The precise origin of these weapons is unknown, although they were known to already be in use by the early 14th century and were fairly common in Europe by mid-century. These early guns were little more than large-caliber tubes of wrought iron or cast bronze, closed at one end and loaded by placing gunpowder and projectile in the muzzle. They were fired by touching a burning wick, or match, to the powder at a "touch-hole" bored in the top of the barrel. To make sure that the powder would catch fire, a rec

The first major improvement in small guns was the introduction of a mechanical firing mechanism, or lock, which lowered the match to the touch hole with a pull of the trigger. The matchlock improved accuracy by permitting the gunner to concentrate on aiming the weapon, rather than having to guide the match to the primer. The principle of self-ignition was introduced in the early 16th century with the invention of the wheel-lock, which fired the powder by mechanically generated sparks. Wheel-locks were the weapon of choice for the cavalry men of the time.

Later types of machine guns, which fired rifle bullets with great rapidity and whose firing mechanism worked by either the power of the gun's recoil or the force of the expanding gases, were developed by Hiram Maxim, B. Hotchkiss, I. N. Lewis, and J. M. Browning. Machine guns were used with terrible effectiveness in many colonial wars, especially by the British, Germans, and Americ

Some common words found in the essay are:
, World War, Brown Bess, American M-16, War Thompson, Browning Machine, British Sten, Israeli Uzi, Germans Americans, Soviet Union, world war, submachine gun, machine guns, war ii, submachine guns, world war ii, firing mechanism,
Approximate Word count = 632
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)