapons are highly reliable and formidably effective, one drawback is that the weight and size of the power source and driving mechanism makes them usually impractical for use outside of a vehicle or aircraft mount. Revolver cannons , such as the Mauser MK 213 , were developed in World War II by the Germans to provide high-caliber cannons with

9523-406: The same time, mechanical timing is essential for operator safety, to prevent the round from firing before it is seated properly. Machine guns are controlled by one or more mechanical sears. When a sear is in place, it effectively stops the bolt at some point in its range of motion. Some sears stop the bolt when it is locked to the rear. Other sears stop the firing pin from going forward after the round

9630-598: The start of the active phase of the Revolution of 1905 . In addition to beginning the 1905 Revolution, historians such as Lionel Kochan in his book Russia in Revolution 1890–1918 view the events of Bloody Sunday to be one of the key events which led to the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 by Tsar Alexander II of Russia , there emerged a new peasant working class in Russia's industrializing cities. Prior to emancipation, no working class could be established because serfs working in

9737-415: The story of Bloody Sunday in his 1925 silent feature film Devyatoe yanvarya ("The Ninth of January"). Dmitri Shostakovich 's 1957 11th Symphony , subtitled The Year 1905 , is a programmatic work centered on Bloody Sunday. The second movement, entitled "The Ninth of January", is a forceful depiction of the massacre. The sixth of Shostakovich's 1951 Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets (whose music

9844-399: The symphony quotes) is also called "The Ninth of January". Shostakovich's father and uncle were both present at the march that day, a year before the composer's birth. Maxim Gorky 's novel The Life of a Useless Man (1908) portrays the effects of Bloody Sunday on the Russian working class and operations of the spies employed by the tsar. Machine gun A machine gun ( MG ) is

9951-608: The system of male privilege , and aimed for the independence of women. Bloody Sunday (1905) Father Georgy Gapon Bloody Sunday ( Russian : Кровавое воскресенье , romanized :  Krovavoye voskresenye , IPA: [krɐˈvavəɪ vəskrʲɪˈsʲenʲjɪ] ), also known as Red Sunday ( Russian : Красное воскресенье ), was the series of events on Sunday, 22 January [ O.S. 9 January] 1905 in St Petersburg , Russia , when unarmed demonstrators, led by Father Georgy Gapon , were fired upon by soldiers of

10058-538: The term "machine gun" has varied, the modern definition used by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute of America is "a fully automatic firearm that loads, fires and ejects continuously when the trigger is held to the rear until the ammunition is exhausted or pressure on the trigger is released." This definition excludes most early manually operated repeating arms the Gatling gun and such as volley guns like

10165-637: The tsar in hopes he would act on it. In their eyes, the tsar was their representative who would help them if he was made aware of their situation. God appointed the tsar, therefore the tsar had an obligation to protect the people and do what was best for them. Their petition was written in subservient terms and ended with a reminder to the tsar of his obligation to the people of Russia and their resolve to do what it took to ensure their pleas were met. It concluded: "And if Thou dost not so order and dost not respond to our pleas we will die here in this square before Thy palace". Gapon, who had an ambiguous relationship with

10272-502: The tsar left on Saturday 21 January [ O.S. 8 January] 1905 for Tsarskoye Selo . A cabinet meeting, held without any particular sense of urgency that same evening, concluded that the police would publicize his absence and that the workers would accordingly probably abandon their plans for a march. In the pre-dawn winter darkness of the morning of Sunday, 22 January [ O.S. 9 January] 1905, striking workers and their families began to gather at six points in

10379-401: The tsar was no longer distinguished from the bureaucrats and was held personally responsible for the tragedy that occurred. Although the tsar was not at the Winter Palace and did not give the order for the troops to fire, he was widely blamed for the inefficiency and callousness with which the crisis had been handled. While it was unrealistic for the marchers to expect Nicholas to ride out into

10486-501: The tsarist authorities, sent a copy of the petition to the Minister of the Interior together with a notification of his intention to lead a procession of members of his workers' movement to the Winter Palace on the following Sunday. Troops had been deployed around the Winter Palace and at other key points. Despite the urging of various members of the imperial family to stay in St. Petersburg,

10593-412: The war. It is said that the reason why Japan barely won was that the Russian government held back its main force for fear of revolution. Japanese soldiers were plagued by Russian machine guns and even some who survived were covered all over with wounds. The peace treaty offered by U.S. President Roosevelt achieved "more than expected," said a government-leaning newspaper at the time. On the other hand,

10700-455: The workers and promoted strikes as an effective tool that could be used by the workers to help improve their working conditions. The Tsarist authorities usually intervened with harsh punishment, especially for the leaders and spokesmen of the strike, but often the complaints of the strikers were reviewed and seen as justified and the employers were required to correct the abuses about which the strikers protested. These corrections did not address

10807-662: Was also claimed that the gun could be reloaded 'as often as you like' and fired no matter the weather though the English government never adopted the weapon despite testing being carried out at the Tower of London . The first firearms to have the ability to fire multiple shots from a single barrel without a full manual reload were revolvers made in Europe in the late 1500s. One is a shoulder-gun-length weapon made in Nuremberg, Germany, circa 1580. Another

10914-516: Was for the various columns of marchers to converge in front of the palace at about 2 pm. Estimates of the total numbers involved range wildly from police figures of 3,000 to organizers' claims of 50,000. Initially, it was intended that women, children and elderly workers should lead, to emphasize the united nature of the demonstration. Vera Karelina , who was one of Gapon's inner circle, had encouraged women to take part although she expected that there would be casualties. On reflection, younger men moved to

11021-455: Was one of the earliest weapons to be referred to as a machine gun, being called such in 1722, though its operation does not match the modern usage of the term. According to Puckle, it was able to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Turks . However, it was a commercial failure and was not adopted or produced in any meaningful quantity. In 1729, a report was written in France on

11128-545: Was patronized by the Department of the Police and the St. Petersburg Okhrana (secret police); during 1904 the membership of the association had grown rapidly, although more radical groups saw it as being a "police union" – under government influence. The Assembly's objectives were to defend workers' rights and to elevate their moral and religious status. In the words of Fr. Gapon, this organization served as: …a noble endeavor, under

11235-413: Was reported that a Prussian officer had invented a gun capable of firing 400 balls one after the other. In 1790, a former officer in the French military known as Joseph-François-Louis Grobert invented a 'ballistic machine' or 'pyroballistic machine' with multiple barrels operated by 4 men and a continuous rotational movement capable of firing 360 rifle shots a minute in a variety of calibers. In 1792,

11342-556: Was used as the propelling force in place of steam or the gases produced by electrolysis. Another repeating gun was produced by a Chinese commoner, Dai Zi, in the late 17th century. This weapon was also hopper-fed and never went into mass production. In 1655, a way of loading, aiming and shooting up to 6 wall muskets 60 times in a minute for a total rate of fire of 360 shots per minute was mentioned in The Century of Inventions by Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester , though, like all

11449-420: Was worked by a "wheel" fed by paper cartridges from a store attached to the cannon and ignited using a match from a match-holder somewhere else on the cannon. In 1825 an Italian book attempting to catalogue all topographic features of all known countries on Earth mentioned that in France there were 'mechanical rifles' used to defend warehouses that were capable of firing 120 shots without reloading. In 1828,

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