Do you know the origin and development of pistols?

A pistol is a small firearm that can be held and fired with one hand. It is mostly used in close combat and self-defense. Generally, the effective killing distance is about 50 meters. Use dedicated pistol ammunition. Mainly divided into revolvers, semi-automatic pistols, and submachine pistols.

A pistol is a short-barrel weapon that can be held in one hand for aiming and shooting or instinctive shooting. It is usually carried by commanders and special forces for self-defense and sudden attacks on the enemy within a short range of 50 meters.
The basic features of modern pistols are: changing insurance, loading bullets, convenient magazine replacement, compact structure, and simple automatic mode.
Modern military pistols mainly include self-defense pistols and submachine pistols.
The self-defense pistol generally has a range of 50 meters, a magazine capacity of 8-15 rounds, a single-shot firing method, and a weight of about 1 kg.

The submachine pistol is also called a combat pistol. It is fully automatic. It is generally equipped with a separate buttstock. The magazine has a magazine capacity of 10-20 rounds. It can be used as a submachine gun at ordinary times and has an effective range of 100-150 meters. Modern pistols mainly include three types: revolvers, automatic pistols (actually semi-automatic pistols), and fully automatic pistols.
Early pistols-The earliest prototypes of pistols were born in China and Prussia (in today's Germany) almost simultaneously in the early 14th century or earlier.

In China, a small copper fire gun-hand gun appeared at that time. Its caliber is generally about 25 mm and the length is about 30 cm. When using it, first fill the gunpowder and fuse from the blaster mouth, and then stuff some fine iron pellets. The shooter holds the blaster in one hand and lights the fuse with the other hand to shoot the iron pellets and flames from the blaster mouth to kill the enemy. This can be regarded as the earliest origin of the pistol.
In 1331, the Prussian black cavalry used a short igniter. The cavalry hung the igniter around the neck, held the gun against the chest in one hand, and ignited the gunpowder with the ignition cord in the other hand. This is the earliest prototype of a pistol in Europe.
In the middle of the 14th century (no later than 1364), several cities in Italy appeared in batches of short guns called "scioppi". The word "scioppi" (scioppi) is derived from Latin. The word means pistol. This gun is only 17 cm long, so many people think it is the first pistol in the world.
In the 15th century, European pistols were improved from firing guns to matchlock guns. Match cord pistol overcomes the inconvenience of holding the gun in one hand and the ignition cord in the other hand when firing the igniter, and realizes the real one-handed shooting. In the 17th century, the matchlock pistol was replaced by the flintlock pistol. It has some of the characteristics of modern pistols, such as the firing mechanism with hammer, trigger, safety and other devices, and the barrel has also developed from a smooth bore and a straight bore to a spiral. Shaped rifled.

In 1812, Scottish priest A. Forsyth designed and manufactured a firing pistol. This kind of pistol is also a front-loaded pistol with projectiles loaded at the muzzle, which is inconvenient to operate and slow in firing speed, making it difficult to adapt to combat needs.
In 1825, the American Delinger invented the Delinger pistol, which uses a flash hider device to fire mercury to improve the shooting performance of the pistol.
In 1864, the 16th President of the United States Lincoln was stabbed to death. The murderer used this pistol. After about 541 years of long development, improvement, and evolution, the pistol has gradually acquired the structure and principles of modern pistols. The symbol of the birth of modern pistols is the invention of revolver and automatic pistol.
Left-hand gun pistol ─ ─ Left-hand gun pistol is the common name for revolver. It is a multi-shot non-automatic firearm for personal use. Its main feature is that the gun is equipped with a rotating drum magazine with 5-7 bullet nests (mostly 6). The bullets are installed in the nests, and the revolver is rotated so that the bullets can be aligned with the barrel one by one. The common revolver is also called a revolver because the revolver swings to the left when reloading.
The world's first practical revolver was invented by American Samuel Colt in 1835. Before that, as early as the 16th century, matchlock revolver guns appeared in Europe, and later flintlock revolvers appeared.
But Colt’s previous revolvers firstly need to turn the wheel by hand, or pull the hammer with the hand to drive the wheel in place, and then pull the trigger to complete the single-action firing; second, the firing of the bullet is resolved, so They are not widely used. The revolver invented by Colt has a primer striker and a spiral rifled barrel. It uses a shell with a tapered warhead and can be linked to complete the two-step action of the runner to be fired by pulling a trigger. This makes the revolver really have good practical value for the first time, and it has been widely used by countries all over the world.
Although people have made some improvements to the revolver, its basic structure and principle still remain the same as when Colt invented it. So Colt is well-deserved to be called the "father of revolvers".

Due to the low rate of fire, slower loading, and less ammunition capacity of the revolver, after World War II, its position in the army was replaced by automatic pistols. However, because the revolver handles blind fire bullets very easily and has reliable performance, police and individuals in many countries still like to use it.
When President Reagan was assassinated in 1981, the assassin Hinckley used a revolver. Automatic pistol ─ ─ usually referred to as an automatic pistol, in fact, only refers to a single-shot pistol that can automatically load ammunition (that is, the shooter can only fire one bullet when the shooter pulls the trigger once). So strictly speaking, it should be called an automatic reloading pistol or a semi-automatic pistol.
At present, most of the pistols equipped by the armed forces of various countries are such guns, and the real automatic pistol is a pistol that can not only be loaded automatically, but also can be fired continuously. Because of its poor shooting accuracy and low hit rate, it was only used in a few countries in the 1920s and 1940s.
The world's first automatic pistol (ie, self-loading pistol) was invented by German-American Hugo Bochard in 1890. Later, Georg Rüger of the German Lowe Company improved Bochard's design and named it the "Parabellum" pistol. After 1900, this pistol was equipped with the armies of Switzerland, Germany and other countries.
The famous German firearms designer, P?P? Mauser, the inventor of the Mauser rifle, also designed the Mauser automatic pistol in 1896, and later invented the automatic pistol that can fire multiple shots.
The "Punch" and "20 Gun" that were widely used in China's Anti-Japanese War were Mauser-style semi-automatic and fully automatic pistols. The famous firearms designer John Moses Browning was born in a prestigious family of weapons in the United States, and moved to Belgium after 1897.
Browning has designed a variety of pistols with excellent performance based on Borchard's invention. Some types of Browning pistols are still used in the military of many countries.