What would you consider to be the greatest invention in firearms history?
I can't really name but one, but if forced at gun point, LOL ... then it would be the
self-contained metallic cartridge. I'd also claim that the
GREATEST era with the most firearm advancements occured in a
mere span of ~40-years, from circa 183x to the late 1800s, where we went from:
- Black Powdah (BP) Muzzleloaders of flint ignition, to
- BP Muzzleloaders of percussion ignition
- Breech-loaders (BP) of percussion ignition, e.g., Sharps, Burnside
- Metallic (BP) cartridges of rimfire ignition, e.g., Maynards, Spencer, many others
- Single-Shot metallic (BP) cartridge arms of centerfire ignition, e.g., Trap Door, Martini, etc.
- Multi-Shot metallic (BP) cartridge bolt action arms of centerfire ignition, e.g., Swiss Vetterli or Italian Vetterli-Vitali, etc
- Multi-Shot metallic cartridge arms of centerfire ignition using smokeless powder! Then to infinity and beyond!
The
evolution of arms throughout the centuries was always been one of:
... more reliable firing (punk lit handgonnes to arquebus to matchlocks with serpentines), to
...
better aiming/ergonomics (stock size/shape and sights, etc.), from cheek stocked arquebuses (recall, people still wore chest armor, you CAN'T shoulder mount arms wearing such armor), to
...
self-contained for ignition (wheellocks [ignited by pyrite], to snaphaunce, miquelets, English locks, doglocks and ultimately the French-style flintlock (all ignited by flint), to
...
faster loading (breech-loading flintlocks like the late 1700s Ferguson Rifle and then the early 1800s [patent date 1811] Hall Breech-Loading Rifle issued to the US Army troops, to
...
percussion ignition (which was the Hall Rifle changed out to ignition by percussion caps in 1830-something, the 1st percussion arm issued anywhere world-wide to a standing army), to
... metallic cartridges (more developments in the bulleted list above), to
... more shots (Generals world-wide in Trap Door era, for example, didn't trust their troops with anything but a hammer-fired rifle (for safety, as at a glance you can see 'if it is cocked'), of single shot loading (so they didn't waste ammo), or then where magazing cut-offs were used
... metallic cartridges with smokeless powdah! (Yay!)
Quite the journey, no?
And of course there are many "one of" examples out there of of WILD ideas like 'superposed' BP muskets with multiple rounds stacked in the bore (to fire off like a roman candle), to the revolving 6-shot matchlock rifle built for the French King in the late 1500s, to flintlocks that had reservoirs of balls, powder and priming powder that would load the next shot by a mere revolution of a lever on the left side of the action, to puckle or volley guns,. And there are many MORE oddities that I can't even begin to mention ...
or I'll be here all day!