Editing Machine gun (section)

===17th century===
True repeating long arms were difficult to manufacture prior to the development of the unitary firearm cartridge; nevertheless, lever-action repeating rifles such as the [[Kalthoff repeater]] and [[Cookson repeater]] were made in small quantities in the 17th century.

Perhaps the earliest examples of predecessors to the modern machine gun are to be found in East Asia. According to the Wu-Pei-Chih, a booklet examining Chinese military equipment produced during the first quarter of the 17th century, the Chinese army had in its arsenal the 'Po-Tzu Lien-Chu-P'ao' or 'string-of-100-bullets cannon'. This was a repeating cannon fed by a hopper containing balls which fired its charges sequentially. The way it worked was similar to the Perkins steam gun of 1824 or the Beningfield electrolysis gun of 1845 only slow-burning gunpowder was used as the propelling force in place of steam or the gases produced by electrolysis.<ref>{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fM2Bh6WifHQC&pg=PA271| title=Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century| publisher=Courier Corporation| isbn=978-0-486-29593-0| page=271| last1=Song| first1=Yingxing| last2=Sun| first2=E-tu Zen| last3=Sun| first3=Shiou-Chuan| year=1997| access-date=2019-01-10| archive-date=2023-12-16| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216090853/https://books.google.com/books?id=fM2Bh6WifHQC&pg=PA271#v=onepage&q&f=false| url-status=live}}</ref> Another repeating gun was produced by a Chinese commoner, Dai Zi, in the late 17th century. This weapon was also hopper-fed and never went into mass production.<ref>{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNcZJ35dIyUC&pg=PA408| title=Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic| publisher=Cambridge University Press| isbn=978-0-521-30358-3| page=408| last1=Needham| first1=Joseph| date=1987| access-date=2019-01-10| archive-date=2023-12-16| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216090927/https://books.google.com/books?id=hNcZJ35dIyUC&pg=PA408#v=onepage&q&f=false| url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1655, a way of loading, aiming and shooting up to 6 wall muskets 60 times in a minute for a total rate of fire of 360 shots per minute was mentioned in ''The Century of Inventions'' by [[Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester]], though, like all the inventions mentioned in the book, it is uncertain if it was ever built.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fa5jAAAAcAAJ&q=A+way+for+a+harquebuss&pg=PA30|title=A Century of the Names and Scantlings of Such Inventions, as at Present I Can Call to Mind to Have Tried and Perfected, Etc. With Historical and Explanatory Notes, and a Biographical Memoir by C.F. Partington|first=Edward SOMERSET (2nd Marquis of|last=Worcester.)|date=April 3, 1825|via=Google Books|access-date=June 25, 2021|archive-date=December 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216090901/https://books.google.com/books?id=fa5jAAAAcAAJ&q=A+way+for+a+harquebuss&pg=PA30#v=snippet&q=A%20way%20for%20a%20harquebuss&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

It is sometimes claimed (i.e. in [[George M. Chinn|George Morgan Chinn's]] ''the Machine Gun'') that in 1663 the first mention of the automatic principle of machine guns was in a paper presented to the Royal Society of England by Palmer, an Englishman who described a volley gun capable of being operated by either recoil or gas.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VWkYoAkoMHIC&q=1663+Palmer+Gun&pg=PA22|title=Machine Guns: An Illustrated History of Their Impact|first=James H.|last=Willbanks|date=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781851094806|via=Google Books|access-date=October 17, 2020|archive-date=December 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216090902/https://books.google.com/books?id=VWkYoAkoMHIC&q=1663+Palmer+Gun&pg=PA22|url-status=live}}</ref> However, no one has been able to find this paper in recent times and all references to a multi-shot weapon by a Palmer during this period appear to be referring to a somewhat more common [[Kalthoff repeater]] or [[Cookson repeater|Lorenzoni-system gun]]. Despite this, there is a reference in 1663 to at least the concept of a genuine automatic gun that was presented to [[Prince Rupert]], though its type and method of operation are unknown.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RSpAAQAAMAAJ&q=%22And+Bullet+Within+Was+Made+To+Charge+The+Piece%22&pg=PA396|title = The History of the Royal Society of London for Improving of Natural Knowledge, from Its First Rise: In which the Most Considerable of Those Papers Communicated to the Society, which Have Hitherto Not Been Published, are Inserted in Their Proper Order, as a Supplement to the Philosophical Transactions|last1 = Birch|first1 = Thomas|year = 1756|access-date = 2020-11-07|archive-date = 2023-12-16|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231216090902/https://books.google.com/books?id=RSpAAQAAMAAJ&q=%22And+Bullet+Within+Was+Made+To+Charge+The+Piece%22&pg=PA396#v=snippet&q=%22And%20Bullet%20Within%20Was%20Made%20To%20Charge%20The%20Piece%22&f=false|url-status = live}}</ref>