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The Pedersen device is an attachment developed during World War I for the M1903 Springfield rifle that allowed it to fire a short .30 caliber (7.62 mm) intermediate cartridge in semi-automatic mode. This attachment was developed to allow infantry to dramatically increase their rate of fire while on the move, while also allowing the rifle to be used in conventional bolt action mode for long-range fire from the trenches.〔 Production had just ramped up when the war ended and the Pedersen device ended up in storage after the war. A 1920 testing program in Panama was critical of the awkwardness of conversion in combat and of the weight of the rifle with the belt carrying the Pedersen device and ammunition magazines. Fewer than 100 Pedersen devices escaped ordered destruction to become extremely rare collectors' items.〔 ==History== John Pedersen, a longtime employee of Remington Arms, at some point. Concerned about the inability for troops to effectively fire on the run while attempting to cross "No Man's Land", he decided to start studying the problem of semi-automatic fire that would allow them to However, he also realized that there would be a totally new rifle design, as they were already struggling to produce enough Springfields, contracting to produce millions of M1917 "American Enfield" rifle with Remington and Winchester and were importing Ross rifles from Canada for training purposes. This led him to the final design, which replaced the bolt of the standard Springfield with a device consisting of a complete firing mechanism and a small "barrel" for the small round. In effect, the "device" was essentially a complete blow-back pistol minus a receiver/grip using the short "barrel" of the device to fit into the longer chamber of the M1903 Springfield. The mechanism was fed by a long 40-round magazine sticking perpendicularly out of the rifle at a 45-degree angle to the top right, and could be reloaded by inserting a new magazine. Each magazine had cut-out viewing slots facing aft so the rifleman could observe the number of unfired rounds remaining. The system required an ejection port to be cut into the left side of the receiver and the adjacent stock cut away to allow clearance for spent cartridges being thrown from the action. Sear, trigger, and magazine cut-off also required modifications which did not limit the ability of Mark I receivers to function in the normal bolt action mode.〔 Pedersen traveled to Washington, DC on 8 October 1917 to conduct a secret demonstration for Chief of Ordnance General William Crozier and a selected group of army officers and congressmen. After firing several rounds from what appeared to be an unmodified Springfield, he removed the standard bolt, inserted the device, and fired several magazines at a very high rate of fire. The evaluation team was favorably impressed. To deceive the enemy, the Ordnance Department decided to call it the US Automatic Pistol, Caliber .30, Model of 1918. Plans were put into place to start production of modified Springfields, which became the US Rifle, Cal. .30, Model of M1903, Mark I. The Army placed orders for 133,450 devices and 800,000,000 cartridges for the 1919 Spring Offensive. General John J. Pershing requested 40 magazines and 5000 rounds of ammunition be shipped with each device and anticipated an average daily ammunition use of 100 rounds per device.〔 The use of the Pedersen Device in the 1919 Spring offensive was to be in conjunction with the full combat introduction of the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). The US Patent Office issued , , , and to Pedersen for his invention. The United States Army paid Pedersen $50,000 for rights to produce the device and a royalty of 50 cents for each device manufactured. The Army paid for all necessary machinery required to manufacture the device; and Remington received a net profit of two dollars for each device and 3 cents for each magazine.〔 A Mark II Pedersen Device was also designed for the US Rifle, Model of 1917 (the American Enfield), and a similar prototype was made for the US Rifle, Model of 1916 (the Remington Mosin–Nagant). Neither of those were ever put into production. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pedersen device」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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