Ferdinand Mannlicher

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Ferdinand Mannlicher
en-bloc clip
  • Possibly the inventor of the first semi-auto rifle
    • SpouseCaecilie von Mannlicher
    Awards

    Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher (January 30, 1848 – January 20, 1904) was an Austrian engineer and

    rotary magazine design, the Mannlicher–Schönauer
    rifle, which was a commercial and military success.

    Life

    A

    Vienna University of Technology. He started his professional career in 1869 as an employee of the Austrian Southern Railway company and worked as an engineer at the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway
    company until 1887.

    Mannlicher had early turned his interest to

    bolt-action basis, which was adopted as a service rifle by the Austro-Hungarian Army
    in 1886 and by several other armed forces.

    In 1878, Mannlicher joined the

    Franz Joseph of Austria vested him with the title of Ritter von (loosely translated to: 'knight of') due to his earlier ennoblement. In 1899 he was given a lifelong appointment to the Austrian Upper House (Österreichisches Herrenhaus) of the Imperial Council
    parliament.

    Mannlicher's successful designs during his lifetime included bolt-action rifles, both military and sporting, in both turn-bolt and straight-pull actions. Mannlicher also developed several innovative

    semi-automatic handgun designs in the 1890s. A measure of how far ahead of his time he was can be seen by looking at his experimental designs for semi-automatic rifles, developed at a time when ammunition was not suitable to function properly in such a weapon[citation needed]. In 1883, Mannlicher began development of an automatic rifle firing the 11mm Austrian Werndl, a black-powder cartridge.[1]
    According to W. H. B. Smith in Mauser, Walther and Mannlicher Firearms, the Mannlicher 1885 became the inspiration for the
    M1 Carbine.[2][page needed
    ]

    Mannlicher's automatic rifle designs

    Mannlicher introduced several automatic rifle designs that were unsuccessful, but ahead of their time. He introduced fundamental principles that were used by later designers, often successfully.

    Mannlicher's Model 85 semi automatic rifle used his recoil operated action originally developed in 1883; it anticipated the recoiling barrel system used later in designs like the German MG 34 and MG 42 machineguns, and the M1941 Johnson machine gun. The Model 85 would have fit the same tactical role as the American BAR or British Bren of World War II fame.

    The Model 91 semi-automatic rifle was designed to use the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge and the Model 88 rifle clip. Like the Model 85 it was a recoil operated action like the later Remington Model 8 and M1941 Johnson rifle.

    Mannlicher designed two semi-automatic rifles both called Model 93, one based on his turn-bolt rifle and the other based on his straight-pull rifle. The rifles had a recoil spring housing behind the bolt and the bolt locking lugs were angled, so the bolt started turning on firing, essentially a hesitation lock or delayed blowback much like the later Thompson Autorifle utilising the Blish lock. In this system there was no recoiling barrel nor gas piston as with other rifle-caliber autoloading designs, so the mechanism was simple, but ejection of fired cartridge casings was so fierce as to be hazardous to bystanders.

    The Model 95 semi-automatic rifle was gas operated using a slide with the cocking handle on its side and gas piston at its front to operate the bolt, with the recoil spring operating on the slide. Loading was with the Mannlicher packet clip of cartridges inserted into the magazine from the top. These features were also used in the later U.S. M1 Garand rifle.

    The Model 1900 semi-automatic rifle was also gas operated but used a short stroke piston with a camming lug that engaged the bolt to open it. The bolt was then carried to the rear by momentum with the recoil spring operating on the bolt. The US M1 carbine used a short stroke piston to impart momentum to a slide that opened the bolt, combining features introduced in the Mannlicher Model 95 and Model 100.[3]

    The Model 1905 used a short recoil action with a tilting locking block. This was same principle Mannlicher used in his 1901 pistol-caliber carbine. However, for the rifle he scaled it up to 8mm Mauser, the standard German military rifle cartridge. The rifle also used a Schönauer rotary magazine, and sights copied from the Mauser Gewehr 98.[4] Although his company patented the design in 1905, Mannlicher's death in 1904 ended any further development of the design.

    List of firearms named after Ferdinand Mannlicher

    Patents

    U.S. patent 472,795 Repeating Firearm. April 12, 1892. (Rifle)

    U.S. patent 518,821 Feed Mechanism for Magazine-Guns. Granted April 24, 1894. (Rifle)

    U.S. patent 581,295 Automatic Firearm. Granted April 27, 1897. (Rifle)

    U.S. patent 581,296 Automatic Firearm. Granted April 27, 1897. (Pistol,

    Steyr Mannlicher M1894
    )

    U.S. patent 728,739 Automatic Firearm. Granted May 19, 1903. (Rifle)

    U.S. patent 804,748 Small-Arm Having Automatic Breech-Action. Granted November 14, 1905. (Rifle, granted posthumously)

    References

    1. ^ Walter H. B. Smith, Mannlicher Rifles and Pistols, Military Service Publishing Co., 1947, pp. 155–62
    2. ^ Smith, Walter H. B. (20 January 2010). Mauser, Walther and Mannlicher Firearms. Stackpole Classic Gun Bks (reprint ed.). Stackpole Books.
      ISBN 9780811705349
      . Retrieved 5 October 2023.
    3. ^ Walter H. B. Smith, Mannlicher Rifles and Pistols, Military Service Publishing Co. 1947. Model 85 pp. 155–62; Model 91 pp. 163–69; Model 93 turning bolt pp. 170–77; Model 93 straight-pull pp. 178–84; Model 95 pp. 197–203; Model 1900 pp. 232–39.
    4. ^ McCollum, Ian (April 12, 2013). "Mannlicher 1905 Experimental Self-Loading Rifle". Forgottenweapons.com. Retrieved April 13, 2013.

    External links

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