The underlying principle behind all firearms, everything from cannons and muskets to shotguns, rifles and hand guns, is the same. Take a sealed metal tube with an opening at one end (called a bore), drill a hole in the sealed end (the breech) and pack it with gunpowder. Thread a flammable length of material called a fuse through the hole and into the gunpowder. Place a cannon ball on top of the gunpowder. Understand how this works and it will be easier to understand what Glock accessories are used for.
Lighting the fuse ignites the gunpowder, a mixture of charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate), which suddenly generates a huge volume of gas, exerting a tremendous amount of pressure on the cannon ball to fly out the bore of the metal tube. It is the product of the mass of the projectile and the acceleration due to the gas pressure that blasts the target to Kingdom Come. More portable firearms in the form of flintlock pistols evolved out of this same principle. Now, they use detonators instead of fuses.
The problem with early handguns was they could only fire one shot at a time, after which the operator would have to clean and reload the weapon in order to fire the next shot. Enter the revolver, which only had to be reloaded after every fifth or sixth shot. The bullets sat in a revolving chamber, which advanced one shot each time it was fired. The revolver came along in the 1800s.
Revolvers were great, but people wanted to kill each other even faster. This is where the semi-automatic pistol comes in. In these devices, the ammunition sits in a holder called a magazine residing in the butt (handle) of the gun. Some of the larger magazines were capable of holding up to 15 bullets.
The trigger action in a pistol is also lighter than that of a revolver. The down side of the semi-auto pistol is that it has a capacity to jam, a feat that is nigh impossible for the revolver. Lastly, automatic pistols fire bullets automatically as soon as they load into the chamber.
The Glock is an example of a semi-automatic pistol. Designed by engineer Gaston Glock in the late 1970s, the Glock semi-automatic answered the needs of the Austrian army, in need of a new sidearm. Glock owned a company that had made a success out of manufacturing things like grenades and knives using plastic. He and his engineers got together and entered a design using a plastic frame and other parts made of steel.
Satisfied with what the Glock team came up with, the Austrian Defense Ministry ordered 25,000. Widely considered America's favorite hand gun, the Glock is made in all major calibers, of which the 9 mm is the favorite. Among the accessories available for the sidearm is the magazine. The Glock magazine holds more ammo than magazines of other gun manufacturers.
In Europe, the magazine is designed not to just drop out of the weapon onto the ground partly loaded. It's not the done thing. The magazine comes out at the press of a button. American soldiers, on the other hand, don't like to waste time prying out a spent magazine, and prefer it to drop out of the weapon of its own accord.
Lighting the fuse ignites the gunpowder, a mixture of charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate), which suddenly generates a huge volume of gas, exerting a tremendous amount of pressure on the cannon ball to fly out the bore of the metal tube. It is the product of the mass of the projectile and the acceleration due to the gas pressure that blasts the target to Kingdom Come. More portable firearms in the form of flintlock pistols evolved out of this same principle. Now, they use detonators instead of fuses.
The problem with early handguns was they could only fire one shot at a time, after which the operator would have to clean and reload the weapon in order to fire the next shot. Enter the revolver, which only had to be reloaded after every fifth or sixth shot. The bullets sat in a revolving chamber, which advanced one shot each time it was fired. The revolver came along in the 1800s.
Revolvers were great, but people wanted to kill each other even faster. This is where the semi-automatic pistol comes in. In these devices, the ammunition sits in a holder called a magazine residing in the butt (handle) of the gun. Some of the larger magazines were capable of holding up to 15 bullets.
The trigger action in a pistol is also lighter than that of a revolver. The down side of the semi-auto pistol is that it has a capacity to jam, a feat that is nigh impossible for the revolver. Lastly, automatic pistols fire bullets automatically as soon as they load into the chamber.
The Glock is an example of a semi-automatic pistol. Designed by engineer Gaston Glock in the late 1970s, the Glock semi-automatic answered the needs of the Austrian army, in need of a new sidearm. Glock owned a company that had made a success out of manufacturing things like grenades and knives using plastic. He and his engineers got together and entered a design using a plastic frame and other parts made of steel.
Satisfied with what the Glock team came up with, the Austrian Defense Ministry ordered 25,000. Widely considered America's favorite hand gun, the Glock is made in all major calibers, of which the 9 mm is the favorite. Among the accessories available for the sidearm is the magazine. The Glock magazine holds more ammo than magazines of other gun manufacturers.
In Europe, the magazine is designed not to just drop out of the weapon onto the ground partly loaded. It's not the done thing. The magazine comes out at the press of a button. American soldiers, on the other hand, don't like to waste time prying out a spent magazine, and prefer it to drop out of the weapon of its own accord.
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