Mad Science by Randy Alfred

Author:Randy Alfred
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science / Essays, Technology & Engineering / History, Reference / Trivia, Science / History
ISBN: 9780316208185
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2012-11-12T16:00:00+00:00

Also July 5:

1687: Isaac Newton Publishes Principia Mathematica, Foundation of Modern Physics

1937: Hormel Introduces Spam, Canned Spiced Pork Shoulder

1946: Paris Pool Sees First Bikini Bathing Suit Worn in Public

1997: Birth of Dolly the Sheep, First Cloned Mammal

Also 1943:

July 26: LA Gets First Big Smog (see here)

July 6

1947: The AK-47, an All-Purpose Killer

The AK-47, one of the world’s first operational assault rifles and probably the most durable and enduring small-arms weapon ever made, goes into production in the Soviet Union. More than sixty years later, it remains the standard infantry weapon in numerous armies, and a mainstay in the arsenals of rebels, drug traffickers, and terrorists worldwide.

The AK-47 was the brainchild of self-taught inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was inspired by his fellow Russian soldiers’ complaining about the poor quality of Soviet-made small arms. Elements of Nazi Germany’s Sturmgewehr 44 are plainly evident in Kalashnikov’s original AK-47. The Red Army adopted the Avtomatni Kalashnikova model 1947 as its standard infantry weapon in 1949, and it was standard issue for the major Warsaw Pact armies as well.

Characteristic of assault rifles, a selector level lets the shooter choose between automatic (continuous firing) and semiautomatic (single-shot firing). The weapon is gas-operated, chambering a 7.62mm round. The genius of the AK-47 lies in its sheer simplicity, which makes it cheap to manufacture, reliable to use, and durable in the field.

Revolutionaries from Cuba to Angola to Vietnam clamored for the weapon. Because many of these movements were directly supported by the Soviet Union, obtaining AK-47s (or, more colloquially, Kalashnikovs) in bulk was not difficult. American soldiers in Vietnam, toting M16s prone to jamming, gained a grudging respect for the AK-47 too.

About 100 million of them, in their many variations, are believed to be in circulation. Kalashnikov’s original 1947 model, however, is a rare find.

Kalashnikov expressed regret that his AK-47 became the weapon of choice for terrorists, but he suffers no pangs of guilt: “My conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country.”—TL

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