At the turn of the XIII and XIV centuries, the weapons of the world were significantly enriched - in the arsenals of the European armies there appeared unprecedented firearms. True, gunpowder, which was their basis, had already been invented long ago in China, but there its use was limited only to holiday fireworks. Europeans showed themselves to be more practical, and soon the battlefields began to be announced by the artillery cannonade.
New and unprecedented 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 during their use was enormous. It is enough to imagine what the opponents should have felt at the sight of a bright flash, accompanied by a terrible roar and puffs of smoke. And the core, whistled in the air and smashed into smithereens the wall of the fortress, did not raise optimism.
A lot of time passed before the design idea of the ancient gunsmiths prompted them to create their reduced version on the basis of bulky and clumsy artillery guns. Such a design allowed the soldiers to hold weapons in their hands and, while maintaining sufficient mobility, hit the enemy at a considerable distance. So the first wick gun appeared.
Arranging early small arms
In technical design, it was much like its ancestor - the cannon. By the way, even their names were similar. For example, Western European gunsmiths produced the so-called bombarells - a smaller version of the scorers, and in Russia there were spread handcuffs used for shooting from hands. The first samples of such weapons were a metal pipe about a meter long and up to forty centimeters thick. One of its ends was made deaf, with a pilot hole drilled from above.
This pipe was laid on a wooden bed and attached to it with metal rings. Such a gun was loaded from the barrel. Shredded gunpowder was poured there, which was compacted with a wad. Then a bullet was pushed into the barrel. In the early samples, its role was played by small stones of the corresponding diameter. After that, the gun was ready for battle. All that was left was to aim it at the target and bring a metal rod red-hot on the brazier to the ignition hole.
Technical findings of gunsmiths
Since the small arms came into use, it has been constantly improved. For example, the wick gun of the 15th century had a pilot hole on the right side, and a special shelf was arranged near it, where seed powder was poured. This design had an advantage: bringing the wick to the shelf (in this case, a hot rod), the shooter did not obscure his target, as it was before. Due to such a simple improvement, it was possible to significantly increase the accuracy of shooting.
The next change that the wickgun underwent was the appearance of a hinged lid that protected the shelf with seed powder from moisture and wind. And the invention of linen wick, which replaced the hot steel bar, can be called a real technical breakthrough. Treated with nitrate or wine alcohol, it smoldered for a long time and perfectly performed its function, setting fire to the fuse.
Invention of the trigger
But the old wick gun was still uncomfortable. The problem was that, making a shot, it was necessary to bring a hand to the shelf with seed gunpowder, which often caused misses when shooting. However, the gunsmiths also solved this problem. They drilled a hole in a wooden bed and passed through it a metal strip in the form of the letter S, movably fixed in the middle.
A smoldering wick was attached to its upper end, directed towards the seed shelf, and the lower part performed the same function as the modern trigger for small arms. They pressed it with a finger, the upper part fell, the wick ignited the powder, and a shot followed. This design saved the shooters from the need to constantly stay close to the field roasting pan.
At the end of the 15th century, the wick muzzle-loading rifle was equipped with a special device that increased the firing efficiency even more. It was the first wick lock, the prototype of future gun locks. Somewhat later, he was equipped with a protective shield that protected the shooter's eyes during an outbreak of ignition powder. This design was typical for the products of the masters of England.
Cutting trunks and improving stocks
In the seventies of the XVI century, the appearance of the first rifled barrels became the most important step in improving small arms. They were invented by gunsmiths from Nuremberg, and the effectiveness of such an innovation immediately became apparent, since a rifled wick gun made it possible to hit targets with higher accuracy.
Significant changes by this time and undergone the butt. Previously, he was direct, and when shooting he had to push against his chest, which caused extreme inconvenience. French masters gave it a curved shape, which ensured the direction of the recoil energy not only back, as it was before, but also up. In addition, such a butt could rest on the shoulder. It was this design that became classic and has been preserved in general terms to this day.
The advent of wick muskets
Towards the end of the 16th century, hand-held small arms finally took shape as an independent species, which forever departed in its construction from the artillery that spawned it . During this period, such names as the wick musket, arquebus, peeping and so on are widely included in the military vocabulary. The design idea of the gunsmiths of those years gave rise to more and more improvements.
For example, a well-known musket appeared after the idea was born to put a heavy wicked gun on a support called a landing net. It would seem a simple invention, but it immediately allowed to increase accuracy and firing range, increase the caliber of the barrel and create additional comfort for a fighter. The weapons museum, deployed at the Hermitage, has a rich collection of samples of small arms of that era.
Discomforts of the wick weapon
But with all attempts at improvement, the musket was only slightly ahead of the 15th century wick gun. In both cases, before firing, it was required, resting the butt in the ground, to fill in a sufficient amount of gunpowder. After that, using the wad and ramrod, thoroughly compact it and lower the bullet inside. Then pour on the shelf of seed powder, close the lid and insert the smoldering wick. Then the lid was reopened and only after it was already aimed. The experiment showed that the whole process requires at least two minutes, which is very much in a combat situation. But even with such imperfection, the weapons of the world, having become firearms, radically changed the order of warfare.
The successes of Russian gunsmiths
It should be noted that the muskets produced in Russia in the 17th century and used in the army along with the Dutch were not inferior to the latter in their combat qualities, and individual samples significantly exceeded them. During this period, the Russian army has largely changed as a result of the reforms carried out in it, due to the historical requirements and the political situation of those years. To protect the state from the ongoing attempts of aggression by its western neighbors, modernization of the army was necessary, and one of its components was the improvement of weapons, including small arms.
German manual for musket shooters
The technique of using muskets of that time was well demonstrated in a special edition published in 1608 in Germany, which was a training manual for infantrymen. It is richly illustrated by engravings by the artist Jacob van Hein, depicting the methods of loading rifles and combat techniques for 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 bandealers — belts worn over the left shoulder, to which ten to fifteen leather containers were attached, and each contained a single charge of gunpowder. In addition, on the belt, the fighter had a flask with dry crushed seed powder. Complemented the equipment pouch with wads and bullets. I must say that such a publication today is of great value, and a rare museum of weapons has it in its expositions.