It is sometimes claimed (i.e. in George Morgan Chinn's the Machine Gun) that in 1663 the first mention of the automatic principle of machine guns was in a paper presented to the Royal Society of England by Palmer, an Englishman who described a volley gun capable of being operated by either recoil or gas. However, no one has been able to find this paper in recent times and all references to a multi-shot weapon by a Palmer during this period appear to be referring to a somewhat more common Kalthoff repeater or Lorenzoni-system gun. Despite this, there is a reference in 1663 to at least the concept of a genuine automatic gun that was presented to Prince Rupert, though its type and method of operation are unknown.
It is sometimes claimed (ie in George Morgan Chinn's the Machine Gun) that in 1663 the first mention of the automatic principle of machine guns was in a paper presented to the Royal Society of England by Palmer an Englishman who described a volley gun capable of being operated by either recoil or gas However no one has been able to find this paper in recent times and all references to a multi-shot weapon by a Palmer during this period appear to be referring to a somewhat more common Kalthoff repeater or Lorenzoni-system gun Despite this there is a reference in 1663 to at least the concept of a genuine automatic gun that was presented to Prince Rupert though its type and method of operation are unknown