WI: Machine gun during ARW?

According to Wikipedia,
In 1777, Philadelphia gunsmith Joseph Belton offered the Continental Congress a "new improved gun", which was capable of firing up to twenty shots in five seconds, automatically, and was capable of being loaded by a cartridge. Congress requested that Belton modify 100 flintlock muskets to fire eight shots in this manner, but rescinded the order when Belton's price proved too high.
Another article on the subject states that
Belton described the gun as capable of firing up to "sixteen or twenty [balls], in sixteen, ten, or five seconds of time". It is theorized that it worked in a manner similar to a Roman candle, with a single lock igniting a fused chain of charges stacked in a single barrel, packaged as a single large paper cartridge. Despite commissioning Belton to build or modify 100 muskets for the military on May 3, 1777, the order was dismissed in May, 15, 1777, when Congress received Belton's bid and considered it an "extraordinary allowance."

So, WI the Continental Congress decides to allow Belton to modify, let's say 10, flintlock muskets for a substantially lower price in order to see if his claims were true. What happens next (asides from Ameriwank :rolleyes:)?
 
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we would get this!
 
That design has been around since the fourteenth century. So far, the first people to make it work reliably have been the Australians, in the 1990s. I somehow doubt that this would be more than a good way to lose unlucky Continentals some fingers.
 

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Only if they adopt either the arrow or crossbow. . .

argument. That is, either you are released pressure, or you store up energy to be released. One way is natural and the other natural Also.
 
The technology provides a new type of specialized rifleman but limitations of pre-1830s firearms limit use of the new weapon to the equivalent of sharpshooters. The result is no ultimate change in Continental Army structure and minimal changes in the USA, post-Minie ball and mass produced rifles, the shit starts to hit the fan.
 
wars will have more casultys, also a much much worse amircan civil war

Not sure this is the case. US Civil War armies unless they were led by guys like Lee and Grant didn't really use firepower as much as later armies would. The real impact would be in the Wars of Italian and German Unification, assuming a butterfly in the late 18th Century hasn't already made the OTL pattern there impossible.
 
You might be thinking too far ahead guys. What about Napoleonic Wars, or the Spanish American Wars of Independence? By even the 1830s the timeline would look considerably different from our own.
 
You might be thinking too far ahead guys. What about Napoleonic Wars, or the Spanish American Wars of Independence? By even the 1830s the timeline would look considerably different from our own.
This is a mistaken thread title.:rolleyes: It's not a "machinegun" of any description. It's a multiple-slug load, which has been tried for home defense guns. It's also seriously inaccurate much beyond spitting distance.:rolleyes:
 
Unfortunately the idea is unworkable without modern metallurgy. The problem is that the flash from the first cartridge will, because of the imperfect seal between bullet and barrel, ignite the next cartridge, which ignites the next, and so on, producing pressures that will blow the barrel apart, killing or severely injuring the firer and anyone near him.

Modern 'metal storm' weapons work in a similar manner, but they have a tight enough seal between bullet and barrel to prevent premature ignition of the following propellant blocks.
 
Unfortunately the idea is unworkable without modern metallurgy. The problem is that the flash from the first cartridge will, because of the imperfect seal between bullet and barrel, ignite the next cartridge, which ignites the next, and so on, producing pressures that will blow the barrel apart, killing or severely injuring the firer and anyone near him.

Modern 'metal storm' weapons work in a similar manner, but they have a tight enough seal between bullet and barrel to prevent premature ignition of the following propellant blocks.

With enough windage between the barrel and the bullet, it works fine. Things like these were actually used in medieval Europe. The real problem is that there's nothing they bring to the table a proper large-caliber musket double-charged with pistol balls doesn't. It's just another attempt to make a technology work before its time.
 
With enough windage between the barrel and the bullet, it works fine. Things like these were actually used in medieval Europe. The real problem is that there's nothing they bring to the table a proper large-caliber musket double-charged with pistol balls doesn't. It's just another attempt to make a technology work before its time.

Not to mention that without industrial-era production, it eats up far too much ammunition to be viable in any except a few specialized circumstances. *With* industrial production this ensures that British generals win the ARW, not the notoriously short of ammunition colonials. If such weapons did exist, the Continental Army as a rule would be too short of ammunition to actually use it.
 
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