precursor machine gun china invention

China is the first country that used the gunpowder weapon in the world. Chinese army had already equipped gunpowder weapon formally in Sung Dynasty. Chinese had invented a lot of firearms with the development of gunpowder technology. The firearm expert Dai Zi (1649-1726) made great contribution in the aspect of continuous shot firearm invention in Qing Dynasty.
Dai Zi’s father is good at making weapon. Dai Zi influenced by father began to like machine-building in young period. Besides, he was good at calligraphy and painting. Dai Zi joined the army in 1674. He invented a kind of continuous shot firearm in the army — Continuous Shot Gun. This kind of gun can store 28 bullets after once filling. The gear design of Continuous Shot Gun is very ingenious. It can fill and fire bullet continuously, thus simplified the procedure of filling, improved the speed of shot greatly. This was a kind of very amazing invention at that time. Because its principle is similar to modern machine gun, someone called it “the first kind of machine gun in the world”.
Unfortunately, Dai Zi was framed by the treacherous court official. The emperor had listened indiscriminately to the slanderous talk and banished him to Shengjing (Shenyang now). He had lived for more than 30 years experiencing all kinds of hardships there, can only make a living by selling the calligraphy and painting.
The Continuous Shot Gun that he invented didn’t equip the army of Qing Dynasty. Lost gradually later. This left Chinese great regret.