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A wicked rifle. History of firearms

At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, the weapons of the world were greatly enriched - firearms, unprecedented until then, appeared in the arsenals of the European armies. True, the gunpowder, which was their basis, had long been invented in China, but its use was limited to festive fireworks. Europeans, however, showed themselves to be more practical people, and soon the fields of their battles began to be announced with artillery cannonade.

New and unseen weapons

The era of firearms began with the manufacture of the first guns. For all their primitiveness and imperfection, they immediately created a significant military advantage. If the destructive power of the guns was insignificant, then the psychological effect in their application was enormous. It is enough to imagine what the opponents should have felt at the sight of a bright flash accompanied by a terrible rumble and smoke clouds. Yes, and the core, whistling in the air and smashed to the wall of the fortress, did not increase optimism.

It took a long time before the design thought of the ancient armourers prompted them to create a smaller version on the basis of cumbersome and unwieldy artillery pieces. This design allowed the soldiers to hold arms in their hands and, while maintaining sufficient mobility, to hit the enemy at a considerable distance. So there was the first wicked gun.

Arrangement of early specimens of small arms

On the technical device, it in many respects resembled its progenitor - a cannon. By the way, even their names were similar. For example, Western European gunsmiths produced so-called bombardelles - a reduced version of the bombardment, and in Russia the handcuffs used for firing from the hands were spread. The first samples of such weapons were a metal pipe about a meter in length and up to forty centimeters thick. One end of it was made deaf, with a pilot hole drilled from above.

This pipe was laid on a wooden bed and fixed to it with metal rings. Charged with a gun from the barrel. There powdered powdered powder, which was sealed with the help of a wad. Then a bullet was pushed into the muzzle. In the early samples, her role was played by small stones of the appropriate diameter. After that, the gun was ready for battle. It remained only to bring him to the target and bring to the firing hole a red-hot metal rod on the brazier.

Technical Findings of Gunsmiths

Since small arms became common, it has been continuously improved. For example, a 15th century wicker gun had a fuse opening on the right side, and near it was a special shelf, where seeded gunpowder was filled. This design had the advantage of bringing a wick (in this case a red-hot rod) to the shelf, the shooter did not obscure the goal, as it was before. Due to such a simple improvement, it was possible to significantly improve the accuracy of the shooting.

The next change that the wicker had undergone was the appearance of a hinged lid, which protected the shelf with the seed powder from moisture and wind. And the most real technical breakthrough can be called the invention of a flax wick, which came to replace a hot steel rod. Treated with nitrate or wine alcohol, it smoldered for a long time and perfectly performed its function, igniting the fuse.

Invention of the trigger

But the old wicker gun was still uncomfortable. The problem was that, when making a shot, it was required to bring a hand to the shelf with seed gunpowder, which often caused misses during shooting. However, gunsmiths have solved this problem. They drilled a hole in the wooden bed and passed through it a metal strip in the form of the letter S, movably fixed in the middle.

To its upper end, directed toward the seed shelf, a smoldering wick was attached, and the lower part performed the same function as the current trigger for small arms. He was pressed with his finger, the upper part fell, the wick ignited the gunpowder, and a shot followed. This design has saved the shooters from the need to constantly keep close to the field brazier.

At the end of the XV century, a duly-equipped muzzle-loading rifle was equipped with a special device, which increased the efficiency of shooting even more. It was the first wicked lock, the prototype of future gun closures. Somewhat later, it was equipped with a protective shield, which protected the eyes of an arrow with a flash of ignition propellant. This design was typical for the production of masters of England.

Trimming trunks and improving butts

In the seventies of the XVI century the most important stage in the improvement of small arms was the appearance of the first rifled barrels. They were invented by gunsmiths from Nuremberg, and the effectiveness of such innovation immediately became obvious, as the rifled wick shotgun allowed to hit targets with higher accuracy.

Significant changes by this time have undergone and butt. Before, it was direct, and when shooting it was necessary to rest against the chest, which caused extreme inconvenience. The French masters gave it a curved shape, which ensured the direction of the recoil energy not only backward, as it was before, but also upwards. In addition, such a butt can be resting on the shoulder. It is this design that has become classical and has been preserved in general terms to the present day.

Appearance of wicked muskets

By the end of the 16th century, hand-held firearms had finally taken shape as an independent species, which for its design had forever disappeared from the artillery guns that had spawned it. During this period, the names of the military vocabulary, such as the wick musket, the arquebus, the pischal and so on, are widely included in the military vocabulary. The design thought of gunsmiths of those years generated more and more improvements.

For example, a well-known musket appeared after the idea was born to put a heavy wick gun on a support called a scoop. It would seem that a simple invention, but it immediately allowed to increase the accuracy and range of fire, to increase the caliber of the trunk and create additional comfort for the fighter. The Weapons Museum, deployed in the Hermitage's expositions, has a rich collection of small arms models of that era.

Disadvantages of a wick weapon

But with all attempts at improvement, the musket was not far ahead of the 15th century wicker gun. In both cases, before the shot was fired, it was required, having set the butt in the ground, to fill it with enough gunpowder. After that, using a wad and a ramrod, thoroughly compact it and lower it inside the bullet. Then pour the seed gunpowder onto the shelf, close the lid and insert a smoldering wick. Then the lid was reopened and only after that they were aimed. The experiment showed that it takes at least two minutes for the whole process, which is very much in the fighting situation. But even with this imperfection, the weapons of the world, becoming gunshot, radically changed the order of warfare.

The successes of Russian armourers

It should be noted that the muskets produced in Russia in the XVII century and used in the army along with the Dutch ones were not inferior to the latter in terms of their fighting qualities, and individual samples considerably exceeded them. During this period, the Russian army largely changed because of the reforms carried out in it, conditioned by historical demands and the political situation of those years. To protect the state from the unceasing attempts of aggression on the part of the Western neighbors, modernization of the army was necessary, and one of its components was the improvement of weapons, including small arms.

German manual for musketeers

The technique of using muskets of that time was well demonstrated in the special edition published in 1608 in Germany, which was a textbook for infantrymen. It is richly illustrated by engravings by the artist Jacob van Hein, depicting the ways of charging guns and combat methods of handling them. In addition, the drawings allow the modern reader to understand how the shooter looked in full combat gear.

The engravings clearly show the so-called bandelers - belts, worn over the left shoulder, to which ten to fifteen leather containers were attached, and each contained a one-time charge of gunpowder. In addition, on the belt, the fighter had a flask with dry powdered seed gunpowder. Complemented the outfit with a bag of puzhami and bullets. I must say that such a publication today is of great value, and a rare weapons museum has it in its expositions.

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