Following World War I, official testing performed by the Dept. of Experiment of John D. Pedersen's rapid-fire conversion device for M1903 bolt-action rifles demonstrated inadequacies that could not be overcome.
To break the stalemate on the Western Front of World War I, firearm inventor John D. Pedersen envisioned a device that would turn every bolt-action rifle into a fast-firing, semi-automatic arm. This is the story of the famous "Pedersen Device."