The Gun Phone
From Glock - Part cellular phone, part gun and
totally awesome. Nokia inside make this a reliable and fun gift for that
teenage daughter being pestered by hoodlums... NRA approved!
A semi-automatic
pistol is a type of handgun which uses a single chamber and barrel, with a
mechanism powered by the previous shot to load a fresh cartridge into the
chamber. One round is fired each time the trigger of a semi-automatic pistol is
pulled.
A revolver, which
uses multiple chambers and a single barrel, and a derringer, which uses
multiple chambers and multiple barrels, also fire one round for trigger pull,
but achieve this in different ways and as such are not classified as being
semi-automatic.
Additional terms
sometimes used as synonyms for a semi-automatic pistol are automatic pistol,
self-loading pistol, autopistol, and autoloading pistol.
A semi-automatic
pistol harnesses the energy of one shot to reload the chamber for the next,
typically via recoil operation, blowback, or gas operation. After a round is
fired, the spent casing is ejected and a new round from the magazine is loaded
into the chamber, allowing another shot to be fired as soon as the trigger is
again pulled.
Most types of
semi-automatic pistols rely on a removable magazine to store ammunition before
it is fired, usually inserted inside the grip.
History
After Hiram Maxim
introduced his recoil-powered machine gun in 1883, several gunsmiths set out to
apply the same principles to handguns, including Maxim. Maxim's designs for
smaller firearms using his recoil-powered ideas never went into production. In
the 1880s, other designers worked on self-loading designs. The first model to
gain any commercial success was the Hugo Borchardt-designed C-93, designed in
1893 and made its public debut in 1894. Borchardt invented the C-93 mechanism,
based in large part upon Maxim's toggle-lock principle. The C-93 featured a
clever locking mechanism modeled after the human knee joint. in which the
mechanical joint is called a knee, or in German Kniegelenk (knee joint).
The C-93 proved
mechanically reliable, but was too large and bulky to receive widespread
acceptance. Equipped with a screw-on wooden stock, the C-93 served well in
small pistol carbines, Borchardt also developed the 7.65mm Borchardt cartridge,
around which the C-93 was built.
In 1896, Paul Mauser
introduced his first model of the famous Mauser "Broomhandle"
semi-automatic pistol, the C96. Using the powerful 7.63mm bottlenecked
cartridge originally designed by Borchardt, the Mauser was the first
self-loading pistol used extensively in battle, notably the South African War
of 1899-1902. These pistols were made in 7.63mm Mauser, along with some models
eventually being made in 9mm Parabellum and a small number in .45 ACP for
China.
In Belgium in 1896,
the first American gun designer to develop self-loading semi-automatic pistols
was John Browning, whose models were first manufactured by the Belgian firm of
Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Europe and later by Colt in the US. Like Luger's work
conducted around the same time in Germany, Browning's first successful design
was in 7.65mm, the Browning M1900. Browning also devised a slightly different
7.65mm Browning (.32 Auto) cartridge for his semi-automatic pistol that
differed from Luger's 7.65mm Parabellum. Browning also designed .25, .380, and
.45 ACP cartridges in addition to .32 ACP for his semi-automatic pistol
designs.
A Browning 9 mm
Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol
Browning also
created the locked-breech action now commonly used by nearly all heavy-caliber
semi-automatic pistols, and designed the .45 ACP Colt M1911, adopted by the US
military in 1911. The Model 1911 is still in active use with some U.S. Special
Forces and Marine Corps units. -Wikipedia
