(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. 9th century
marked the invention of gunpowder by Choe Museon. This followed the invention
of firearms by Chinese people in 13th 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

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 16th 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.

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.

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.

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 16th and
17th 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…
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people by sharing the article with your friends and family…
17 Comments
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