Gun barrel
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type ranged weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure gas is introduced behind a projectile in order to propel it out of the front end at a high velocity; the hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore. The measurement of the diameter of the bore is called the caliber. Caliber is measured in inches or millimetres; the first firearms were made at a time when metallurgy was not advanced enough to cast tubes capable of withstanding the explosive forces of early cannons, so the pipe needed to be braced periodically along its length for reinforcement, producing an appearance somewhat reminiscent of storage barrels being stacked together, hence the English name. Gun barrels are metal. However, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, which has a strong tubular stalk and is cheaper to obtain and process, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons such as the fire lances.
The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, used the technology to make the earliest infantry firearms — the hand cannons. Early European guns were made of wrought iron with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings and welded into a hollow cylinder. Bronze and brass were favoured by gunsmiths because of their ease of casting and their resistance to the corrosive effects of the combustion of gunpowder or salt water when used on naval vessels. Early firearms were muzzle-loading, with the gunpowder and the shot loaded from the front end of the barrel, were capable of only a low rate of fire due to the cumbersome loading process; the later-invented breech-loading designs provided a higher rate of fire, but early breechloaders lacked an effective way of sealing the escaping gases that leaked from the back end of the barrel, reducing the available muzzle velocity. During the 19th century, effective breechblocks were invented that sealed a breechloader against the escape of propellant gases.
Early cannon barrels were thick for their caliber. This was because manufacturing defects such as air bubbles trapped in the metal were common back in the days, played key factors in many gun explosions. A gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out. If the barrel material cannot cope with the pressure within the bore, the barrel itself might suffer catastrophic failure and explode, which will not only destroy the gun but present a life-threatening danger to people nearby. Modern small arms barrels are made of carbon steel or stainless steel materials known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength. In firearms terminology, fluting refers to the removal of material from a cylindrical surface creating rounded grooves, for the purpose of reducing weight; this is most done to the exterior surface of a rifle barrel, though it may be applied to the cylinder of a revolver or the bolt of a bolt-action rifle.
Most flutings on rifle barrels and revolver cylinders are straight, though helical flutings can be seen on rifle bolts and also rifle barrels. While the main purpose of fluting is just to reduce weight and improve portability, when adequately done it can retain the structural strength and rigidity and increase the overall specific strength. Fluting will increase the surface-to-volume ratio and make the barrel more efficient to cool after firing, though the reduced material mass means the barrel will heat up during firing; the chamber is the cavity at the back end of a breech-loading gun's barrel where the cartridge is inserted in position ready to be fired. In most firearms, the chamber is an integral part of the barrel made by reaming the rear bore of a barrel blank, with a single chamber within a single barrel. In revolvers, the chamber is a component of the gun's cylinder and separate from the barrel, with a single cylinder having multiple chambers that are rotated in turns into alignment with the barrel in anticipation of being fired.
Structurally, the chamber consists of the body and neck, the contour of which correspond to the casing shape of the cartridge it is designed to hold. The rear opening of the chamber is the breech of the whole barrel, sealed tight from behind by the bolt, making the front direction the path of least resistance during firing; when the cartridge's primer is struck by the firing pin, the propellant is ignited and deflagrates, generating high-pressure gas expansion within the cartridge case. However, the chamber restrains the cartridge case from moving, allowing the bullet to separate cleanly from the casing and be propelled forward along the barrel to exit out of the front end as a projectile; the act of chambering a gun refers to the process of loading a cartridge into the gun's chamber, either manually as in single loading, or via operating the weapon's own action as in pump action, lever action, bolt action or self-loading actions. In the case of an air gun, a pellet itself has no casing to be retained and will be inserted into the chamber (often called "seating
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English author and naval intelligence officer, best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. and his father was the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton and the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing. While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units, 30 Assault Unit and T-Force, his wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background and depth of the James Bond novels. Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952, it was a success, with three print runs being commissioned to cope with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966.
The novels revolved around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6. Bond was known by his code number, 007, was a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve; the Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming wrote the children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Fleming was married to Ann Charteris, divorced from the second Viscount Rothermere because of her affair with the author. Fleming and Charteris had Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-six times, portrayed by seven actors. Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on 28 May 1908, at 27 Green Street in the wealthy London district of Mayfair.
His mother was Evelyn, his father was Valentine Fleming, the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 to 1917. As an infant he lived, with his family, at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. Fleming was a grandson of the Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish American Investment Trust and the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. In 1914, with the start of the First World War, Valentine Fleming joined "C" Squadron, Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, rose to the rank of major, he was killed by German shelling on the Western Front on 20 May 1917. Because the family owned an estate at Arnisdale, Valentine's death was commemorated on the Glenelg War Memorial. Fleming's elder brother Peter became married actress Celia Johnson. Peter served with the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, was commissioned under Colin Gubbins to help establish the Auxiliary Units, became involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war. Fleming had two younger brothers and Richard, a younger maternal half-sister born out of wedlock, the cellist Amaryllis Fleming, whose father was the artist Augustus John.
Amaryllis was conceived during a long-term affair between John and Evelyn that started in 1923, six years after the death of Valentine. In 1914 Fleming attended a preparatory school on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, he did not enjoy his time at Durnford. In 1921 Fleming enrolled at Eton College. Not a high achiever academically, he excelled at athletics and held the title of Victor Ludorum for two years between 1925 and 1927, he edited a school magazine, The Wyvern. His lifestyle at Eton brought him into conflict with his housemaster, E. V. Slater, who disapproved of Fleming's attitude, his hair oil, his ownership of a car and his relations with women. Slater persuaded Fleming's mother to remove him from Eton a term early for a crammer course to gain entry to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, he spent less than a year there, leaving in 1927 without gaining a commission, after contracting gonorrhea. In 1927, to prepare Fleming for possible entry into the Foreign Office, his mother sent him to the Tennerhof in Kitzbühel, Austria, a small private school run by the Adlerian disciple and former British spy Ernan Forbes Dennis and his novelist wife, Phyllis Bottome.
After improving his language skills there, he studied at Munich University and the University of Geneva. While in Geneva, Fleming began a romance with Monique Panchaud de Bottens and the couple were engaged in 1931, his mother made him break off the relationship. He failed the examinations, his mother again intervened in his affairs, lobbying Sir Roderick Jones, head of Reuters News Agency, in October 1931 he was given a position as a sub-editor and journalist for the company. In 1933 Fleming spent time in Moscow, where he covered the Stalinist show trial of six engineers from the British company Metropolitan-Vickers. While there he applied for an interview with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, was amazed to receive a signed note apologising for not being able to attend. Fleming bowed to family pressure in October 1933, went into banking with a position at the financiers Cull & Co. In 1935 he moved to Pitman on Bishopsgate as a stockbroker. Fleming was unsuccessful in both roles. Early in 1939 Fleming began an affair with Ann O'Neill (née Ch
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party. He rose to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland in September 1939, he was involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust. Hitler was raised near Linz, he moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda, he denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
By July 1932 the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France, his first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant popular support.
Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe, his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. In December 1941, shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, Hitler declared war on the United States, bringing it directly into the conflict. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, he married his longtime lover Eva Braun. Less than two days on 30 April 1945, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army. Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims who he and his followers deemed Untermenschen or undesirable.
Hitler and the Nazi regime were responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history. Hitler's father Alois; the baptismal register did not show the name of his father, Alois bore his mother's surname Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father. Alois assumed the surname "Hitler" spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler; the name is based on "one who lives in a hut". Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois.
No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence, so historians dismiss the claim that Alois's father was Jewish. Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire, he was christened as "Adolphus Hitler". He was the fourth of six children born to his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler's siblings—Gustav and Otto—died in infancy. Living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. and Angela. When Hitler was three, the family moved to Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life; the family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-owned primary schoo
.380 ACP
The.380 ACP is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case, it was introduced in 1908 by Colt, for use in its new Colt Model 1908 pocket hammerless semi-automatic, has been a popular self-defense cartridge since, seeing wide use in numerous handguns. Other names for.380 ACP include.380 Auto, 9mm Browning, 9mm Corto, 9mm Kurz, 9mm Short, 9×17mm and 9 mm Browning Court. It should not be confused with.38 ACP. The.380 ACP cartridge was derived from Browning's earlier.38 ACP design, only marginally more powerful. The.380 ACP was designed to be rimless, with headspace on the case mouth instead of the rim for better accuracy. These low-powered designs were intended for blowback pistols which lacked a barrel locking mechanism, required for any handgun firing a round more powerful than a.380. Using blowback operation, the design can be simplified, lowered in cost. Blowback operation permits the barrel to be permanently fixed to the frame, which promotes accuracy, unlike a traditional short recoil-operation pistol, which requires a "tilting" barrel to unlock the slide and barrel assembly when cycling.
A drawback of the blowback system is that it requires a certain amount of slide mass to counter the recoil of the round used. The higher the power of the round, the heavier the slide assembly has to be in order for its inertia to safely absorb the recoil, meaning that a typical blowback pistol in a given caliber will be heavier than an equivalent recoil-operated weapon. Blowback weapons can be made in calibers larger than.380 ACP, but the required weight of the slide and strength of the spring makes this an unpopular option. Although the low power of the.380 ACP does not require a locking mechanism, there have been a number of locked-breech pistols chambered in.380 ACP, such as the Remington Model 51, Kel-Tec P3AT and Glock 42. There have been some diminutive submachine guns, such as the Ingram MAC-11 and the Czech vz. 83. The.380 ACP has experienced widespread use in the years since its introduction. In 1914, it was used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia, the event, credited with starting World War I.
It was adopted by the armies of at least five European nations as their standard pistol cartridge before World War II. It was used extensively by Germany, who captured or purchased hundreds of thousands of pistols in this caliber during World War II. Popular German built commercial models, such as the Walther PPK were popular with German officers; the Italian Army used the Beretta M1934, but the Italian Air Force and Navy stuck with the 7.65mm/.32 ACP when they adopted the Beretta M1935. While.380 ACP was considered to be a moderately powerful service pistol round before World War II when compared to the.32 ACP pistols it replaced, no nation retained it as a military service cartridge for long after the war. It was used by police forces in Europe until at least the 1980s when more powerful 9×19mm handguns began to replace it in this market as well, it does find some use as a backup gun due to the small and concealable size of the weapons that chambered it, is popular on the civilian market as a personal defense round.
The.380 ACP round is suitable for self-defense situations. It was the round used in Defense Distributed's "Wiki Weapon" project to 3D print a firearm. The.380 ACP is compact and light, but has a short range and less stopping power than other modern pistol cartridges. According to gun author Massad Ayoob, "Some experts will say it's adequate, others will say it's inadequate." So, it remains a popular self-defense cartridge for shooters who want a lightweight pistol with manageable recoil and/or smaller pistol. It is less powerful than a standard-pressure.38 Special and uses 9 mm diameter bullets. The standard bullet weights are 85, 90, 95, 100, 115, 120 grain; the wounding potential of bullets is characterized in terms of a bullet's expanded diameter, penetration depth, energy. Bullet energy for.380 ACP loads varies from 190 to 294 foot-pounds force.|The table below shows common performance parameters for several.380 ACP loads. Bullet weights ranging from 85 to 95 gr are common. Penetration depths from 6.5 to 17 inches are available for various applications and risk assessments.
Key: Expansion — expanded bullet diameter. Penetration — penetration depth. PC — permanent cavity volume. TSC — temporary stretch cavity volume. 9×17mm United States —.380 Auto.380 ACP. European Union Spanish and Italian — 9mm Corto / 9mm Short French — 9mm Co
Chaco War
The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, thought to be rich in oil. It is referred to as La Guerra de la Sed in literary circles, for being fought in the semi-arid Chaco, it was the bloodiest military conflict fought in South America during the 20th century, between two of its poorest countries, both having lost territory to neighbors in 19th-century wars. During the war, both landlocked countries faced difficulties shipping arms and supplies through neighboring countries. Bolivia faced particular external trade problems, coupled with poor internal communications. Although Bolivia had lucrative mining income and a larger, better-equipped army, a series of factors turned the tide against it, Paraguay came to control most of the disputed zone by war's end; the ultimate peace treaties granted two-thirds of the disputed territories to Paraguay. The origin of the war is attributed to a long-standing territorial dispute and the discovery of oil deposits on the Andean plains.
In 1929, the Treaty of Lima ended the hopes of the Bolivian government of recovering a land corridor to the Pacific Ocean, thought imperative to further development and trade. The impetus for war was exacerbated by a conflict between oil companies jockeying for exploration and drilling rights, with Royal Dutch Shell backing Paraguay and Standard Oil supporting Bolivia; the discovery of oil in the Andean foothills sparked speculation that the Chaco might prove a rich source of petroleum, foreign oil companies were involved in the exploration. Standard Oil was producing oil from wells in the high hills of eastern Bolivia, around Villa Montes. However, it is uncertain if the war would have been caused by the interests of these companies, not by aims of Argentina to import oil from the Chaco. In opposition to the "dependency theory" of the war's origins, the British historian Matthew Hughes argued against the thesis that Bolivian and Paraguayan governments were the "puppets" of Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell writing: "In fact, there is little hard evidence available in the company and government archives to support the theory that oil companies had anything to do with causing the war or helping one side or the other during the war".
Both Bolivia and Paraguay were landlocked. Though the 600,000 km2 Chaco was sparsely populated, control of the Paraguay River running through it provided access to the Atlantic Ocean; this became important to Bolivia, which had lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the 1879 War of the Pacific. Paraguay had lost half of its territory to Brazil and Argentina in the Paraguayan War of 1864–1870; the country was not prepared to surrender its economic viability. In international arbitration, Bolivia argued that the region had been part of the original Spanish colonial province of Moxos and Chiquitos to which Bolivia was heir. Meanwhile, Paraguay based its case on the occupation of the land. Indeed, both Paraguayan and Argentine planters were breeding cattle and exploiting quebracho woods in the area, while the small nomadic indigenous population of Guaraní-speaking tribes was related to Paraguay's own Guaraní heritage; as of 1919, Argentine banks owned 400,000 hectares of land in the eastern Chaco while the Casado family, a powerful part of the Argentine oligarchy, held 141,000.
The presence of Mennonite colonies in the Chaco, who settled there in the 1920s under the auspices of the Paraguayan parliament, was another factor in favour of Paraguay's claim. The first confrontation between the two countries dates back to 1885, when the Bolivian entrepreneur Miguel Araña Suárez founded Puerto Pacheco, a port on the upper Paraguay river, south of Bahía Negra, he assumed that the new settlement was well inside Bolivian territory, but Bolivia had implicitly recognized Bahía Negra as Paraguayan. The Paraguayan government sent in a naval detachment aboard the gunboat Pirapó, which forcibly evicted the Bolivians from the area in 1888. Two agreements followed—in 1894 and 1907—which neither the Bolivian nor the Paraguayan parliament approved. Meanwhile, in 1905 Bolivia founded two new outposts in the Chaco, Ballivián and Guachalla, this time along the Pilcomayo River; the Bolivian government ignored the half-hearted Paraguayan official protest. Bolivian penetration in the region went unopposed until 1927, when the first blood was shed over the Chaco Boreal.
On 27 February a Paraguayan army foot patrol and its native guides were taken prisoners near the Pilcomayo River and held in the Bolivian outpost of Fortin Sorpresa, where the commander of the Paraguayan platoon, lieutenant Adolfo Rojas Silva, was shot and killed in suspicious circumstances. Fortín was the name used for the small pillbox and trench-like garrisons in the Chaco, although the troops' barracks were no more than a few mud huts. While the Bolivian government formally regretted the death of Rojas Silva, the Paraguayan public opinion called it "murder". After the subsequent talks arranged in Buenos Aires failed to produce any agreement and collapsed in January 1928, the dispute grew violent. On 5 December 1928 a Paraguayan cavalry unit overran Fortin Vanguardia, an advance outpost established by the Bolivian army a few miles northwest of Bahía Negra; the Paraguayans burnt the scattered huts to the ground. The Bolivians retaliated with an air strike on Bahía Negra on 15 December, which caused few casualties and not much damage.
On 14 December Bolivia seized Fortin Boquerón, which would be the site of the first major battle of the campaign
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,966, in 2016, the population was estimated to be 155,810. Located along the western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is 7 miles south of downtown Washington, D. C. Like the rest of Northern Virginia, as well as Central Maryland, modern Alexandria has been influenced by its proximity to the U. S. capital. It is populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, in the U. S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government. One of Alexandria's largest employers is the U. S. Department of Defense. Another is the Institute for Defense Analyses. In 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved to Alexandria, in 2017, so did the headquarters of the National Science Foundation; the historic center of Alexandria is known as Old Town. With its concentration of boutiques, antique shops and theaters, it is a major draw for all who live in Alexandria as well for visitors.
Like Old Town, many Alexandria neighborhoods are walkable. It is the 7th largest and highest-income independent city in Virginia. A large portion of adjacent Fairfax County south but west of the city, is named "Alexandria," but it is under the jurisdiction of Fairfax County and separate from the city. In 1920, Virginia's General Assembly voted to incorporate what had been Alexandria County as Arlington County to minimize confusion. On October 21, 1669 a patent granted 6,000 acres to Robert Howsing for transporting 120 people to the Colony of Virginia; that tract would become the City of Alexandria. Virginia's comprehensive Tobacco Inspection Law of 1730 mandated that all tobacco grown in the colony must be brought to locally designated public warehouses for inspection before sale. One of the sites designated for a warehouse on the upper Potomac River was at the mouth of Hunting Creek. However, the ground proved to be unsuitable, the warehouse was built half a mile up-river, where the water was deep near the shore.
Following the 1745 settlement of the Virginia's 10 year dispute with Lord Fairfax over the western boundary of the Northern Neck Proprietary, when the Privy Council in London found in favor of Lord Fairfax's expanded claim, some of the Fairfax County gentry formed the Ohio Company of Virginia. They intended to conduct trade into the interior of America, they required a trading center near the head of navigation on the Potomac; the best location was Hunting Creek tobacco warehouse, since the deep water could accommodate sailing ships. Many local tobacco planters, wanted a new town further up Hunting Creek, away from nonproductive fields along the river. Around 1746, Captain Philip Alexander II moved to what is south of present Duke Street in Alexandria, his estate, which consisted of 500 acres, was bounded by Hunting Creek, Hooff's Run, the Potomac River, the line which would become Cameron Street. At the opening of Virginia's 1748–49 legislative session, there was a petition submitted in the House of Burgesses on November 1, 1748, that the "inhabitants of Fairfax praying that a town may be established at Hunting Creek Warehouse on Potowmack River," as Hugh West was the owner of the warehouse.
The petition was introduced by Lawrence Washington, the representative for Fairfax County and, more the son-in-law of William Fairfax and a founding member of the Ohio Company. To support the company's push for a town on the river, Lawrence's younger brother George Washington, an aspiring surveyor, made a sketch of the shoreline touting the advantages of the tobacco warehouse site. Since the river site was amidst his estate, Philip opposed the idea and favored a site at the head of Hunting Creek, it has been said that in order to avoid a predicament the petitioners offered to name the new town Alexandria, in honor of Philip's family. As a result and his cousin Captain John Alexander gave land to assist in the development of Alexandria, are thus listed as the founders; this John was the son of Robert Alexander II. On May 2, 1749, the House of Burgesses approved the river location and ordered "Mr. Washington do go up with a Message to the Council and acquaint them that this House have agreed to the Amendments titled An Act for erecting a Town at Hunting Creek Warehouse, in the County of Fairfax."
A "Public Vendue" was advertised for July, the county surveyor laid out street lanes and town lots. The auction was conducted on July 13–14, 1749. Upon establishment, the town founders called the new town "Belhaven", believed to be in honor of a Scottish patriot, John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton, the Northern Neck tobacco trade being dominated by Scots; the name Belhaven was used in official lotteries to raise money for a Church and Market House, but it was never approved by the legislature and fell out of favor in the mid-1750s. The town of Alexandria did not become incorporated until 1779. In 1755, General Edward Braddock organized his fatal expedition against Fort Duquesne at Carlyle House in Alexandria. In April 1755, the governors of Virginia, the provinces of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York met to determine upon concerted action against the French in America. In March 1785, commissioners from Virginia and Maryland met in Alexandria to discuss the commercial relations of the two states, finishing their business at Mount Vernon.
The Mount Vernon Conference concluded o
Action (firearms)
In firearms terminology, an action is the mechanism of a breech-loading weapon that handles the ammunition or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all are single-shot weapons with a closed off breech. Instead, the ignition mechanism is referred to Actions can be categorized in several ways, including single action versus double action, break action versus bolt action, others; the term action can include short and magnum if it is in reference to the length of the rifle's receiver and the length of the bolt. The short action rifle can accommodate a cartridge length of 2.8 in or smaller. The long action rifle can accommodate a cartridge of 3.34 in, the magnum action rifle can accommodate cartridges of 3.6 in, or longer in length. The dropping block are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or "drops" into the receiver to open the breech actuated by an underlever. There are two principal types of dropping block: the falling block. In a tilting block or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear.
When the lever is operated, the block tilts forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are the Peabody, the Peabody–Martini, Ballard actions; the original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. Swiss gunsmith Friedrich Martini developed a pivoting block action by modifying the Peabody, that incorporated a hammerless striker, cocked by the operating lever with the same single, efficient motion that pivoted the block; the 1871 Martini–Henry which replaced the "trapdoor" Snider–Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the Victorian era, the Martini was a popular action for civilian rifles. Charles H. Ballard's self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, earned a superlative reputation among long-range "Creedmoor" target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today prized by collectors those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Schützen stocks of the day. A falling block action is a single-shot firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon and actuated by a lever.
Examples of firearms using the falling block action are the Sharps rifle and Ruger No. 1. In a rolling block action the breechblock takes the form of a part-cylinder, with a pivot pin through its axis; the operator rotates or "rolls" the block to close the breech. Rolling blocks are most associated with firearms made by Remington in the 19th century; the hinged block was the earliest metallic-cartridge breechloaders designed for general military issue began as conversions of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The upper rear portion of the barrel was filed or milled away and replaced by a hinged breechblock which opened upward to permit loading. An internal angled firing pin allowed the re-use of the rifle's existing side-hammer; the Allin action made by Springfield Arsenal in the US hinged forward. Whereas the British replaced the Snider with a dropping-block Peabody-style Martini action, the US Army felt the trapdoor action to be adequate and followed its muzzleloader conversions with the new-production Springfield Model 1873, the principal longarm of the Indian Wars and was still in service with some units in the Spanish–American War.
A break action is a type of firearm where the barrel are hinged and can be "broken open" to expose the breech. Multi-barrel break action firearms are subdivided into over-and-under or side-by-side configurations for two barrel configurations or "combination gun" when mixed rifle and shotgun barrels are used. Although bolt-action guns are associated with fixed or detachable box magazines, in fact the first general-issue military breechloader was a single-shot bolt action: the paper-cartridge Prussian needle gun of 1841. France countered in 1866 with its superior Chassepot rifle a paper-cartridge bolt action; the first metallic-cartridge bolt actions in general military service were the Berdan Type II introduced by Russia in 1870, the Mauser Model 1871, a modified Chassepot, the Gras rifle of 1874. Today most top-level smallbore match rifles are single-shot bolt actions. Single-shot bolt actions in.22 caliber were widely manufactured as inexpensive "boys' guns" in the earlier 20th century. The eccentric screw action first seen on the M1867 Werndl–Holub and on the Magnum Research Lone Eagle pistol, the breech closure is a rotating drum with the same axis, but offset from the bore.
When locked, a firing pin aligns with the primer and the breech is otherwise solid. When rotated open, a slot in the drum is exposed for feeding of a new round. Though first used on the Werndl-Holub, this action is known as a cannon breech due to its association with the French 75mm Model of 1897 cannon; the French M1897 was, based on William Hubbell's U. S. Patent 149,478; the Ferguson rifle: British Major Patrick Ferguson designed his rifle, considered to be the first military breechloader, in the 1770s. A plug-shaped breechblock was screw-threaded so that rotating the handle underneath would lower a
Bangladesh: Special Security Force[22]
Bolivia: PP variant[23]
Burkina Faso: PP variant[24]
Central African Republic: PP variant[24]
Chad: PP variant[24]
Republic of the Congo: PP variant[24]
Denmark: PPK variant. Danish police used a 7.65mm version[25]
East Germany: A close copy was produced after World War II[26]
France: All Walther PPs and variants were produced after World War II by Manurhin until 1986[26]
Guyana: PPK variant[24]
Hungary: A close copy was produced locally after World War II. A Hungarian version called the PA-63 (9×18mm Makarov) is still in service[26]
Indonesia: PPK variant is used by Komando Pasukan Katak (Kopaska) tactical diver group and Komando Pasukan Khusus (Kopassus) special forces group[27]
Madagascar: PP variant[24]
Mali: PP variant[24]
Mauritius: PP variant[24]
Germany: (origin)[26]
Niger: PP variant[24]
Norway PP used by Norwegian Police, PP and PPK used by Norwegian Armed Forces
Romania: A close copy was produced locally after World War II[26]
Senegal: PP variant[24]
Seychelles: PP variant[24]
Sweden: Walther PP in use by Swedish police until early-mid 2000s[28][29]
Switzerland: PPK variant. Used by pilots of the Swiss Air Force and various police forces.
Togo: PP variant[24]
Turkey: A close copy Kirikkale in 7.65 and 9mm was produced locally after World War II.[26][30]
United Kingdom: Police Service of Northern Ireland replaced by Ruger Speed 6 MI6 and the Royal Air Force - L66A1 .22 LR and L47A1 7.65mm Walther PP[4]
United States: Produced locally and used by various police forces. Kentucky State Police issued the stainless PPK/S as a backup gun and each pistol had the agency logo engraved on the slide.[31][32]
