The most ancient firearm: where did it all begin ?!
Chinese equestrian warrior of 1276 against the background of the Great Wall of China (a), armed with a "fiery spear" - lia hua chang (b). Such weapon widely used by the Song dynasties (1117-1279) and Ming (1368-1644)
That guns really flashed,
Rattles a ramrod hammer.
Bullets go into the faceted barrel
And snapped the trigger for the first time.
Here is a powder streak greyish
Pours onto the shelf. Serrated,
Securely screwed in flint
Cocked again.
A. S. Pushkin. Eugene Onegin
Rattles a ramrod hammer.
Bullets go into the faceted barrel
And snapped the trigger for the first time.
Here is a powder streak greyish
Pours onto the shelf. Serrated,
Securely screwed in flint
Cocked again.
A. S. Pushkin. Eugene Onegin
History firearms. Not so long ago, an article about "Greek fire" appeared on VO, and materials on the history of firearms appear regularly. But ... and how did it all begin? This is a question that was not covered very well in our country, and yet it is from him, like from a stove, that we should all "dance". Why exactly this way, and not otherwise, what directions of development of firearms were given to us by the past, and which ones appeared later - in a word, everything is about it from the very beginning. This is what our story will be about, which will be devoted to several articles.
So, let's start with the question of gunpowder, because without it, firearms are simply impossible. But here we enter the shaky ground of speculation and assumptions, because where it came from, no one knows for sure. For example, the British arms magnate V. Griner once wrote the book "Shotgun" and there he cited an excerpt from the ancient Indian law that a commander in war should not use dastardly techniques, be it poisoned arrows, or fire-fighting weapons. In his opinion, "fire-fighting weapons" were just firearms. And if so, then ... gunpowder, they say, was invented in India. The fact is that there are areas where saltpeter deposits come to the surface. The specific properties of this substance could have attracted the attention of the ancients - so, they say, they made gunpowder on the basis of nitrate. But the same is true with saltpeter in China. No wonder the Arabs called it "Chinese salt". It is known that the Arabs knew a mixture of 60 parts of saltpeter and 20 parts of sulfur and coal. In fact, this mixture is gunpowder, which was used by the Arabs as early as 690 during the siege of Mecca. However, many believe that they did not come up with this mixture initially, but borrowed it again from the Chinese.
Those, by the way, made a significant contribution to the development of gunpowder weapons, although they used the nitrate mixture itself rather as fuel for primitive missiles, and not as an explosive and propellant. So, in 682, the alchemist Sun Si-miao described how, by combining saltpeter and sulfur with vegetable charcoal, to obtain an intensely burning composition. Alchemists Chin Hua-tung and Qing Xu-tzu also wrote somewhere in 808 or so that sulfur, saltpeter, and powdered kokornik plant can produce a combustible composition very similar to gunpowder in its proportions.
Then in 904, Zheng Fang uses some kind of "flying fire" to set fire to the gates of the Yuchkhan fortress, but there, most likely, powder shells were fired from ordinary throwing machines. In 969 Yui Fang, and in 970 Feng Tszi-shen offered "fire arrows" Huo Jian, which had tubes with gunpowder, which, when fired, were set on fire with a wick and gave these arrows additional acceleration.
Chinese missilemen of the Ming dynasty. Rocket launcher for shooting "fire arrows", 1450 (1); shooter with a rocket container (2). Drawing by a contemporary artist based on ancient Chinese miniatures
In the future, it came to the use of the explosive power of gunpowder. So, on October 15, 1000, an officer of the Imperial Guard Tang Fu proposed for testing a projectile ji li ho qiu ("fireball with a thorn") - apparently, a ball of powder pulp, with a shell of metal thorns, which flew in all directions during the explosion. It can be considered that it was the world's first high-explosive incendiary projectile, although information about it is very scarce.
On September 15, 1132, Chen Tui, who was defending the Chinese fortress of Zan, used the Ho Qiang weapon - "bamboo fire pipes" capable of throwing fire. Cheng Gui's flamethrower tubes can be considered the forerunners of barreled firearms, although the question of what exactly they threw besides fire remains open. One way or another, this terrified the unprepared enemy. But the Chinese had already used missiles in 1232, defending Beijing, and in the city of Loyang, with the help of catapults, they threw iron vessels with gunpowder at the Mongol soldiers.
Accordingly, in 1258, the Mongols used the same weapon during the siege of Baghdad, and in 1259, defending Shauchun, the Chinese threw out certain objects called zike from a bamboo pipe using gunpowder. That is, we can talk about something like a cannon, but only for now a wooden one!
Miniature from a manuscript by Walter de Milimet. British library
However, today the main thing is not known - who, when, and where invented the metal barrel. What is known? It is known that in the manuscript of Walter de Milimet (or Walter Milimetsky - whoever likes it - author's note), which is something like a children's encyclopedia for the young King of England Edward III, you can see an image of the oldest European "fire-fighting" weapon. This "tool" resembles a jug and is clearly made of bronze. It lies on a kind of goat, directed towards the castle gate, and a feathered arrow sticks out of it. The knight standing behind him, and this is precisely the knight, since he is dressed in surcoat and wears heraldic aylets on his shoulders, brings the wick to the ignition hole. This manuscript was written between 1326 and 1330. That is, it is obvious that something like this already existed then!
And here is the reconstruction of this "weapon" from the Royal Arsenal in Leeds
In 1861, in Sweden, near the village of Loshult, a bronze barrel of a flask-shaped shape and 30 cm long was found.Today, this artifact is considered the most ancient example of a barrel firearm that has come down to us. True, it is not clear how it was used and what it was secured on, but the fact that “this” was used to fire is undoubtedly!
Another completely unique artifact was also found in Sweden. This hexagonal bronze barrel is a real work of foundry art, and for some unknown reason, it is decorated with a man's bearded head. Manufacturing time - the second half of the XIV century. This barrel was put on with its rear end on a wooden "stick", which, most likely, was clamped under the arm when firing. It is interesting that the cone-shaped ignition hole is located on top of it, has a side, but for some reason it is in front of the head, and not behind it, which would certainly be more logical. The hook with which this kind of weapon clung to the wall is molded along with the barrel, right under the head.
This stem from the Historical Museum in Copenhagen
This type of weapon with hooks on the barrel is called gakovnits (from the word "gak" - "hook"). The very name of the trunk in different countries has different origins. In England, the barrel is called barrel, which also means barrel, but in languages such as Italian, French and Spanish, the word barrel comes from the word pipe. The Czech word "wrote" means "pipe", and it was from him that the word pishchal took root in the Slavic-speaking countries. Interestingly, in the same Italy, short barrels for hand-held firearms were called bombardellas, that is, they were called in a diminutive manner "cannons", thus indicating their small size, in contrast to massive bombards - "big guns". Which, however, is not at all surprising, since the length of many of these trunks was only 25-35 cm.
Perhaps this is how similar bronze barrels were used ... Fig. T. V. Kanivets
Nevertheless, even then, a gradual increase in the length of the trunk was observed. For example, the barrel of the so-called "cannon from Tannenberg" is known, which was found during excavations of the Tannenberg castle, which was destroyed in 1399. That is, this barrel could not have been made later than this date, but earlier - as much as necessary.
This barrel is also made of bronze. It is cast and has a length of 80 cm and a caliber of about 14,5 mm. The barrel is octahedral, the ignition hole is on top, and the powder chamber is very unusually arranged: at the exit from it there is a narrowing, beyond which the projectile does not pass inside.
This is the trunk. German National History Museum, Nuremberg
One of the very serious problems of the then gunpowder weapon was the specific consistency of the gunpowder itself, which looked like a black and very sticky powder. Such gunpowder was hygroscopic, when poured into the barrel it adhered to its walls, but most importantly, it was difficult to ignite it in a confined space, although it seems surprising. However, the fact is that the gunpowder was compacted in the barrel of the then gunpowder guns, there was no access to oxygen to the charge, and it was difficult to make coal grains burn so that the nitrate would start to release oxygen from heating. It often happened that such gunpowder burned out in the ignition hole, but it was not possible to set it on fire in the barrel. A solution was found in the use of a red-hot metal rod, which was inserted into the ignition hole. By the way, that is why it was first made from above ... But such an "ignition system" was inconvenient, as it required a brazier with coals, which had to be carried behind the shooter.
Here we see various examples of hand-held gunpowder weapons of the 1th century: 2 - a cast "shooting mug", most likely, such a weapon could be used in fortresses - to shoot from around the corner at their own destroyed gates through which the enemy climbed; 13 - "the vector of multi-barrel and multi-charge" took place even then: before us is a shooter with a four-barreled firing club, next to him lie two more of the same (14, 12) and something impressively multi-barreled (3) - the advantage of such a weapon was that, having fired off all the charges, they could successfully hit the enemy on the head; 4 - shooter with pavese; 10, 5 - forged iron barrel on a wooden shaft or attached to an iron bar - that's all the weapon; 7, 9, 6 - arrows with hooks; 8 - shooter with a short stem; 11 - the simplest S-shaped ignition mechanism; 15 - scythe hakovnitsa: shoot and chop the enemy hand-to-hand with it; XNUMX is another example of a hybrid weapon - an ax gun.
Illustration from the book by Liliana and Fred Funkenov “Encyclopedia of weapons and military clothing. MIDDLE AGES. VIII-XV centuries: Armor and weapons. Fortresses and siege machines. Knightly tournaments and emblems. M .: Astrel, 2002, p. 63
Illustration from the book by Liliana and Fred Funkenov “Encyclopedia of weapons and military clothing. MIDDLE AGES. VIII-XV centuries: Armor and weapons. Fortresses and siege machines. Knightly tournaments and emblems. M .: Astrel, 2002, p. 63
Therefore, very soon they began to grain the gunpowder. In any case, it is known that in 1421 in the Czech city of Znaimo it was already granulated. Now there was air between the individual powder grains, and they flared up much faster and burned with greater recoil. Now it was already possible to set it on fire not with a hot rod, but with a slowly smoldering wick, which turned out to be much more convenient.
1 - device of the barrel of the "Tanneberg gun" 1399; 2 - vertical fuse with a depression; 3 - fuse of a different type, lateral, with a "pellet" for gunpowder; 4 - the second type of serpentine (see the first in the previous illustration), used in the middle of the 5th century; 6 - the third type of serpentine with a plate covering the ignition hole from wind and rain, second half of the 1475th century; 7 - the fourth type of serpentine (Germany) with a spring escapement, a "pellet" for gunpowder and a plate that covers it from wind and rain - made in 1470, a completely new revolutionary type of weapon for this era; 7 - equestrian cooler, circa 8 - this primitive weapon called petrinal or puatrinal was used along with serpentines until the beginning of the 9th century; 10a - a detail of the gun mount, the shooter had to insert the pin to soften the recoil; 10 - in the middle of the XNUMXth century. the missing fuse was compensated for by the fact that the second warrior, the “incendiator” (igniter), was assigned to the shooter "colineator" (powder-man); XNUMX - hand cannon of the late XNUMXth century: some guns are too powerful and too heavy to be fired from the shoulder, used in this way - these guns are mistakenly considered identical to guns on a wooden stand from the same era; XNUMX - an Italian mercenary (mercenarium) in the service of the French king, the end of the XNUMXth century: he is armed with a “multiply-charged firearm” (espignol), which released several cannonballs one after another; XNUMXa - sectional view: in fact, this is a prototype of a machine gun, however, having started shooting, this "machine gun" could no longer stop, but a man armed with it could inflict terrible devastation on a crowd of opponents!
Illustration from the book by Liliana and Fred Funkenov “Encyclopedia of weapons and military clothing. MIDDLE AGES. VIII-XV centuries: Armor and weapons. Fortresses and siege machines. Knightly tournaments and emblems. M .: Astrel, 2002, p. 65
Illustration from the book by Liliana and Fred Funkenov “Encyclopedia of weapons and military clothing. MIDDLE AGES. VIII-XV centuries: Armor and weapons. Fortresses and siege machines. Knightly tournaments and emblems. M .: Astrel, 2002, p. 65
How effective such weapons were, say tests conducted in the 30s of the last century in Sweden in Stockholm. A copy of an old hand barrel 200 mm long and 23 mm caliber was tested. The lead bullet weighed 52 grams, the gunpowder was made according to the recipe of 1380 from six parts of saltpeter, one sulfur and one coal. When firing, this bullet pierced a 28 cm thick board at a distance of 5 meters, and 46 cm at a distance of 2,54 m, that is, one inch. Naturally, not a single chain mail and not a single shell would have protected the owners of this armor at these distances, if such a bullet had hit them!
Well, such a cannonball could even kill not even one, but several soldiers in the crowd at once. Such a core was found during excavations on the territory of the Penza fortress, that is, it did not get here until 1653. Penza Museum of the Russian Army
PS The author and the site administration would like to thank Sarah Dixon, Communications Department of the Historical Museum in Copenhagen, for her assistance in obtaining illustrative and informative material for this article.
To be continued ...
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