First use of firearms. The first firearms in Russia
Motherland small arms Definitely East. It is believed that gunpowder was invented in China, presumably in the 15th century. BC, that is, approximately 3.5 thousand years ago. According to some researchers, the birthplace of gunpowder is India. One way or another, the troops of Alexander the Great, who easily passed through all of Asia, during the siege of Indian fortresses, encountered "thunder and lightning" that the enemy threw from the walls. Even the most persistent warriors could not overcome the unexpected resistance. True, such “thunder and lightning” should not be considered small arms: rather, these are the powder progenitors of modern grenades and shells.
The first samples of firearms also appeared in the East. In 690, during the siege of Mecca, the Arabs used one of ancient species small arms - modfu. This semblance of a hand-held mortar consisted of a short forged barrel mounted on a shaft. It was necessary to shoot from the modf from a support. A few centuries later, firearms appeared among Europeans in the form of the so-called petrinali - exact copy Arabic fashion. Obviously, the crusades, which rolled in waves from Europe to Palestine from 1096 to 1271, greatly contributed to the mutual exchange of military experience and weapons with the East. And now, in 1259, the Spanish city of Marbella defended itself from the Arabs with the help of firearms. At the Battle of the Heresy in 1346 for the first time in history European wars field artillery was used. True, the presence of only three guns in the British contributed little to the victory - with their roar, they more frightened the horses under the French knights. But a start had been made.
In 1372, the first similarity of a modern gun appeared in Germany - a matchlock arquebus. The wick lock was a primitive lever, which, after pressing the trigger, lowered the smoldering wick onto the ignition shelf. It housed the ignition charge, which served to ignite the main powder charge.
In France similar weapons it was called kulevrina, the Slavs had another term - squeaker. In 1381, the citizens of Augsburg put up a detachment of 30 people armed with arquebuses to protect the city from the troops of the German nobility. This meager number
Strength played a significant role in the battle, in which the people of Augsburg won. To Eastern Slavs firearms came through Lithuania. It is known that one of the most prominent figures in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke Gedemin, killed in 1328 by a "fiery arrow", that is, a bullet. Another Grand Duke, Vitovt, in 1399 used handguns and cannons in the battle on the Vorskla River against the Mongolian troops of Tamerlane. Shots were also heard in 1410 over the fields of Grunwald during one of greatest battles Middle Ages, in which the united Slavic army and the Teutonic Order met. In the 1470s arquebuses received a curved crossbow stock, which made it more convenient to handle weapons and had a positive effect on shooting accuracy. Around the same time, a wheel lock was invented - more reliable and safe than a matchlock. When the trigger was pressed, a jagged wheel was spun, against which a stone (usually sulfur pyrite) was rubbed, thereby carving out sparks that set fire to the gunpowder on the seed shelf. Leonardo da Vinci should probably be considered the inventor of such a mechanism: his wheel lock is drawn in a manuscript dated around 1500.
After the advent of the wheel mechanism, the cooler was rapidly replaced by a lighter and more convenient musket. He became a distant ancestor of the modern rifle.
A century later, in 1610, a flintlock appeared. It is simpler and more reliable than the wheel mechanism: before the shot, the trigger was retracted and stopped, in which a piece of flint was strengthened. After pressing the trigger, the trigger was released from the stopper and hit the flint, striking sparks. This simple and efficient technology and began to be used in the manufacture of European weapons, finally displacing wick and wheel locks.
The flintlock served as the backbone of firearms for almost 250 years. It was replaced by a lock with a primer, whose appearance would not have been possible without the invention of percussion compounds - chemical solids that instantly exploded on impact. The first of these compounds, mercury fulminate, was invented in 1774 by Dr. Boyen, chief physician of the French king.
In 1807, the Scottish priest John Forsyth patented a weapon based on the following action: before each shot, the soldier laid down on special shelf a ball with an impact composition, called a capsule. After pressing the trigger, the cocked hammer hit the primer, as a result of which the shot occurred.
Capsule, or, as it began to be called, needle-gun, the gun was much faster than a flintlock: when loading, the stage of falling asleep for the seed shelf of a portion of ignition powder was excluded. Just half a century after the patent of John Forsyth, the armies of the leading countries of the world were rearming with needle guns. However, the primer was not at the heart of the design of firearms for long.
The next stage in the improvement of rifles is the invention of magazines, which became possible only after the appearance of a unitary cartridge in a metal sleeve. Repeating rifles were equipped with a new device - a manual shutter, which once and for all replaced locks of all types. When the bolt moved back with a turn around its axis, it disengaged from the breech breech, while the sleeve was removed. When the shutter returned to its previous position in a reverse motion (forward with rotation), the next cartridge was removed from the magazine and fed into the chamber. The gun or rifle was ready for the next shot. If in the era of locks of all types, to load a gun, it was necessary to clean the bore with a ramrod, pour gunpowder into the muzzle, sequentially tamp the wad and bullet, and then pour gunpowder behind the bait shelf and cock the trigger, now the rifle was loaded with one turn of the manual shutter, which took out the next one from the magazine cartridge. When the cartridges ran out, it was necessary to insert a new magazine for 10 or even 20 rounds. In general, the rate of fire of the infantry has increased significantly. It was with such weapons that the armies of the leading countries entered the First World War.
Two world wars became a turning point in the history of all mankind and military affairs in particular. If before the First World War, the armies of the world had fairly reliable magazine-loading rifles, and automatic weapons were represented by single copies, then at the end of World War II, machine guns, automatic and self-loading rifles, and submachine guns were produced in millions of batches. It is the Second World War defined state of the art gun market: most classes modern weapons either originated in that period, or was recognized and received maximum distribution.
Any soldier modern army has a whole arsenal of means of destroying the enemy. These are compact pistols that can be carried in a holster under the arm, on a belt, on the hip or ankle, and rapid-fire submachine guns, suitable for fighting off an enemy squad alone.
A modern pistol is an individual small arms weapon, almost always semi-automatic (self-loading), magazine-fed. Reloading and preparing for the next shot (extraction of the spent cartridge case and feeding a new magazine into the chamber) are carried out by automation mechanisms, which most often use recoil energy. When shooting, the owner of the pistol can only consistently pull the trigger.
A similar mechanism is used by another class of small arms - revolvers. However, they do not have automation at all: the cartridge enters the chamber due to the rotation of the mechanical part - the drum when the trigger is cocked. The revolver reloads much slower than the pistol. The capacity of the drum, as a rule, is less than the capacity of the pistol magazine. In addition, the drum protrudes beyond the dimensions of the weapon, so it is not so easy to handle. Officers, sergeants and some categories of privates (snipers, machine gunners, transport drivers, etc.) of infantry units of all armies of the world are armed with pistols. At the same time, only a rare military man can find a revolver - it is considered a civilian and police weapon.
Like pistols, soldiers of special and auxiliary units: crew members of combat vehicles, crews of group weapons (machine guns, mortars, etc.), signalmen, sappers, operators of radar stations, etc., are armed with submachine guns. In addition, they are standard weapons of law enforcement and counter-terrorism forces in most countries of the world. A submachine gun is an individual, fully automatic weapon that fires a pistol cartridge. Due to the relatively low-power cartridges, it usually has a fairly simple automation that uses recoil energy. This, in turn, led to the simplicity of the device, as well as the small size and weight of the weapon. The relative low power of the cartridges does not allow the submachine gun to become a full-fledged army weapon.
Machine guns and assault rifles- the most common type individual weapons personnel of the infantry units of all the armies of the world. Many of today's submachine guns and rifles are either designed in the 1950s-1970s or are updated modifications of designs from those years. Most modern assault rifles and rifles use small-caliber (5.56 mm or 5.45 mm) cartridges. Shots are fired in the mode of either single or fully automatic firing, ammunition supply is store-bought.
The modern sniper rifle is a repeating weapon, most often with a manual bolt. Its progenitor was the magazine rifles of the First and Second World Wars. However, there are also semi-automatic samples created on the basis of machine guns and assault rifles. The main thing in a sniper rifle is accuracy, which is ensured to the smallest detail by a well-thought-out design, the use of modern technologies in the production, the presence of perfect optics and the use of special high-precision ammunition.
There are infantry and group weapons in the arsenal, for their use you need a crew consisting of at least two people. It's about about machine guns - the basis of infantry firepower. The first machine guns were rare, and only a few used them in the armies. Now each infantry squad (8-12 people) of the armies of the leading countries is armed with at least one light (light) machine gun. For each platoon (16-24 people), in addition to two light machine guns, there is also one heavy (easel) machine gun.
Most modern light machine guns are based on assault rifles or machine guns and use the same ammunition. This facilitates, on the one hand, the training of machine gunners in the use of weapons and the care of them, and on the other hand, the provision of ammunition. Cartridges are fed from a high-capacity box magazine or from a metal tape. However, stores of regular rifles and machine guns are also suitable for light machine guns. A light machine gun can be operated by one fighter, but a second person is often added to the crew, carrying additional ammunition.
Unlike a manual one, a heavy machine gun has exclusively belt ammunition. For firing, more powerful cartridges of 7.62 mm caliber are used than those of rifles and light machine guns. Shooting from such a machine gun can be carried out both from bipods and from a specially designed machine gun. The calculation includes from two to four people. The design of the machine ensures high stability of the weapon during firing, and also allows you to quickly transfer fire from one target to another. These machine guns are often used as auxiliary weapons for armored vehicles ranging from infantry fighting vehicles to tanks.
There are among small arms and truly terrifying samples. This is heavy machine guns and rifles capable of hitting light vehicles and even shooting down helicopters. Indeed, such models of weapons arose during the First World War precisely as a means of destroying tanks and aircraft. However, the planes began to rise higher and the tanks began to acquire ever thicker armor, so large-caliber rifles and machine guns found other uses.
Modern heavy machine guns are a very effective group weapon for infantry support. The increased caliber makes it possible to effectively hit not only enemy manpower hidden behind the walls of city blocks, but even light armored vehicles. The same trump card - an increased caliber - is also used by a modern large-caliber rifle. Equipped with the most powerful and accurate Voight optics in history, it allows you to hit individual targets at ranges inaccessible to snipers with conventional caliber rifles.
The support team weapon class includes many types of ranged weapons. The purpose of this book is not to review them in detail, so we will limit ourselves to a simple enumeration: automatic mounted grenade launchers (AGS), hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers (RPGs), anti-tank missile systems (ATGMs) and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).
Without a doubt, such a wide variety of types of firearms modern world due to significant changes in production technologies. The first samples of small arms were hollowed out of wood and fastened with iron hoops. Naturally, vitality is so a simple remedy armament was only a few shots. Then the tools began to be cast from bronze and cast iron - materials that were very primitive by modern standards and did not provide sufficient strength. To prevent the barrel from cracking at the very first shots, it had to be made very thick-walled. This, in turn, ruled out the creation of light hand weapons.
The situation improved when harder and lighter iron was used to smelt and forge firearms. Weapons production technologies made it possible by the era Napoleonic Wars to provide armies of 100,000 with sufficiently compact, light, reliable and durable weapons.
The next step in the development of weapons production technology was the use of steel. The prototype of modern stainless steel, Damascus or damask steel, was used more than 3 thousand years ago. In the ninth century BC e. in India, an ancient monument was forged from a whole piece of iron - the Kutub column, more than 7 m high. A chemical analysis made later by Europeans amazed everyone: it was stainless steel, which was based on several layers of different composition. Indian and Persian damask steel in the Middle Ages was best material for the production of stems. The European steelmakers managed to rediscover the secret of its manufacture only in the 19th century: the smelting of barrel iron with sufficient viscosity and strength at a comparative low cost began. Stainless steel with a composition more or less corresponding to the modern one was produced just before the First World War.
Modern metallurgy supplies gunsmiths with steel-based alloys with unrivaled properties. They withstand temperature drops of hundreds of degrees, providing strength only slightly inferior to that of diamond, and at the same time the lightness of aluminum. In addition, the product of the 20th century is widely used in the design of modern weapons. - composite materials based on plastics with the addition various materials such as aluminum, rubber, etc. A characteristic example of composite materials is bulletproof Kevlar, which is used, for example, in the construction of stocks from sniper rifles. Weapons made from modern materials according to modern technologies, can be used in any climate with maximum intensity and exceptional efficiency.
In the XIV century. Europe borrowed the idea of gunpowder weapons from the East. The first mention of the use of "fire pots" by Europeans refers to the siege of Gibraltar by the Spanish king Ferdinand of Castile in 1308. It is not known whether the weapon was made by the Spaniards or borrowed. But already in 1314 artisans from Ghent made a tool for England.
BLACK MONK POWDER
In 1330, a learned monk from Germany, Berthold Schwartz, proposed his composition of black powder from saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur. It turned out "powder pulp" - powder from the smallest particles. If it was strongly compacted, the gunpowder stuck together and burned poorly. I had to leave a place in the barrel between the powder and the projectile. Unburned particles clogged the trunks. For ease of cleaning, the barrels had to be made rather short and wide - the projectile turned out to be large along the width of the barrel, and there was little room for gunpowder and for dispersing the projectile. Not enough gunpowder, short acceleration - the shot turned out to be weak.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
The first examples of firearms shot close and inaccurate - more frightening enemies than harming them. Hand bombards (Italian bombo et ardore - “thunder and fire”) were a metal pipe closed at one end - a barrel with an ignition hole for igniting gunpowder. The barrel of a handgun, as this weapon was called in Russia, was cast from bronze or copper (they still did not know how to cast it from iron). A rod was attached to the trunk to rest on the ground or a hook (Russian obsolete hook) for hooking on a support - such a handbrake was called a hook.
BITTING "ZHI"
At the beginning of the XV century. a cooler appeared (from the French couleuvre - “already”). The trunk, like a barrel of boards, was forged from iron strips, which were held by hoops. The hoops snaked around the barrel, hence the name of the weapon. The design withstood more gas pressure than cast bronze barrels - more gunpowder could be placed, and the barrel could be made longer. The projectile speed increased - the culverin pierced the armor from 30 m.
The calculation (team servicing the gun) consisted of two people - one aimed at the target, and the other ignited gunpowder. The ignition hole was on the top of the barrel, bringing the fuse made it difficult to aim. Later, the hole was moved to the side, where they arranged a shelf on which gunpowder was poured for reliable ignition. The coolers were portable and stationary, with a caliber of 12 to 25 mm and a length of 1.2 to 2.5 m.
In Russia, coolers were called squeakers (from the word "squeak"), according to the outdated name of the pipe. Then more advanced weapons began to be called that.
SHAKERS OF THE BASICS
During sieges, they used big guns: siege bombards that fired at both flat and hinged trajectory, and mortars (lat. mortarium - stupa), leading only mounted fire. Any blacksmith could make such tools, and they were not much inferior to throwing machines, the construction of which required complex calculations and the efforts of many workers. Throwing machines were called artillery (fr. artiller - "to help"), and this name passed to siege firearms. With the development of metallurgy, they learned to cast thick, withstanding high pressure iron stems. It was easier to deliver metal in ingots to the besieged fortress in order to cast the tool on the spot. Immediately hewed and hundred-kilogram stone cores. Bombards were installed opposite the city wall, covered from shelling with shields made of boards and baskets of earth. After the shot, one had to wait until the barrel cooled down, so such guns were fired only a few times a day. For firing at manpower, they used stone buckshot - a lot of small shells. Bombards were used until the beginning of the 19th century.
Fantasy writers often bypass the possibilities of "smoky powder", preferring good old sword and magic to it. And this is strange, because primitive firearms are not only a natural, but also a necessary element of the medieval surroundings. Warriors with "fiery shooting" did not appear by chance in the knightly armies. The spread of heavy armor naturally led to an increase in interest in weapons capable of penetrating them.
Ancient "lights"
Sulfur. A common component of spells and component gunpowder
The secret of gunpowder (if, of course, we can talk about a secret here) lies in the special properties of saltpeter. Namely, in the ability of this substance to release oxygen when heated. If saltpeter is mixed with any fuel and set on fire, a "chain reaction" will begin. The oxygen released by the saltpeter will increase the intensity of combustion, and the stronger the flame flares up, the more oxygen will be released.
People learned to use saltpeter to increase the effectiveness of incendiary mixtures as early as the 1st millennium BC. But it wasn't easy to find her. In countries with a hot and very humid climate, white, snow-like crystals could sometimes be found at the site of old fires. But in Europe, saltpeter was found only in stinking sewer tunnels or in populated areas. bats caves.
Before gunpowder was used for explosions and throwing cores and bullets, saltpeter-based compositions long time were used to make incendiary projectiles and flamethrowers. So, for example, the legendary "Greek fire" was a mixture of saltpeter with oil, sulfur and rosin. Sulfur, igniting at low temperature, was added to facilitate the ignition of the composition. Rosin, on the other hand, was required to thicken the “cocktail” so that the charge would not flow out of the flamethrower tube.
"Greek fire" really could not be extinguished. After all, saltpeter dissolved in boiling oil continued to release oxygen and support combustion even under water.
In order for gunpowder to become an explosive, saltpeter must be 60% of its mass. In the "Greek fire" it was half as much. But even this amount was enough to make the process of burning oil unusually violent.
The Byzantines were not the inventors of "Greek fire", but borrowed it from the Arabs as early as the 7th century. In Asia, they also purchased saltpeter and oil necessary for its production. If we take into account that the Arabs themselves called saltpeter "Chinese salt", and rockets - "Chinese arrows", it will not be difficult to guess where this technology came from.
gunpowder spread
Indicate the place and time of the first application of saltpeter for incendiary compositions, fireworks and rockets are very difficult. But the honor of inventing cannons definitely belongs to the Chinese. The ability of gunpowder to eject shells from metal barrels is reported by Chinese chronicles of the 7th century. By the 7th century, the discovery of a method of “growing” saltpeter in special pits or shafts from earth and manure also dates back. This technology made it possible to regularly use flamethrowers and rockets, and later firearms.
The barrel of the Dardanelles cannon - from a similar Turks shot the walls of Constantinople
At the beginning of the 13th century, after the capture of Constantinople, the recipe for "Greek fire" fell into the hands of the crusaders. By the middle of the 13th century, the first descriptions by European scientists of "real", exploding gunpowder also belong. The use of gunpowder for throwing stones became known to the Arabs no later than the 11th century.
In the "classic" version, black powder included 60% saltpeter and 20% sulfur and charcoal each. Charcoal could be successfully replaced with ground brown coal (brown powder), cotton wool or dried sawdust (white powder). There was even "blue" gunpowder, in which charcoal was replaced with cornflower flowers.
Sulfur was also not always present in gunpowder. For cannons, the charge in which was ignited not by sparks, but by a torch or a red-hot rod, gunpowder could be made, consisting only of saltpeter and brown coal. When firing from guns, sulfur could not be mixed into gunpowder, but poured immediately onto the shelf.
gunpowder inventor
Invented? Well, step aside, don't stand like a donkey
In 1320, the German monk Berthold Schwartz finally "invented" gunpowder. Now it is impossible to determine how many people in different countries gunpowder was invented before Schwartz, but we can say with confidence that after him no one succeeded!
Berthold Schwartz (who, by the way, was called Berthold Niger), of course, did not invent anything. The "classic" composition of gunpowder became known to Europeans even before its birth. But in his treatise On the Benefits of Gunpowder, he gave clear practical recommendations for the manufacture and use of gunpowder and cannons. It was thanks to his work that during the second half of the 14th century the art of fire shooting began to spread rapidly in Europe.
The first gunpowder factory was built in 1340 in Strasbourg. Soon after, the production of saltpeter and gunpowder began in Russia as well. Exact date this event is not known, but already in 1400 Moscow burned for the first time as a result of an explosion in a gunpowder workshop.
Gun tubes
The first image of a European cannon, 1326
The simplest hand firearm - the handgun - appeared in China already in the middle of the 12th century. The oldest samopals of the Spanish Moors date back to the same period. And from the beginning of the 14th century, "fire pipes" began to shoot in Europe. In the annals, handguns appear under many names. The Chinese called such weapons pao, the Moors - modfa or karab (hence the "carbine"), and the Europeans - hand bombarda, handkanona, slopette, petrinal or culevrina.
The handle weighed from 4 to 6 kilograms and was a blank of soft iron, copper or bronze drilled from the inside. The barrel length ranged from 25 to 40 centimeters, the caliber could be 30 millimeters or more. The projectile was usually a round lead bullet. In Europe, however, until the beginning of the 15th century, lead was rare, and self-propelled guns were often loaded with small stones.
Swedish hand cannon from the 14th century
As a rule, petrinal was mounted on a shaft, the end of which was clamped under the arm or inserted into the current of the cuirass. Less commonly, the butt could cover the shooter's shoulder from above. Such tricks had to be used because it was impossible to rest the butt of the handgun on the shoulder: after all, the shooter could support the weapon with only one hand, with the other he brought fire to the fuse. The charge was set on fire with a "burning candle" - a wooden stick soaked in saltpeter. The stick rested against the ignition hole and turned, rolling in the fingers. Sparks and pieces of smoldering wood poured into the barrel and sooner or later ignited the gunpowder.
Dutch hand culverins from the 15th century
The extremely low accuracy of the weapon made it possible to conduct effective shooting only from a distance "point blank". And the shot itself took place with a large and unpredictable delay. Only received respect destructive force this weapon. Although a bullet made of stone or soft lead at that time was still inferior to a crossbow bolt in penetrating power, a 30-mm ball fired at point-blank range left such a hole that it was a pleasure to see.
Hole-hole, but still it was necessary to get there. And the depressingly low accuracy of the petrinal did not allow one to count on the fact that the shot would have any other consequences than fire and noise. It may seem strange, but it was enough! Hand bombards were valued precisely for the roar, flash and cloud of gray smoke that accompanied the shot. It was far from always considered expedient to charge them with a bullet as well. Petrinali-Sklopetta was not even supplied with a butt and was intended exclusively for blank firing.
15th century French marksman
The knight's horse was not afraid of fire. But if, instead of being honestly stabbed with spikes, they blinded him with a flash, deafened him with a roar, and even insulted him with the stench of burning sulfur, he still lost his courage and threw off the rider. Against horses not accustomed to shots and explosions, this method worked flawlessly.
And the knights managed to introduce their horses to gunpowder far from immediately. In the 14th century, "smoky powder" in Europe was an expensive and rare commodity. And most importantly, for the first time, he caused fear not only among horses, but also among riders. The smell of "hellish sulfur" plunged superstitious people into awe. However, in Europe they quickly got used to the smell. But the loudness of the shot was listed among the advantages of firearms until the 17th century.
Arquebus
At the beginning of the 15th century, self-propelled guns were still too primitive to seriously compete with bows and crossbows. But gun tubes improved rapidly. Already in the 30s of the 15th century, the ignition hole was moved to the side, and a shelf for seed gunpowder was welded next to it. This gunpowder flashed instantly upon contact with fire, and in just a fraction of a second the hot gases ignited the charge in the barrel. The gun began to work quickly and reliably, and most importantly, it became possible to mechanize the process of lowering the wick. In the second half of the 15th century, fire tubes acquired a lock and butt borrowed from a crossbow.
Japanese flint arquebus, 16th century
At the same time, metalworking technologies were also improved. Trunks were now made only from the purest and softest iron. This made it possible to minimize the likelihood of a break when fired. On the other hand, the development of deep drilling techniques made it possible to make gun barrels lighter and longer.
This is how the arquebus appeared - a weapon with a caliber of 13-18 millimeters, weighing 3-4 kilograms and a barrel length of 50-70 centimeters. An ordinary 16 mm arquebus threw out a 20 gram bullet with initial speed about 300 meters per second. Such bullets could no longer tear off people's heads, but steel armor made holes from 30 meters.
Shooting accuracy increased, but still remained insufficient. An arquebusier hit a person only from 20–25 meters, and at 120 meters, even shooting at such a target as a battle of pikemen turned into a waste of ammunition. However, light guns retained approximately the same characteristics until the middle of the 19th century - only the lock changed. And in our time, shooting a bullet from smoothbore guns is effective no further than 50 meters.
Even modern shotgun bullets are designed not for accuracy, but for hitting power.
Arquebusier, 1585
Loading an arquebus was a rather complicated procedure. To begin with, the shooter disconnected the smoldering wick and put it away in a metal case attached to a belt or hat with slots for air access. Then he uncorked one of the several wooden or tin shells he had - “chargers”, or “gasers” - and poured a pre-measured amount of gunpowder from it into the barrel. Then he nailed gunpowder to the treasury with a ramrod and stuffed a felt wad preventing the powder from spilling out into the barrel. Then - a bullet and another wad, this time to hold the bullet. Finally, from a horn or from another charge, the shooter poured some gunpowder onto the shelf, slammed the lid of the shelf, and again fastened the wick into the jaws of the trigger. It took an experienced warrior about 2 minutes to do everything about everything.
In the second half of the 15th century, arquebusiers took a firm place in European armies and began to quickly push out competitors - archers and crossbowmen. But how could this happen? After all fighting qualities guns still left much to be desired. Competitions between arquebusiers and crossbowmen led to a stunning result - formally, the guns turned out to be worse in every respect! The penetration power of the bolt and the bullet was approximately equal, but the crossbowman fired 4-8 times more often and at the same time did not miss the growth target even from 150 meters!
Geneva arquebusiers, reconstruction
The problem with the crossbow was that its advantages were of no practical value. Bolts and arrows flew "fly in the eye" in competitions when the target was stationary, and the distance to it was known in advance. In a real situation, the arquebusier, who did not have to take into account the wind, the movement of the target and the distance to it, had a better chance of hitting. In addition, the bullets did not have the habit of getting stuck in shields and slipping off the armor, they could not be evaded. Didn't have much practical value and rate of fire: both the arquebusier and the crossbowman managed to shoot at the attacking cavalry only once.
The spread of the arquebus was held back only by their high cost at that time. Even in 1537, Hetman Tarnovsky complained that "in Polish army there are few arquebuses, only vile hands.” The Cossacks used bows and self-propelled guns until the middle of the 17th century.
pearl powder
Gasyri worn on the chest by the warriors of the Caucasus gradually became an element of the national costume
In the Middle Ages, gunpowder was prepared in the form of powder, or "pulp". When loading the weapon, the "pulp" stuck to the inner surface of the barrel and had to be nailed to the fuse with a ramrod for a long time. In the 15th century, to speed up the loading of cannons, they began to sculpt lumps or small “pancakes” from powder pulp. And at the beginning of the 16th century, “pearl” gunpowder was invented, consisting of small hard grains.
The grains no longer stuck to the walls, but rolled down to the breech under their own weight. In addition, graining made it possible to almost double the power of gunpowder, and the duration of gunpowder storage - 20 times. Gunpowder in the form of pulp easily absorbed atmospheric moisture and deteriorated irreversibly in 3 years.
However, due to the high cost of "pearl" gunpowder, the pulp often continued to be used to load guns until the middle of the 17th century. Cossacks also used homemade gunpowder in the 18th century.
Musket
Contrary to popular belief, the knights did not at all consider firearms to be “non-knightly”.
A fairly common misconception is that the advent of firearms put an end to the romantic "knightly era." In fact, the arming of 5–10% of the soldiers with arquebus did not lead to a noticeable change in the tactics of European armies. At the beginning of the 16th century, bows, crossbows, darts and slings were still widely used. Heavy knightly armor continued to improve, and the lance remained the main means of countering the cavalry. The Middle Ages continued as if nothing had happened.
The romantic era of the Middle Ages ended only in 1525, when, at the Battle of Pavia, the Spaniards first used matchlock guns of a new type - muskets.
Battle of Pavia: museum panorama
What is the difference between a musket and an arquebus? Size! With a weight of 7–9 kilograms, the musket had a caliber of 22–23 millimeters and a barrel about one and a half meters long. Only in Spain - the most technically developed country Europe of that time - they could make a durable and relatively light barrel of such a length and caliber.
Naturally, it was possible to shoot from such a bulky and massive gun only from a prop, and it was necessary to serve it together. But a bullet weighing 50-60 grams flew out of the musket at a speed of over 500 meters per second. She not only killed the armored horse, but also stopped it. The musket hit with such force that the shooter had to wear a cuirass or a leather pillow on his shoulder so that the recoil would not split his collarbone.
Musket: Assassin of the Middle Ages. 16th century
The long barrel provided the musket with relatively good accuracy for a smooth gun. The musketeer hit a man no longer from 20-25, but from 30-35 meters. But much greater value had an increase in the effective range of volley fire up to 200-240 meters. At all this distance, the bullets retained the ability to hit knight horses and pierce the iron armor of pikemen.
The musket combined the capabilities of the arquebus and the pikes, and became the first weapon in history that gave the shooter the opportunity to repel the onslaught of the cavalry on open area. The musketeers did not have to run away from the cavalry for the battle, therefore, unlike the arquebusiers, they made extensive use of armor.
Because of heavy weight weapons, musketeers, like crossbowmen, preferred to move on horseback
Throughout the 16th century, there were few musketeers in European armies. Musketeer companies (detachments of 100-200 people) were considered the elite of the infantry and were formed from the nobility. This was partly due to the high cost of weapons (as a rule, a riding horse was also included in the musketeer's equipment). But even more important were the high requirements for durability. When the cavalry rushed to the attack, the musketeers had to beat them off or die.
Pishchal
archers
According to its purpose, the pishchal of Russian archers corresponded to the Spanish musket. But the technical backwardness of Russia, which was outlined in the 15th century, could not but affect the combat properties of guns. Even pure - "white" - iron for the manufacture of barrels at the beginning of the 16th century still had to be imported "from German"!
As a result, with the same weight as that of a musket, the squeaker was much shorter and had 2–3 times less power. Which, however, had no practical significance, given that the eastern horses were much smaller than European ones. The accuracy of the weapon was also satisfactory: from 50 meters, the archer did not miss the two-meter-high fence.
In addition to the archery squeakers, Muscovy also produced light “veiled” (having a strap for carrying on the back) guns that were used by mounted (“stirrup”) archers and Cossacks. According to their characteristics, the "veiled squeaks" corresponded to European arquebuses.
pistol
Smoldering wicks, of course, gave the shooters a lot of inconvenience. However, the simplicity and reliability of the matchlock forced the infantry to put up with its shortcomings until the end of the 17th century. Another thing is the cavalry. The rider needed a weapon convenient, constantly ready to fire and suitable for holding with one hand.
Wheel lock in the drawings of Da Vinci
The first attempts to create a castle in which fire would be extracted using an iron flint and "flint" (that is, a piece of sulfur pyrite or pyrite) were made as early as the 15th century. Since the second half of the 15th century, “grater locks” have been known, which were ordinary household fire flints installed above a shelf. With one hand, the shooter aimed the weapon, and with the other he hit the flint with a file. Due to the obvious impracticality of distribution, grating locks have not received.
Much more popular in Europe was the wheeled castle that appeared at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the scheme of which was preserved in the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. The ribbed flint and flint was given the shape of a gear. The spring of the mechanism was cocked by the key attached to the lock. When the trigger was pressed, the wheel began to rotate, striking sparks from the flint.
German wheeled pistol, 16th century
The wheel lock was very reminiscent of the device of a watch and was not inferior to a watch in complexity. The capricious mechanism was very sensitive to clogging with gunpowder and flint fragments. After 20-30 shots, he refused. Take it apart and clean the shooter on their own could not.
Since the advantages of the wheel lock were of the greatest value for the cavalry, the weapons equipped with them were made convenient for the rider - one-handed. Starting from the 30s of the 16th century in Europe, the knightly spears were replaced by shortened wheeled arquebuses that lacked a butt. Since they began to manufacture such weapons in the Italian city of Pistol, they began to call one-handed arquebus pistols. However, by the end of the century, pistols were also being produced at the Moscow Armory.
European military pistols of the 16th and 17th centuries were very bulky designs. The barrel had a caliber of 14-16 millimeters and a length of at least 30 centimeters. The total length of the pistol exceeded half a meter, and the weight could reach 2 kilograms. However, the pistols hit very inaccurately and weakly. The range of an aimed shot did not exceed a few meters, and even bullets fired at close range bounced off cuirasses and helmets.
In the 16th century, pistols were often combined with edged weapons - the pommel of a club ("apple") or even an ax blade.
In addition to large dimensions, pistols of the early period were characterized by rich finishes and whimsical design. Pistols of the 16th - early 17th centuries were often made multi-barrelled. Including with a rotating block of 3-4 barrels, like a revolver! All this was very interesting, very progressive ... And in practice, of course, it did not work.
The wheel lock itself was worth so much money that the decoration of the pistol with gold and pearls did not significantly affect its price. In the 16th century, wheeled weapons were affordable only for very rich people and had more prestigious than combat value.
Asian pistols were distinguished by their particular elegance and were highly valued in Europe.
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The advent of firearms turning point in the history of military art. For the first time, a person began to use not muscular strength, but the energy of gunpowder combustion to inflict damage on the enemy. And this energy by the standards of the Middle Ages was stunning. Noisy and clumsy crackers, now capable of causing nothing but laughter, a few centuries ago inspired people with great respect.
Beginning in the 16th century, the development of firearms began to determine the tactics of sea and land battles. The balance between melee and ranged combat began to shift in favor of the latter. The value of protective equipment began to decline, and the role field fortifications- increase. These trends continue to our time. Weapons that use chemical energy to eject projectiles continue to improve. Apparently, it will maintain its position for a very long time.
And when they first loaded the gun. It is believed that it first appeared in China. Initially, the inventors of gunpowder were going to use it for fireworks, but by 1288 the Chinese were already defending themselves against invasions from the north with cannons.
Firearms appeared in Europe in the 14th century. In 1337, the Hundred Years War began between England and France, which lasted until 1453. It was then that the first cannons were used by the English army at the Battle of Crecy in 1346.
The first samples of hand firearms were iron or bronze pipes sealed at one end. These pipes were attached to a planed wooden block. To load such a weapon, it was necessary to pour gunpowder into the pipe, fill it with a wad and put a bullet into it. Then the wick was set on fire and brought to a small hole in the pipe. There was little use for such a weapon: it shot not far, and it took a lot of time to load it.
Russian-Turkish war (1806-1812). Musketeers of the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment (1796-1801) Since then, firearms have been continuously improved. In the 15th century, more convenient and effective hand weapons appeared - arquebuses, squeaks, muskets. By 1500, the major maritime powers were already equipping their ships with cannons. So, an ordinary warship was armed with about 100 guns. Wars became more brutal, more deadly, and the victory almost always went to the side that had better weapons.
The discovery of gunpowder belongs to the emperor ancient China Wu Di of the Han Dynasty (156-87 BC) The emperor wanted to live and rule forever, so he ordered his Taoist alchemists (the religious scholars of his empire) to research and discover a potion or elixir eternal life. Alchemists mixed together all kinds of compounds, heating them to high temperatures to transform them. They tried sulfur and saltpeter as one of the ingredients.
Of course, they have not found a way to immortal life, but they are discovering some very interesting properties of these two materials.
Today we know saltpeter as potassium nitrate. Saltpeter and sulfur are some of the key ingredients in gunpowder. Potassium nitrate includes nitrogen (N-NO3) - 13% and potassium (K2O) - 46%. Now known as a potassium-nitrogen fertilizer.
Chinese experiments as an alchemist continued into the Tang Dynasty, which ruled China during the 8th century. They combined saltpeter and sulfur with coal, fixing the discovery of gunpowder. They initially used the invention for humanitarian causes: the treatment of skin diseases and the destruction of insects. After some time, they realized that this powerful explosive could have other uses.
First firearm
The discovery of gunpowder gave impetus to the invention of the first firearms. First firearm consisted of green bamboo shoots filled with gunpowder to give a more powerful blow. This was also the start of fireworks in China.
The Chinese rulers of each dynasty were constantly concerned with protecting their borders. They knew that having a gunpowder weapon that could shoot fire would give them a great advantage over enemy warriors. The emperor immediately tasked his scientists and military leaders with working on the first firearms using gunpowder.
The first firearms appeared in the form of tubes filled with gunpowder. These tubes were tied to arrows and fired at an angle towards the enemy. The so-called "flying fire" resembled miniature rockets. Noise and fire terrified both the enemy and their horses. This proved to be an effective remedy. The Song Dynasty military used these flying fire arrows in combat against the Mongols around 904 AD. During this time, the Chinese discovered that gunpowder tubes were powerful enough to be fired on their own without a bow to fire them. They became the first rockets.
Soon, another tool - the first firearm spear was invented. The spear had simple design with a tube filled with gunpowder connected to a pike or a long spear, which was thrown towards the enemy or on the enemy’s fortress. It was the first flamethrower.
The first firearms were modified, the original designs of the "shooter's flying fire" appeared. Further, based on the discovery of gunpowder, they came up with hand grenades, projectiles fired poisonous gases.
These were the forerunners of the ground firearms used on the battlefield today, thousands of years later.