Karel Krnka, Czech/Bohemian his father was silvester krnka, who designed the M1867 Krbka breechloader Collaborated with Georg Roth, Vienna, Austrian ammunition manufacturer, financed the handgun Krnka had been developing an automatic pistol design starting in the late 1890s. In 1891, he designed a revolving magazine manually operated pistol, and in 1895 he designed a semiautomatic pistol in 8x21mm Roth-Krnka, and held ten rounds. It was recoil operated with a locked breech, and loaded from stripper clips with a slider. Double digits made. Krnka partnered with Georg Roth to make the guns 1895 was improved to make the 1897 pistol, which improved the ergonomics by reducing the bore height. This pistol was further improved into the 1899 pattern, and then the 1904, which incorporated a manual safety and which was tested by the Austro-Hungarian army. This was improved into the 1907, which deleted the safety and was adopted. in 1908, the pistol was made in a .45 ACP version, presumably for US trials. In 1900, the smaller Roth-Sauer pistol, chambered for 7.65x17mm Roth-Sauer Auto was developed, based on the same pattern "This, like so many of Krnka's designs, used an unnecessarily complicated long recoil action. The barrel and bolt recoiled together, locked by a lug on the bolt engaging a recess in the breech. The bolt struck a cam at the end of the recoil stroke, rotating it through 20 degrees to unlock, and was then held while the barrel ran forward alone. A spent case was extracted and ejected during this phase; the barrel tripped the bolt as it stopped, allowing the bolt to come forward to chamber a fresh round. The bolt was rotated back to its locked position as it entered the breech, whereupon the entire locked assembly ran forward to the firing position. The Roth-Sauer was fired by a partially self-cocking striker mechanism. As the bolt closed, the sear held the striker with its spring under partial compression. Pulling the trigger completed compression of this spring and then released the striker. The mechanism was not fully self-cocking, however once the striker had been released, it could only be re-cocked by manually re-cycling the bolt. All this complication seems unnecessary in relation to the special 7.65mm cartridge designed by Roth for the Roth-Sauer, but somewhat weaker than the normal 7.65mm Auto round. Additional features of interest include use of the cocking knob as a safety, locking the action when rotated, and an integral butt magazine which required charger-loading through the open bolt-way." "The pistol was manufactured by Österreichische Waffenfabrik in Steyr in Austria (60,000 specimens), from 1908 to 1913, with a K mark on some parts and Fegyvergyar in Budapest in Hungary (30,000 specimens), from 1911 to 1914, with an R mark. The M 1907 Roth-Steyr pistol remained in service until 1941 or 1942 when they were then employed by Austrians and Hungarians integrated into the Wehrmacht. After World War I, Poland, under war damages, received 17,000 guns including a number of Roth-Steyr 1907s where a Polish inventory of 1939 mentions more than 200 of them." 1907 was the first semiauto hangun adopted by the land army of a major power, although the 1911 would be the first to be standardized "The pistol was developed by the Czech designer Karel Krnka, working for an ammunition company of Georg Roth, from an earlier design of Roth–Theodorovic pistol. After development and tests of several prototypes, the final version of the Roth–Krnka won a contest for an Army pistol in 1906, and was adapted as a standard gun of Austro-Hungarian Army as: Repetierpistole M.7. (self-loading pistol M1907).[2] Since Roth had no weapon production capabilities, the government bought all the rights and ordered production in the Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft (OEWG) in Steyr and FEG in Budapest. From 1908 to 1914, approximately 99,000 weapons were manufactured (the Army received 59,334 from Steyr and 38,213 from FEG, plus several hundred were sold on the civilian market).[2] Despite common name for the pistol Roth–Steyr, Steyr works did not participate in its design, apart from minor improvements.[2] Following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Roth–Steyr was fielded by Yugoslavia, with limited use during World War II by the Austrians and Hungarians. Italy received a number of pistols as World War I reparations from Austria-Hungary, and these pistols were used by Italian troops during World War II.[4] They were used also in Czechoslovakia and Poland.[2]" "This cartridge, standard in the Austro-Hungarian Army, was adopted in 1907. It remained in service a long time after the adoption of the M 1912 Steyr pistol, and could also be found during WW II. Its manufacture was mainly concentrated around the German and Austrian cartridge factories. It was listed on a Fiocchi catalog some years ago, but this did not mean it was available… The rimless cylindrical case measures 18.7 mm long. The Austrian service cartridge has a cylindro-ogival bullet weighting 7.20 grams (112 grains), with a lead core and a cupronickel jacket. The velocity was 320 m/s (1,052 fps). The Fiocchi Italian cartridge, fires a 7.30 grams (114 grains) gilding metal jacketed bullet at 330 m/s (1,085 fps)." Breechface-operated rifle, 1909: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1018914A/en?q=k&q=krnka&page=1 Charger/stripper clip, 1890: https://patents.google.com/patent/US449287A/en?q=k&q=krnka Bolt-action, 1890 (uses charger): https://patents.google.com/patent/US475061A/en?q=k&q=krnka Straight-pull, 1887: https://patents.google.com/patent/US386638A/en?q=k&q=krnka Straight-pull, 1889: https://patents.google.com/patent/US441673A/en?q=k&q=krnka Recoil-operated pistol/rifle, 1899: https://patents.google.com/patent/US634913A/en?q=k&q=krnka Breechface-operated mechanism, 1913: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1166913A/en?q=k&q=krnka Roth-Steyr 1904/1907 Patent, 1900: https://patents.google.com/patent/US676995A/en?q=k&q=krnka Rotary magazine, 1909: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1008162A/en?q=k&q=krnka Manually-operated pistol with rotary magazine, 1888: https://patents.google.com/patent/US459874A/en?q=k&q=krnka Extractor and ejector for bolt guns, 1891: https://patents.google.com/patent/US495137A/en?q=k&q=krnka Improvement to breechface-operated gun: https://patents.google.com/patent/US975256A/en?q=k&q=krnka&page=1 1898 Roth Pistol Patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US616261 http://www.google.com/patents/US616260 Breech bolt, 1891: http://www.google.com/patents/US495741