The very first pistol in the world: history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

We often see pistols in movies, but when did their production start, and who came up with the idea? The pistol is a small-arms handgun that is designed to hit a target located at a distance of up to 50 meters. Pistols are divided into pneumatic and firearms. Nowadays, pistols are predominantly self-loading and have from 5 to 20 rounds, but earlier pistols were single-shot.

Made in Italy

The first pistols in the world were invented in Italy, despite the fact that today this country is famous mainly for spaghetti and fashionable clothes. Italy has never been a warlike country, but it was the Italians who were the first to start using flintlock guns. Also, the Italians tried to make this bulky weapon more convenient to use, namely to make it shorter and lighter.

History of the creation of the first pistol

In 1536Italian Camillo Vetelli made the first cavalry weapon. An interesting fact is that the name of the very first pistol in the world was given in honor of the city of Pistoia, where Vetelli worked and lived. The pistols were short barrels with stocks and a matchlock.

It is interesting that the first pistols for military purposes were used in 1544 by the German cavalry at the Battle of Ranti. Centuries passed, and the design of pistols did not change much - they looked like guns with a reduced caliber. The shape of the trunk underwent minor changes: by the end of the 16th century, its length increased. The handles have also been redesigned to be more elegant.

Invention of wheel locks

After some time, wheel locks were invented, thanks to the creation of which it became possible to have a personal weapon that could always be carried with you. Cavalry and short-barreled pistols appeared.

Cavalry pistols were designed to hit a target at a distance of up to 40 m. Short-barreled pistols were designed for point-blank shooting.

Invention of silicon locks

After some time, the first pistols with silicon percussion locks appeared, which replaced the wheel mechanisms. In the matter of misfires, they were less reliable, but won in cost and ease of loading. Due to the fact that the flintlock pistol was single-shot, it was necessary to come up with various designs to increase the rate of fire. This led to the emergence of multi-barrel samples. In 1818Artemas Wheeler, an officer from Massachusetts, patented the first flintlock revolver.

Dogi Pistols

Pistols that are heavy but short in length are called Great Danes. They were popular in Europe in the first half of the 17th century. A feature of the Great Danes was their exclusive decoration. Doges' stocks were made from expensive materials such as ivory, iron or colored materials, as well as hardwoods.

The moment has come when the gunsmiths of the world have brought out almost all the elements required to create a multiply charged personal weapon. It only remained to combine these elements into one whole, which John Pearson did.

John Pearson and the first revolver

The era of the modern revolver began in the 1830s when John Pearson, an American from B altimore, designed the revolver. This design was sold to American entrepreneur Samuel Colt for a modest sum. The first model of the revolver was called "Paterson". In 1836, Colt himself created a factory that mass-produced primer revolvers. It was thanks to Colt that capsule revolvers became widespread, which made single-shot weapons irrelevant.

Revolvers had certain disadvantages, the main of which were high cost, bulkiness and complexity in manufacturing. The biggest disadvantage of the revolver was that it could not provide continuous shooting, since the flintlock required the addition of gunpowder after each shot.

After that, a period began during which designers from different countries (Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, France and others) created their own models of pistols. Weapons have become different in their design, reloading method and caliber.

Self-loading pistol

The first self-loading pistols were developed in the 19th century. The difference between these pistols is that they carry out an automatic reloading process, thanks to the use of the energy of powder gases. This is the main advantage of self-loading pistols over non-automatic pistols and revolvers, because in them the reloading process is carried out in a more complicated way.

The first self-loading pistol was adopted in 1909 by the Austrian cavalry. Self-loading pistols have become widespread. After some time, they come to replace revolvers in the army and police of many countries. Revolvers are becoming weapons of self-defense.

In our time, virtually all modern pistols are self-loading. If the pistol has a single-fire function, then it is semi-automatic.

Automatic pistols

In 1892 the first automatic pistol was created. It was created in Europe, at the Steyer factory (Austro-Hungarian weapons factory).

The automatic pistol is a self-loading pistol that has the function of automatic fire or burst fire. The most famous automatic pistol of acceptable dimensions is the Hummingbird pistol.

Pistols that are capable of continuous fire are called automatic or self-firing in Russian-speaking countries and machine guns in English-speaking countries.

Sporting target pistols

This type of pistol is designed for sport target shooting. Sports pistols can be either multi-shot or single-shot and most often use a small caliber rimfire cartridge, approximately 5.6 millimeters. Such pistols have high accuracy, are distinguished by the ability to adjust sight and balance devices, and have an easy trigger. The main feature of sports-target pistols is in the handle, which is made individually according to the shooter's hand.

Submachine gun

Special attention should be paid to submachine guns, because they played an important role in the history of military conflicts, largely determining the course of world wars. The first submachine gun was created by Schmeiser, a German designer. It was a device that has the ability to automatically fire pistol cartridges.

In 1914 another version of the submachine gun was invented by Abel Revelli, an Italian major. Revelli created the first submachine gun in the world that required the use of Glisenti pistol cartridges. The Revelli machine gun was a true breakthrough in shooting, because it allowed up to 3000 rounds per minute and had two barrels. However, despite all the advantages, the Revelli machine gun had serious drawbacks, including heavy weight (6.5 kilograms) and a short bullet range. These flaws are unacceptable for use in combat.

All these shortcomings were eliminated by Hugo Schmeiser in 1917. He was able to create such a submachine gun, the weight of which was 4 kg 180 grams. Automation in this machine gun worked on the principle of a free shutter, the rate of fire reached 500 rounds per minute.

The very first submachine gun in our country was the PPD (Degtyarev submachine gun), which was widely used during the Soviet-Finnish war, and then during the Great Patriotic War. PPD had good performance in terms of mass (3.5 kilograms) and rate of fire (800 rounds per minute).

The world's most famous PPSh submachine gun (Shpagin submachine gun) was created in 1941.

It was an improved version of the PPD, because its weight was 150 grams less, and the rate of fire was 100 rounds per minute more. PPSh were armed by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.