Weapons : A brief introduction

(Note: This is not a usual standalone article like the ones posted before! Regular updates will follow this article since there is too much to be written in one single article. Hope you will learn something new and interesting from this series.)

Mankind’s affection towards weapons is not new. We have been well equipped with a range of weapons from the time of early cave men. We went through a lot of changes, and so did weapons. 9^th century marked the invention of gunpowder by Choe Museon. This followed the invention of firearms by Chinese people in 13^th century, which made its way to Europe via Middle East and Africa. Since then, numerous other inventions and innovations drastically improvised the capability and design of weaponry. We have created weapons of mass destruction, capable of eliminating every trace of life from a certain area. The fact that there are several international  treaties, such as SALT - I, II, CTBT, McCloy-Zorin Accords, ABMT etc, just to limit the use of weapons, tells us a lot about our obsession of blowing things up and creating chaos. No matter what excuse we present to fool ourselves, the concepts of ‘Peace’ and ‘Weapons’ DO NOT go hand in hand. Albert Einstein famously said,

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

This might look like a funny quote at first, but actually it depicts the danger associated with weapons. Our dependence on weapons, as mentioned earlier, is deep-rooted and well documented in the pages of history. Dependency is the first step of slavery. It’s not very long before we may become enslaved by the ‘will of weapons’, which, in turn, will trigger the extinction of our society as we know it. But until that day comes, we can at least increase our understanding regarding weapons and appreciate the fine work of engineering and skill that mankind poured out to design these ‘dangerously’ marvelous tools over the centuries.

This series will include a number of weapons; we will go through many high-end models fresh out of the factories as well as the vintage ones that made a name for themselves in history books. Now let us start with handguns first.

 

Handguns

A Mauser C96

Handguns are viewed as the apex form of portable fire power. This category includes every type of gun that can be operated, efficiently, with only one hand. Of course, the size is something that is sure to be reduced to make the gun easily operable. Reduction in size comes with some obvious letdowns; compromises are made in the fields of ballistic power and range (accuracy). The first handguns were designed to be easily concealed and lightly carried back in 16^th century. Handguns, or to be precise, revolvers and pistols, became a symbol of individual power and superiority.

The oldest gun ever found was a handheld cannon (Heilongjiang hand cannon), a kind of handgun, designed by Chinese dating back to 1288.

Sacrifices made in fire power and accuracy is noteworthy. The limited ability to handle recoil and short barrel length make handguns not suitable for long ranges. Even in the modern high precision era, the maximum accuracy range of handguns is limited to 25m. While the pistol is not an ideal weapon for organized battlefield firepower, it is perfect as a soldier’s back-up weapon or as a self-defense tool for the civilian or law enforcement officer. Broadly, handguns are sub-categorized under 2 types, revolvers and pistols, although there are some firearms that do not fit in either of the categories, for example, hand cannons. Pistols are further divided based on their specifications. Semi-automatic pistols are particularly regarded as the most preferred of all handguns based on their balanced ballistic performance and portability.

During the early period of production, handguns did not made it to the common people, in fact, earlier specimens and models were sold with price tags even higher than the rifles of that time. Handguns were the sign of the economical standing of the owner, since not all the men can afford one. Starting models did not follow a standard mechanism and were all one-shot guns, which means, the gun required a long time for reloading after every shot. This problem remained for many years to come. Since guns are no nonsense kind of tool, something you can definitely not mess up with, it is not surprising that these beasts are operated through complex mechanisms. We will go through several mechanisms that were employed over the course of time in handguns to get a grasp of their working.

 

The Matchlock Mechanism

Matchlock was essentially the first ever mechanism invented for the handguns. Some of you might have seen guns with this mechanism in movies like, Teenage mutant ninja turtles III (1993), The Three musketeers (2011) or Alatriste (2006). This mechanism required a lot of work by the wielder for reloading, and to be honest, there were serious number of causalities due to the complexity associated with the whole process. Matchlock was used in musketeer rifles too. A gif is provided below to better understand the working of this mechanism.

 

Working of Matchlock mechanism

The S-shaped structure that drops down when the trigger is pulled is called the ‘serpentine’. The function of serpentine was to bring the burning match cord (a slow burning cord used to ignite gunpowder) fastened on it to the gunpowder that will, in turn, ignite and fire. Yes you read it right! A burning match cord that needs to come in contact with gunpowder to ignite the gunpowder. This is not at all safe or quick. The most skilled users can fire 1 or 2 shots per minute at best. Since this mechanism requires a continuously burning match-cord which, if extinguished, can delay reloading by several minutes, it becomes really hard to work with in damp conditions. Moreover, the process of reloading required to put the gun powder on the ignition pan manually, meaning misjudgment of amount of gunpowder or accidental spilling of it can be problematic, since you have a burning match cord in one hand. Apart from these obvious drawbacks, the musket ball used can actually punch a hole in the target, unlike the modern bullets, resulting in some bizarre wounds. Soon some new mechanisms came in, but the matchlock mechanism was still used by some gunsmiths even in 1800s.

 

Wheel lock Mechanism

The wheel lock was a significant step beyond the matchlock, as it did not require a smouldering slow-match/match cord to fire the gun. Wheel lock mechanisms emerged in Europe around 1507. The wheel lock consisted of a metal wheel that was wound up under spring tension. A metal arm, known as a cock, held a piece of iron pyrite, and this was lowered to sit on the wheel.

Diagram of Wheel lock Mechanism

Pulling the trigger released the wheel from its spring tension, causing it to spin around in contact with the iron pyrites, in turn generating a shower of sparks that ignited the powder in the pan and set off main-charge detonation. This whole mechanism was very crafty and required experienced gunsmiths and wealthy owners. Guns with these mechanisms are some of the most decorated guns ever and the reason behind this is simple – high cost mechanism that only a few can afford. All wealthy gun owners loved to decorate their firearms.

 

 A diagram clearly depicting the difference between a matchlock and a wheel lock

Since the previous mechanism of matchlock required a smoldering match cord, those guns were not preferred for missions, such as assassinations, that require hiding the weapon. Therefore, wheel locks were used in many high profile assassinations (and assassination attempts) in 16^th and 17^th century. Although wheel lock mechanism was short-lived in the history, this system was surely significant since it replaced the matchlock.

 

In the next article, we will discuss about flintlocks, a more appropriate successor of matchlock that not only replaced the matchlock, but, unlike wheel lock, was mass produced in many countries. We will also go through a brief history of Indian firearms.

 

Team Knowledge Villa hopes you learned something new and interesting today…

Please help us reach more people by sharing the article with your friends and family…