In 1866, Englishman William Curtis filed the first patent on a gas-operated repeating rifle but subsequently failed to develop that idea further. The first mention of using a gas piston in a single-shot breech-loading rifle comes from 1856, by the German Edward Lindner who patented his invention in the United States and Britain. This high-pressure gas impinges on a surface such as a piston head to provide motion for unlocking of the action, extraction of the spent case, ejection, cocking of the hammer or striker, chambering of a fresh cartridge, and locking of the action. Energy from the gas is harnessed through either a port in the barrel or a trap at the muzzle. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent case and insert a new cartridge into the chamber. Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, autoloading firearms. 1) gas port, 2) piston head, 3) rod, 4) bolt, 5) bolt carrier, 6) spring Gas-operated firearm (long-stroke piston, e.g. JSTOR ( January 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'Gas-operated reloading' – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
