The latest development in this class of arms is the _automatic magazine pistol_, designed for the use of the officers of the German army, and adapted to fire ten shots in as many seconds. Only a slight pressure on the trigger is necessary, as it is not required to perform the work of turning any other part by the trigger, as is the case in the self-cocking revolver. The pressure of gas at each explosion does all the work of pushing back the closing piece of the breech through the recoil of the shell, extracts and ejects the shell, cocks the hammer, and also compresses recuperative springs, which effect the reloading and closing of the weapon, all of these functions being performed in proper sequence at each explosion in a fraction of a second. The act of firing thus prepares the pistol for the next shot automatically. In Fig. 278 are shown two makes of pistol of this type. No. 1 is known as the Mauser (United States patent No. 584,479, June 15, 1897); No. 2 shows it with an extemporized stock, to be used as a carbine in firing from the shoulder. This stock is hollow and forms the holster or case for the pistol. At No. 3 is shown the Mannlicher pistol (United States patent No. 581,296, April 27, 1897), which is another form of the same type. In the Mauser the breech moves to the rear during recoil. In the Mannlicher the barrel moves to the front, leaving space for a fresh cartridge to come up from the magazine below. The calibre of this pistol is 0.3 inch, and the initial velocity 1,395 feet. At 33 feet the ball passes through 10¾ inches of spruce, at 490 through 5 inches, and its extreme range is 3,000 feet, or more than half a mile. When empty it is quickly re-charged with cartridges, which are made up in sets of ten in a case and inserted in one movement. [Illustration: FIG. 278.--AUTOMATIC PISTOLS.] _Breech-Loading Guns._--Although the breech-loading principle was well known prior to the Nineteenth Century, it remained for this period to give it effective development. The first United States patent for a breech-loading gun was to Thornton and Hall, May 21, 1811. It was a flint lock, and many of these arms were made at Harper’s Ferry Armory in 1814, and issued to the troops, one being given by order of Congress to each member of Congress to take home with him to show to his constituents. The present style of break-down gun was invented by Pauly, in France, and is to be found in his British patent No. 3,833, of 1814. Lefaucheux, of Paris, however, made this form of gun practical. Minesinger, in United States patent No. 6,139, February 27, 1849, supplied the important improvement of making the front edge of the metallic cartridge shell thinner than elsewhere, so as to expand by the pressure of the exploding charge, and swell to a tight fit of the barrel. The Maynard rifle, first patented May 27, 1851, No. 8,126, was one of the earliest practical forms of breech-loaders.