Editing Synchronization gear (section)

=== The Raymond Saulnier patent (1914) ===
[[File:Saulnier machine gun synchronisation patent 1914.png|thumb|left|Sketch from Morane-Saulnier design drawings based on original (1914) French patent]]

Unlike the Schneider patent design, Saulnier's device was actually built, and may be considered the first practical synchronization gear to be tested.<ref name=Cheesman2>Cheesman 1960, p. 177.</ref> For the first time, the cam producing the to-and-fro movement conveying firing impulses to the gun is situated at the engine (driven in this case by the same spindle that operated the oil pump and the tachometer) and the impulses themselves are transmitted by a reciprocating rod rather than Schneider's rotating shaft. The idea of literally "interrupting" the firing of the gun gives way (probably as the result of experience) to the principle of pulling the trigger for each successive shot, like the action of a semi-automatic weapon.<ref name=Woodman6>Woodman 1989, p. 181.</ref>

It has been pointed out that this was a practical design that should have worked, but it did not.<ref name=Volker1p48>Volker 1992, pt. 1, p. 48</ref> Apart from possible inconsistencies in the ammunition supplied, the real problem was that the gun used to trial the gear, a gas-operated [[Hotchkiss machine gun|Hotchkiss]] 8&nbsp;mm (.323 in) machine gun borrowed from the French army, was fundamentally unsuitable for "semi-automatic" firing. Following initial unsuccessful tests, the gun had to be returned, and the experiments ceased.<ref name=Cheesman2/>
[[File:Damaged Sopwith Baby Airscrew.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Damaged [[propeller]] from a [[Sopwith Baby]] aircraft c.&nbsp;1916/17 showing bullet holes from a machine gun fired through the propeller without a synchronizer.]]