Multiple charge! This is perhaps the main trend in the development of hand-held firearms. Multiple charges and rate of fire. But mankind followed this path for a very long time. And the path was not straight, but winding.
The history of firearms. What, however, was our luminary Mayakovsky: to hit people fleeing with bullets in the back is awful. This is something of the style of the cannibal Bokasso, only he drove a ZIL through those tied up in the square in front of his palace. I could, probably, and on the DT-75, but, apparently, did not realize. Or the tractor was not sent to him.
However, so that Mayakovsky, glorifying 150,000,000, did not write there, he conveyed the basic idea of firearms quite rightly - bullets should be fired at the target as much as possible. That is, shoot more often and then you will definitely hit someone!
And they realized, I must say, this is the same as our ancestors a very long time ago. Right at the dawn of firearms. In the previous material of this series, an illustration of Liliana and Fred Funkenov was given, which showed arrows with shooting clubs, the warhead of which consisted of several barrels: I shot all the charges and you can hit them on the heads - they will not break.
Weapon of kings
Moreover, even kings did not disdain such weapons. So, Henry VIII, who was very enthusiastic about the original combined weapon and had a "sprinkler" in his collection - a shooting club, similar to the same Hussite samples.
It was first mentioned in the inventory of 1547, and since at least 1686 it has been known as the "Staff of King Henry VIII". At the end of the 16th century, it was argued that it was Henry's favorite weapon during his night walks in London. By 1830, the Tower's guides told stories of Henry's imprisonment on one such walk, after which the guard who had arrested the king was congratulated on his honest duty.
Its most distinctive feature is its three short barrels, each of which was first fitted with a sliding cover for the powder shelf.
The central spike covers the muzzle with a freely rotating cover, which leaves only the firing barrel free, and why this is done is not clear. The charges were ignited with a wick, which had to be held in the hands, which, of course, was inconvenient. However, it is believed that the "sprinkler" was about as effective as a pistol of the later 16th century.
Surprisingly, such a primitive weapon coexisted in the arsenal of Henry VIII with truly revolutionary models.
So, for him in 1537, a gun was made, which was loaded from the breech. It is the larger of the two surviving guns of this type, created for King Henry VIII. It lacks the original locking mechanism and the luxurious velvet cheek pad, but is otherwise in good condition.
The stock and breech are decorated with royal insignia, and the barrel is engraved with “HR” by Henricus Rex. The initials "WH" on the barrel are believed to represent William Hunt, the gunsmith who became King Henry's first "Keeper of the Royal Pistols and Falconets".
The barrel is square at the breech, then the round, muzzle is trimmed with moldings.
At the rear there is a hinge block that is lifted with a lever on the right. When closed, it is secured with a transverse pin at the front. Metal cartridges.
The barrel is engraved with acanthus flowers, a Tudor rose, and has the letters H and R.
The rest of the barrel is grooved to the very end, the sight is brass. The back retains traces of gilding.
A slightly curved stock. The left side was fitted with a zygomatic pad, of which only the brass fixing nails remained. Just behind the breech is a shield-shaped, previously gilded, copper plate on which the figures of Saint George and the Dragon are engraved.
The steel trigger guard is probably a replacement. The current sliding lid lock appears to have been made in the 19th century. Barrel length 650 mm. Total length 975 mm. Weight 4, 22 kg.
In the collection of the Tower's Royal Arsenal, it was listed as the "Carbine of Henry VIII". The first mention in the inventory - 1547.
The weapon is so well made that even with a smooth barrel it could shoot accurately at a distance of at least 100 meters (which roughly corresponds to the length of a football field).
Heinrich probably used this rifle for target shooting. It can also be quickly loaded and reloaded by opening the bolt and inserting a pre-loaded chamber.
That is, having, say, ten pre-loaded chamber chambers, a shooter from such a weapon could easily fire ten rounds per minute. Interestingly, soldiers will not have such firearms for another 300 years.
Locks
Note that the wick weapon of that time was also inconvenient to use because the burning wick had to be brought to the seed either, in general, with your hands (although, most likely, with gloves!), Or with special tongs.
Therefore, already in the 30s of the 15th century, people took care of creating a mechanism that would save them from this unpleasant operation, as well as from wearing forceps.
There is a document from 1439, from which it is clear that already at that time in the city of Bratislava “castle blacksmiths” were working, and they made locks precisely for ignition. Well, in the work of Martin Merz "The Book of Firework", which dates back to 1475, you can already see a schematic drawing of a matchlock, which subsequently did not change very much.
The difference, perhaps, was only in the position of the S-shaped clip for the wick: in Europe, it moved from the barrel to the shooter when fired, but in Asian countries, on the contrary, from the shooter to the barrel.
The mainspring could be arranged in different ways, but on the whole it was such a simple mechanism that there was simply no need to improve it.
In addition to a wick lock with a pushing action, there was also a more complex, locking one.
In it, the trigger with the wick did not fall on the shelf, but fell on it under the action of a spring. That is, first it was necessary to cock it, and then, by pressing the trigger, release it from engagement with the whisper tooth. The descent in this case turned out to be very fast, so the sight did not go astray.
Such locks, as more expensive, have found their use among hunters and target shooters.
Arquebus
To prevent the wind from blowing gunpowder off the shelf before firing, they came up with a shelf cover. And so that the sparks of gunpowder did not fly into the eyes, a transverse shield was placed on the barrel.
This is how wick arquebusses and muskets appeared, firing from which from a distance of 40-50 meters it was already possible to hit a full-size figure. True, to fire their heavy musket, they had to lean on a support - a bipod.
And already then (namely in 1530) revolver guns with drum power appeared.
In particular, the wick arquebus with a drum for ten charges dates back to this very year, the image of which is cited in their book on weapons and military clothing of the Renaissance by Lilian and Fred Funkens.
Also known is a three-barreled wick arquebus with two barrels of 9-mm caliber and one - 11, made in Northern Italy at about the same time. By the way, in its length - 653 mm, it is nothing more than a carbine.
From the second half of the 15th century. firearms also penetrated the cavalry. The horse-drawn rifle was called petrinal, from the word "poitrain" - "chest". These were the trunks, the breech resting against the breast cuirass, while the horned stands attached to the saddle bow served as a support for them. They were set on fire with a wick, which had to be held in hand. Later, the petrinal also received wick locks, but the characteristic butts for resting on the chest on them remained for a long time.
A little about the bullets that were used at that time in hand-held firearms.
Initially, both shells for large-caliber cannons and small-caliber bullets for hand-held gadgets and writers were … made of stone. Moreover, if the stone cores had to be hewn out, then the stone bullets were easily carved out on emery wheels.
But very soon it became clear that from a blow from a knightly cuirass, such bullets turn into dust, without causing any particular harm. The nuclei from the impact also shattered into pieces, but their fragments flew to the sides and could hurt someone. That is why, by the way, they have been used for so long.
That is why bullets very soon began to be cast from lead. Although it was dangerous to shoot such bullets. The famous French knight Bayard, for example, ordered to hang all the arquebusiers who were captured by him, but they did not give any mercy, first of all, to those who fired bullets from lead. As if he knew that he was destined to die from such a bullet.
So some used iron bullets and even silver bullets. And only because it was believed that lead is poisonous (which was true!), So wounds from it should be disinfected with boiling oil or red-hot iron (so that it would be completely wrong and, in addition, very painful). Well, the silver bullets helped to avoid this torture and therefore hope for a kind attitude towards oneself.
No one then knew that the point was not at all in the toxicity of lead, but in the general unsanitary conditions that reigned everywhere.
For example, the same French arquebusiers, although not only them, used to cover the ignition holes on the arquebus trunks (so that water would not get there in the rain) with their own feces, so that the men of the time and their weapons also smelled …
And today we can only guess what kind of purity they took with these bullets with their hands.
