Most Efficient Weapons In History
- Single Action Army was the original name of the Colt Peacemaker.
- The biggest nuclear bomb ever to be tested was the Tsar Bomba, a 100 megaton destroyer of worlds.
- You can never tell if there is any anthrax in an envelope considering it is odorless, tasteless and invisible.
Ever since the Bronze Age, and the first appearance of maces and swords, humans have continued working on creating more powerful and efficient weapons. This is, truth be told, an unfortunate list because the weapons you will read about below are effective due to their ability to kill and destroy.
From revolvers to nuclear bombs, humankind has shown remarkable craftsmanship when it comes to creating tools of destruction.
10. Anthrax
Anthrax is invisible, completely tasteless, and odorless. This makes it an ideal choice for creating a horrific biological weapon. This compound comes from Bacillus anthracis bacteria, and it can be found in nature. However, the extraction of the deadly anthrax compound and mixing it with food or water turns it into an imperceptible killer.
9. Tsar Bomba
The biggest nuclear bomb the US ever made was called B41, and it had the maximum power of 25 megatons. To counter that and put themselves on the nuclear map of the world, the Soviet Union created the Tsar Bomba - a 100 megaton armageddon device.
This bomb was tested only once on 30 October 1961 - and never again. After it went off, it created a mushroom cloud that went up 40 miles in the sky, reaching the stratosphere and mesosphere.
8. Flamethrower
Continuing with gaming references, this thing surely puts a smile on your face if you ever pick it up in a shooter game. A controlled stream of fire directly from someone's hands, however, is not a game. Flamethrowers killed a lot of people in head-to-head combats of both World Wars.
7. RPG
Although Role-Playing-Game is another popular abbreviation today, RPG stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade. The Nazi concept, known as Panzerfaust, turned out to be the most effective anti-tank weapon ever made. RPG's were massively used against the US Army during the Vietnam War, as the Viet Cong was trying to defend from armored vehicles.
6. AK-47
Just those two letters and two numbers are enough for people to recognize the most iconic assault rifle of all time. Designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1949, this assault rifle was first in the hands of the Soviet Red Army. The effectiveness and the ruggedness of this 7.62-mm automatic firing rifle, attracted everyone that needed a rifle, as it sold in more than 75 million pieces worldwide.
5. Uzi
More than 10 million pieces of this SMG (submachine gun) were made ever since Major Uziel Gal developed it in 1948. Light-weight, small and compact, this 9-mm gun was developed for the Israeli Army. Still, it quickly spread all over the world as one of the deadliest SMG's ever to exist because of its super-fast fire rate.
4. Schwerer Gustav
This German monster, coming at 1,350 tons, could fire shells up to 47 km in the distance. This does not sound that impressive without the fact that the missiles were weighing 7 tons! The Schwerer Gustav is the biggest artillery weapon ever used, but only on the battlefields of World War II. The Germans destroyed this railway gun as World War II was ending, so the Soviets would not get their hands on it.
3. M1 Garand
The Garand M1 could fit only eight bullets, but it was a rifle that revolutionized modern warfare. Invented by John Garand in 1936, this semi-automatic rifle had a much higher fire rate than previous rifles, that were mostly single-bolt action. In World War II, four million M1 Garands were made, and they were all put to use.
2. Colt Peacemaker
Although Samuel Colt is not the inventor of the revolver, his most famous weapon is almost a synonym for all revolvers. In 1867, Colt manufactured a weapon called the Single Action Army. However, everybody knows this revolver by its (un)intentionally ironic name: The Peacemaker. This Colt 45 was, without a doubt, the most used revolver in the Wild West.
1. Gatling Gun
This is the first real machine gun ever to be made. Created by Dr. Richard Gatling in 1862, this gun was equipped with six barrels with an impressive fire rate. The Gatling gun could fire 700 rounds per minute; all operated manually with a rotating hand crank.
Used in the American Civil War, Spanish-American War, and in many fights located in British colonies, this machine gun was a real mean killing machine.
