completely spontaneously. There is a lot of saltpeter in the soils of India and China, and when people made fires, the saltpeter melted under them; mixing with coal and drying in the sun, such saltpeter could already explode and keeping this discovery secret, the Chinese used gunpowder for many centuries, but only for fireworks and other pyrotechnic fun. As for the first combat use of gunpowder, it dates back to 1232. The Mongols besieged the Chinese city of Kaifeng, from whose walls the defenders fired stone cannonballs at the invaders. At the same time, explosive bombs filled with gunpowder were used for the first time.

photo: Berthold Schwarz. Illustration from “Les vrais pourtraits...” by André Theve (1584).

European tradition often attributes the invention of gunpowder to the German Franciscan, monk and alchemist Berthold Schwartz, who lived in Freiburg in the first half of the 14th century. Although back in the 50s of the 13th century, the properties of gunpowder were described by another Franciscan scientist, the Englishman Roger Becan.

photo: Roger Bacon

Firearms for the first time in European military history loudly declared themselves in 1346, at the Battle of Crecy. The field artillery of the English army, which consisted of only three guns, then played a very noticeable role in the victory over the French. And the British used the so-called ribalds (small-shaped cannons), which fired small arrows or buckshot.

photo: Reconstruction of a jug-shaped ribalda (charged with arrows)

The first firearms were wooden and looked like a log of two halves, or barrels fastened with iron hoops. Firearms made from durable tree stumps with the core removed are also known. Then they began to use tools welded forged from iron strips, as well as cast from bronze. Such guns were large and heavy, and they were mounted on large wooden blocks or even rested against specially built brick walls or piles beaten behind them.

The first hand-held firearms appeared among the Arabs, who called them “modfa.” It was a short metal barrel attached to a shaft. In Europe, the first samples of handguns were called pedernals (Spain) or petrinals (France). They have been known since the middle of the 14th century, and their first widespread use dates back to 1425, during the Hussite wars; another name for this weapon was “hand bombard” or “hand crank.” It was a short, large-caliber barrel attached to a long shaft, and the ignition hole was located on top.

photo: Arabian modfa - ready to shoot; The master fires a shot using a hot rod.

In 1372, a unique hybrid of hand and artillery weapons, the “wick arquebus,” was created in Germany. This gun was serviced by two people and fired from it from a stand, and centuries later a crossbow stock was adapted to arquebuses, which increased the accuracy of shooting. One person aimed the weapon, and the other applied a lit fuse to the seed hole. The gunpowder was poured onto a special shelf, which was equipped with a hinged lid so that the explosive mixture would not be blown away by the wind. Charging such a gun took at least two minutes, and even more in battle.

photo: Matchlock and arquebus shooters

In the second half of the 15th century, an arquebus with a matchlock appeared in Spain. This gun was already much lighter and had a longer barrel with a smaller caliber. But the main difference was that the wick was brought to the gunpowder on the shelf using a special mechanism called the lock.

photo: Matchlock

In 1498, another extremely important invention was made in the history of gunsmithing, the Viennese gunsmith Gaspar Zollner first used straight rifling in his guns. This innovation, which made it possible to stabilize the flight of a bullet, once and for all determined the advantages of firearms over bows and crossbows.

photo: Musketeer with a musket

In the 16th century, muskets were invented that had a heavier bullet and higher accuracy. The musket quite successfully hit a target at a distance of up to 80 meters, it penetrated armor at a distance of up to 200 meters, and inflicted wounds up to 600 meters. Musketeers, as a rule, were tall warriors with strong physical strength, since the musket weighed 6-8 kilograms, with a length of about 1.5 meters. However, the rate of fire did not exceed two rounds per minute.

photo: Wheel Castle by Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci, in his work Codex Atlanticus, gave a diagram of a wheeled flintlock. This invention was decisive for the development of firearms in the next couple of centuries. However, the wheel lock found its practical implementation thanks to German masters, Leonardo’s contemporaries.

photo: Pistol with a wheel lock, Puffer type (Augsburg, ca. 1580), the dimensions of which made it possible to carry it hidden

A German gun of 1504 with a wheel lock, now kept in the Army Museum in Paris, is considered the earliest surviving weapon of its kind.

The wheel lock gave a new impetus to the development of hand weapons, since the ignition of gunpowder ceased to depend on weather conditions; such as rain, wind, dampness, etc., due to which, in the wick ignition method, failures and misfires constantly occurred when firing.

What was this wheel lock? His main know-how was a notched wheel that resembled a file. When the trigger was pressed, the spring dropped, the wheel spun, and the flint rubbing against its edge released a fountain of sparks. These sparks ignited the gunpowder on the shelf, and through the priming hole, the fire ignited the main charge in the breech of the barrel, the resulting gas ejected the bullet.

The disadvantage of the wheel lock was that powder soot very quickly contaminated the ribbed wheel, and this led to misfires. There was one more, perhaps the most serious drawback - a musket with such a lock was too expensive.

photo: Flintlock, hammer on safety cock.

A little later a flint lock appeared. The first weapon with such a lock was made by the French artist, gunsmith and string instrument maker Marin le Bourgeois from Lisieux, for King Louis XIII, at the beginning of the 17th century. Wheel and flintlocks made it possible to significantly increase the rate of fire of hand weapons compared to the wick, and experienced shooters could fire up to five shots per minute. Of course, there were also super professionals who fired up to seven shots per minute.

photo: French percussion flintlock battery lock

In the 16th century, several important improvements were made that determined the development of this type of weapons for three centuries to come; Spanish and German gunsmiths modified the lock (moved it to the inside), and also made it less dependent on weather conditions, more compact, lighter and almost trouble-free. Nuremberg gunsmiths achieved particular success in this area. Such a modified castle in Europe began to be called German, and after further innovations introduced into it by the French, battery. In addition, the new lock made it possible to reduce the size of the weapon, which made the appearance of a pistol possible.

The pistol most likely got its name from the Italian city of Pistoia, where in the forties of the 16th century, gunsmiths began to make these special types of guns that could be held in one hand, and these items were intended for horsemen. Soon similar guns began to be made throughout Europe.

Pistols were first used in battle by German cavalry; this happened in 1544 at the Battle of Ranti, where German horsemen fought with the French. The Germans attacked the enemy in columns of 15-20 ranks each. Having jumped to shooting distance, the line fired a volley and scattered in different directions, making room for the firing of the line following it. As a result, the Germans won, and the outcome of this battle spurred the production and use of pistols.

photo: Breech-loading arquebus 1540

By the end of the 16th century, craftsmen were already making double-barreled and triple-barreled pistols, and in 1607, double-barreled pistols were officially introduced into the German cavalry. Initially, firearms were loaded from the muzzle, and in the 16th century, rifles and pistols that were loaded from the breech, that is, from the reverse side, became widespread; they were also called “breech-loading.” The earliest that has survived to this day, the breech-loading arquebus of King Henry VIII of England, was made in 1537. It is stored in Tower of London, where in the inventory of 1547, it is listed as “a thing with a camera, with a wooden stock and with velvet padding under the cheek.”

In the 16th-18th centuries, the main type of army weapon remained a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading gun with a flintlock percussion lock, of a high degree of reliability. But hunting weapons could be double-barreled. Pistols were also muzzle-loading, single-barrel, rarely multi-barrel, and equipped with the same type of flintlock as shotguns.

photo: Claude Louis Berthollet

In 1788, the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet discovered “silver nitride” or “Berthollet’s silver fulminate,” which has the property of exploding upon impact or friction. Berthollet salt, mixed with mercury fulminate, became the main component of the shock compositions that served to ignite the charge.

The next exciting step was the invention in 1806, by the priest of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, Alexander John Forsyth, of the “capsule lock”. Forsythe's system included a small mechanism, which, due to its appearance, is often called a bottle. When inverted, the bottle placed a small part of the detonating composition on the shelves, and then returned to its original position.

photo: Capsule lock.

Many have claimed the laurels of the inventor of the capsule; most researchers attribute this honor to the Anglo-American artist George Shaw or the English gunsmith Joseph Menton. And although the capsule was more reliable than flint and flint, this innovation had virtually no effect on the weapon’s rate of fire.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Swiss Johann Samuel Pauli, working in Paris, made one of the most important inventions in the history of gunsmithing. In 1812, he received a patent for a breech-loading center-fire gun, loaded with the world's first unitary cartridge. In such a unitary cartridge, a bullet, a powder charge and an ignition agent were combined into one whole. The Pauli cartridge had a cardboard case, with a brass base (similar to a modern hunting cartridge), and an igniter primer was built into the base. The Pauli gun, which had an amazing rate of fire for that time, was half a century ahead of its time and did not find practical use in France. And the laurels of the inventor of a unitary cartridge and a breech-loading gun went to the student Johann Dreyse and the French gunsmith Casimir Lefoshe.

In 1827, von Dreyse proposed his own unitary cartridge, the idea of ​​which he borrowed from Pauli. Using this cartridge, Dreyse developed a special rifle design in 1836, called the needle rifle. The introduction of the Dreyse rifles was a big step forward towards increasing the weapon's rate of fire. After all, needle rifles were loaded from the treasury, in contrast to muzzle-loading, flintlock and capsule weapon systems.

In 1832, Casimir Lefauchet, who, like von Dreise, was strongly influenced by Pauli, also developed a unitary cartridge. The weapon that Lefoshe released under this development was extremely convenient to use, due to the fast reloading and practical design of the cartridge. In fact, with the invention of Lefoshe, the era of breech-loading weapons on unitary cartridges began.

photo: Flaubert cartridge 5.6 mm

In 1845, the French gunsmith Flaubert invented the side-fire or rimfire cartridge. This is a special type of ammunition, the firing pin of which, when fired, hits not the center, but the periphery, bypassing part of the bottom of the cartridge case. In this case, there is no capsule, and the percussion compound is pressed directly into the bottom of the cartridge case. The principle of rimfire remains unchanged to this day.

American entrepreneur Samuel Colt went down in history thanks to the revolver that Boston gunsmith John Pearson developed for him in the mid-1830s. Colt essentially bought the idea of ​​this weapon, and the name of Pearson, like the Swiss Pauli, remains known only to a narrow circle of specialists. The first revolver model of 1836, which later brought significant income to Colt, was called the Paterson Model.

photo: The photograph shows a copy of the first model, made between 1836 and 1841 at the Paterson factory

The main part of the revolver was the rotating drum. The English term “Revolver”, which gave the name to the new type of weapon, comes from the Latin verb “revolve”, which means “to rotate”. But the Smith and Wesson revolver model No. 1 was designed by the American Rollin White, but this weapon went down in history under the name of the owners of the company “Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson.”

photo: 4.2-line Smith-Wesson revolver model 1872

The Smith and Wesson model No. 3, model 1869, was introduced in 1971 into the Russian army. In Russia, this weapon was officially called the Smith and Wesson linear revolver, and in the United States simply the Russian model. It was a very advanced technique for those years. In 1873, this model was awarded a gold medal at the international exhibition in Vienna, and in combat conditions, it became especially famous during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. But in the United States itself, Smith and Wesson model No. 3 became a hero of Indian warriors in the 80s of the 19th century.

In all eras, war has been a complex and costly enterprise. The outcome and features of the confrontation between organized groups of armed people to resolve the issue of power, territory and resources have always depended on what means and skills they possessed. Therefore, the development of technology, as well as the level of social organization and knowledge about the world around us, has always gone side by side with war and directly influenced its appearance.

XVIII-XV centuries BC e.

Invention of the chariot

Tutankhamun on a chariot. Egypt, XIV century BC e. Museum of Cairo

Since the beginning of bronze smelting, making a durable cart from wood and metal that could be easily controlled in battle was a major technical achievement of its time and required a large amount of metal. In addition, the maintenance of this combat unit with a horse and a carriage of two people was expensive. That is why war in the Bronze Age turned out to be a luxury that only prosperous centers of civilizations like Egypt could afford. Chariots played an important role in the rise and fall of early state associations in the Middle East: in those days it was difficult to oppose anything to fast-moving fortified carts, from which a stream of arrows rained down on enemies.

True, in the Iliad, which became detailed description Wars of the Bronze Age, heroes use chariots, but not yet in battle, but only to quickly arrive at the battlefield or return to camp. Oddly enough, but this is another indicator of the importance of the chariot. Even where, for some reason, chariots are not used in full force, it acts as a generally recognized attribute of power and prestige. Kings and heroes go into battle on chariots.

Making armor

Battle scene. Black-figure cyaf. Greece, around 510 BC. e. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

In the same “Iliad”, “helmeted” heroes, dressed in armor and armed with heavy spears with copper tips, are the rulers of individual lands. Armor is so rare that the production of some of it was attributed to the gods, and after killing an enemy, the winner first of all tried to take possession of the armor, a rare and unique product. Hector, leading the Trojan army, after killing Patroclus, dressed in the armor of Achilles, leaves the army in the midst of the battle and returns to Troy to put on unique armor. In fact, the rulers of the Mycenaean civilization, during whose era the events described by Homer occurred, largely ensured power over their lands precisely by the possession of rare and expensive, but extremely effective for their time, weapons and armor.

XIII century BC e.

Iron Mastery

Iron Age weapons, tools, utensils and decorations Illustration from Meyer's Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1890

The gradual spread of iron ore processing technology throughout Western Asia and Southern Europe, starting around the 13th century BC. e. led to the fact that bronze could now be competed by a relatively cheaper and much more widespread metal. It became possible to arm a much larger number of warriors with metal weapons and armor. The cheapening of war, coupled with the use of metal weapons, led to significant changes in the “geopolitics” of the Ancient World: new tribes entered the arena, crushing the aristocratic states of owners of chariots and bronze armor with iron weapons. This is how many states in the Middle East perished, such a fate befell Achaean Greece, which was conquered by the Dorian tribes. This is how the rise of the Kingdom of Israel occurs, and at the same time the Assyrian state becomes the most powerful entity in the Middle East in the early Iron Age.

10th century BC e.

A warrior mounts a horse

Mongol horsemen. Miniature from the first quarter of the 14th century Wikimedia Commons

Before the invention of harness and saddle, riding a horse or other ungulates on horseback was a task that required constant monitoring for stability, and the rider was practically useless for battle. With the mastery of the art of controlling a horse with the help of harnesses, cavalry appeared as a branch of the army in Assyria in the 10th century BC. e. and later it spreads quite quickly. The main beneficiaries of the development of the new art of riding were the Asian nomads, who previously bred horses for food. With the development of horse riding, which made it possible to use weapons, and in particular shoot from a bow, they had at their disposal a new source of combat power, which also allowed them to cover long distances at a previously inaccessible speed. Around the 8th century AD, a mechanism of confrontation between the nomadic “steppe” and sedentary agricultural tribes was gradually developed - successive nomads were able to carry out raids, collect tribute or enter the service of more developed and rich agricultural communities, having at their disposal the resource of cavalry troops. The mechanism remained virtually unchanged for many centuries - until the collapse of the empire of Genghis Khan.

7th century BC e.

The Art of Combat Formation

Macedonian phalanx. Modern illustration Wikimedia Commons

When it became possible to provide a large number of combat-ready men with armor and heavy weapons, a special need arose for the organization and control of such armed masses. It is at this time that they appear special types combat formation like the Greek one
phalanx Phalanx- infantry battle formation (formation) in Ancient Macedonia, Greece and a number of other states, which was a dense formation of soldiers in several ranks. The word "phalanx" appears already in the Iliad.. For the first time this type of formation, which consisted of dense ranks of heavily armed warriors lined up in several rows, appeared in the 7th century BC. e. in Sparta. Maintaining such a battle order in itself became the key to victory against an army that did not have such an organization. Many military metaphors, such as the “feeling of the elbow,” are believed to have their origin in the phalanx formation (where the fighter actually felt the elbows of his neighbors in the rank). The Roman legions also owed their victory to a complex system of formations, which allowed them to maneuver and rearrange formations during battle, and to the solid training of fighters who were aware of the need to maintain formation.

V-VI century AD e.

Invention of the stirrup

Battle of Crecy. French miniature. Around 1415 Wikimedia Commons

By standing in the stirrups, the archer became much more stable and could aim more accurately. The stirrup brought even greater changes to the technique of cavalry combat, which required contact with the enemy. The stirrup turned the rider and horse into a single mechanism and made it possible to transfer the total mass of the cavalryman and his horse to the enemy along with the blow of a spear or sword, which made the cavalry the living fighting machines of their time. In Western Europe in the Middle Ages, they developed this advantage by making the rider and his weapons heavier, which led to the emergence of heavy knightly cavalry. An armored horseman, sitting in stirrups and attacking with a heavy spear at full gallop, concentrated unprecedented power on the tip of his spear at the moment of attack. This led to a new aristocratization of war, since the carriers of such effective and expensive weapons turned out to be a narrow layer of feudal lords, which determined the face of war in the Middle Ages.

XII-XV centuries

Professionalization of the army

Battle scene. Drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger. 1524 Kunstmuseum Basel

The effectiveness of the crossbow as a ranged weapon at one time so impressed the medieval consciousness that in 1139 the Second Lateran Council considered it necessary to ban crossbows and bows in wars between Christians. Such a ban was not very effective (especially in the case of onions). The experience of the Hundred Years' War between England and France - one of the system-forming medieval wars, which simultaneously marked the crisis of the classical Middle Ages - showed that detachments of English archers recruited from peasants, armed with a longbow So-called longbow- one of the types of bows, very long (approximately equal to the height of the person who uses it), which allows you to make fairly long shots., could inflict a crushing defeat on the flower of French chivalry in several important battles At Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, and so on..

The confrontation between Italian cities, local feudal lords and the Holy Roman Empire gave rise to new forms of resistance to chivalry: militias of pikemen armed with long pikes who, if well organized and skillfully used their weapons, could stop a cavalry charge. The actions of these armed units (as well as crossbow shooters and archers) required increasing coordination and skillful use of complex weapons, which led to the gradual professionalization of war - the emergence of mercenary units capable of offering their services: skillful use of weapons and complex combat techniques. War, especially in Italy, gradually became a matter for teams of professionals, and intense competition led to the rise of the arms market: Italian cities offered increasingly advanced models of crossbows, armor and different types melee weapons, which could select mercenary squads.

XIV century

The use of gunpowder and the improvement of guns

Frontispiece of the book "Büchsenmeysterei". Germany, 1531 Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia

It is believed that gunpowder was invented in China and began to be used in military operations in the 12th century, but there it was used to throw giant arrows. As, in fact, at first in Europe. But from the 14th century, copper cannons began to throw stone cannonballs using gunpowder. Each of these weapons required tons of metal, and in fact only monarchs could afford their production. Later, with the invention of cast iron cannonballs, the need for huge cannons that spewed stone cannonballs was no longer necessary, since the metal cannonball had a more serious destructive effect with a smaller diameter. With the invention of the wheeled carriage Carriage- a special support on which the gun barrel is mounted. The design of such a carriage was invented in the second half of the 15th century in France and remained virtually unchanged until the 1840s., allowing cannons to be transported over the required distance, artillery has become an almost irresistible force, destroying any stone fortifications in a matter of hours This advantage of cannons in Europe during the 16th century was gradually offset by the tactics of building earthen fortifications - after the discovery of the fact that an earthen embankment dampened the impact force of cannonballs. However, the construction of such fortifications was a special art that required engineering knowledge.. In a sense, it became the “last argument of kings” Winged Latin expression Ultima ratio denotes the last method of solving a problem or a way out of a conflict of interest when all other methods have been used and have led nowhere. In the 18th century, a tradition arose of casting on cannons the phrase “Ultima ratio regum” - “The last argument of kings” based on this statement.. The possession of siege cannons in most cases was indeed the privilege of centralized monarchies, which were able to pay for their manufacture and maintenance. If the enemy did not have artillery, the fate of the confrontation was practically sealed.

It was this factor that played a significant role in the expansion of the Muscovite kingdom to the east and south, which occurred under Ivan the Terrible; Cannons turned out to be no less significant during the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries and the establishment of European dominance in different regions of the world.

16th century

Development of handguns

Instructions for musketeers. Engravings by Jacob de Geyn. Netherlands, 1607 Wikimedia Commons

The portable firearms that infantry could use also changed the perception of infantrymen's combat capabilities and the nature of combat. However, the weapons of that time were still quite heavy and took time to load and use. For its effective use in battle, the development of special methods of interaction with other units was required. One of the successful experiments was the construction of the Spanish tercios - a square of pikemen, covering the musketeers located in the center. This tactic turned the Spanish infantry into one of the most formidable forces on the European battlefield for almost the entire 16th century.

17th century

Invention of drill

Battle of Nieuwpoort 2 July 1600. Engraving by unknown artist. 1600-1605 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

One of the most important innovations in army management, which largely created it in the form in which we know it, was the development of Moritz of Orange, the ruler of the Netherlands from 1585 to 1625. He was the first to approach military operations as a set of elementary techniques that a soldier must perform. The result of his developments was the division of the army into a system of small units, such as a platoon and a company. All units had to clearly practice the execution of formation commands and constantly conduct drill training and weapons handling classes - in fact, it was then that drill was invented. The soldiers had to bring to automaticity all movements to rebuild their units that could be used in battle. The techniques of handling the musket were similarly methodically processed, also clearly described by Moritz of Orange from the point of view of practicality and efficiency. The result of innovations was the emergence of a completely special military mechanism. The soldiers included in this mechanism clearly and impeccably carried out any command, and the movements brought to automaticity made it possible to maintain battle formations even under enemy fire. Like any automation with a clearly developed protocol of actions, it led to a change in attitude towards military craft - in fact, the system created by Moritz gave the feeling that with the help of tough drills a soldier could be made from any “human material”.

In the second half of the 17th century, Oransky’s book came to Russia, where it became the impetus for the emergence of regiments of a foreign system, and later for Peter’s military reform. The ideal of the army, in which the soldier was primarily an instrument to carry out the clear orders of the commander, actually lasted until the end of the 18th century.

Mid-19th century

Industrialization of wars

The French Revolution brought into the military arena a massive army, recruited by national conscription. However, even this army, with changes in management methods and tactics, was equipped with weapons that remained virtually unchanged since the 17th century (except for the leap in the development of artillery, the range and accuracy of which increased significantly in the wars of the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras). The fact that Napoleon was eventually defeated by a coalition of conservative European powers also stopped fundamental changes in the armed forces for some time.

British soldiers of the 68th Regiment of Foot with Enfield rifles in the Crimea in 1855. Photo by Roger Fenton Library of Congress

A new impetus for progress was the spread of rifles with a rifled barrel Rifle- a small weapon that has helical rifling in the barrel to impart a rotational movement to the projectile, thereby ensuring its stability along the trajectory and flight range.. Their massive use by French and English troops who landed in Crimea in 1854 against the Russian army, mainly armed with old-style muskets, ensured victory for the anti-Russian coalition forces in open clashes and forced the Russians to lock themselves in Sevastopol. In general, the Crimean War, where the slight lag of the Russian armed forces in the introduction of inventions that were just beginning to be widely used - such as the steam fleet or rifled rifles - became a critical factor, actually spurred the arms race.

One of the stages of this race was the rearmament of the army with new rifled rifles, loaded from the breech That is, not from the muzzle, but from the opposite side of the barrel.. It was then that small arms began to be produced for the first time not by hand, but on new milling machines invented in the USA, producing identical parts. In fact, only after this did small arms become industrialized, whereas previously master gunsmiths made each musket by hand, adjusting the parts.

When Colonel Samuel Colt first demonstrated the advantages of machine-made revolvers at the 1851 London World's Fair by dismantling several of them for parts, mixing the parts and reassembling them, it created a sensation.

The artillery also stepped forward in the same way. The development of the steel industry allowed the creation of new guns, also breech-loading and demonstrating new destructive capabilities. Fundamentally, the appearance of the artillery gun, which appeared in the 60-70s of the 19th century, remains unchanged to this day.

Second half of the 19th century

Use of railways

Railway in Balaklava. Color lithograph by William Simpson. England, 1855 Library of Congress

The reality of new wars is becoming a mass army (in many countries it is beginning to be formed by conscription), armed with new types of weapons. The rapid movement and supply of such masses with everything necessary for waging war using traditional horse-drawn transport turned into an impossible task. Although the first railways began to be built in Europe in the 1930s, their use in war dates back to a later period. One of the first wars in which the construction of a railway became an important factor influencing its outcome was the Crimean War. It was the 23-kilometer railway, built between the Balaklava base of the Anglo-French troops in the Crimea and their combat positions in front of the besieged Sevastopol, that made it possible to solve the problem of supplying the interventionist positions with ammunition According to some military historians, without the construction of this road by the spring of 1855, the besieging troops could face collapse. (True, this road was a compromise of old and new technologies; steam locomotives were used on it parallel to horse traction.).

The rapid delivery of supplies, as well as the equally rapid transfer of large masses of troops, changed ideas about the speed of mobilization of the army. Now, in a few weeks, a country with a railway network could switch to martial law and transfer an army with the necessary reserves of resources to the desired direction. Europe literally entered the First World War via railways, which transported military trains to the borders of the warring powers in accordance with clearly developed mobilization plans.

Early 20th century

The invention of world wars

World War I. Soldiers in a trench put on gas masks. 1918 Library of Congress

The acceleration of technological progress put ever new discoveries and inventions at the service of war. Cars with an internal combustion engine, aviation, poisonous gases, barbed wire - all of this received military use during the First World War and finally indicated that wars would no longer bear much resemblance to everything that was commonly understood technologically as wars in previous eras.

During World War II, all these technologies received further development and improvement, becoming even more deadly. The development of radar, missile technology, the first steps in computer technology, as well as the advent of nuclear weapons made wars even more complex and cruel. It is still difficult to judge how the technological inventions that have appeared in recent decades, such as high-precision weapons, information systems that allow processing large amounts of data, unmanned aerial vehicles and other important technological innovations, affect wars. It is possible that changes in recent decades will once again turn warfare waged by technologically advanced countries into the work of specialists requiring careful training, while simultaneously making the weapons used to fight wars and win victories extremely expensive - even for rich countries.

Fantasy authors often bypass the possibilities of smoke powder, preferring the good old sword and magic. And this is strange, because primitive firearms are not only a natural, but also a necessary element of the medieval setting. It was no coincidence that warriors with “fiery shooting” appeared in knightly armies. The spread of heavy armor naturally led to an increase in interest in weapons capable of piercing them.

Ancient "lights"

Sulfur. A common component of spells and a component of gunpowder

The secret of gunpowder (if, of course, we can talk about a secret here) lies in the special properties of saltpeter. Namely, the ability of this substance to release oxygen when heated. If saltpeter is mixed with any fuel and set on fire, a “chain reaction” will begin. The oxygen released by saltpeter will increase the intensity of combustion, and the hotter the flame flares up, the more oxygen will be released.

People learned to use saltpeter to increase the effectiveness of incendiary mixtures back in the 1st millennium BC. It was just not easy to find her. In countries with hot and very humid climates, white, snow-like crystals could sometimes be found on the site of old fire pits. But in Europe, saltpeter was found only in stinking sewer tunnels or in populated areas. bats caves.

Before gunpowder was used for explosions and throwing cannonballs and bullets, saltpeter-based compounds had long been used to make incendiary shells and flamethrowers. For example, the legendary “Greek fire” was a mixture of saltpeter with oil, sulfur and rosin. Sulfur, which ignites at low temperatures, was added to facilitate ignition of the composition. Rosin was required to thicken the “cocktail” so that the charge would not flow out of the flamethrower pipe.

The “Greek fire” really could not be extinguished. After all, saltpeter dissolved in boiling oil continued to release oxygen and support combustion even under water.

In order for gunpowder to become an explosive, saltpeter must make up 60% of its mass. In the “Greek fire” there was half as much. But even this amount was enough to make the oil combustion process unusually violent.

The Byzantines were not the inventors of “Greek fire”, but borrowed it from the Arabs back in the 7th century. The saltpeter and oil necessary for its production were also purchased in Asia. If we take into account that the Arabs themselves called saltpeter “Chinese salt” and rockets “Chinese arrows”, it will not be difficult to guess where this technology came from.

Spreading gunpowder

It is very difficult to indicate the place and time of the first use of saltpeter for incendiary compositions, fireworks and rockets. But the credit for inventing cannons definitely belongs to the Chinese. The ability of gunpowder to throw projectiles from metal barrels is reported in Chinese chronicles of the 7th century. The discovery of a method for “growing” saltpeter in special pits or shafts made of earth and manure dates back to the 7th century. This technology made it possible to regularly use flamethrowers and rockets, and later firearms.

The barrel of the Dardanelles cannon - from a similar gun the Turks shot down the walls of Constantinople

At the beginning of the 13th century, after the capture of Constantinople, the recipe for “Greek fire” fell into the hands of the crusaders. The first descriptions of “real” exploding gunpowder by European scientists date back to the middle of the 13th century. The use of gunpowder for throwing stones became known to the Arabs no later than the 11th century.

In the “classic” version, black gunpowder included 60% saltpeter and 20% each of sulfur and charcoal. Charcoal could successfully be replaced with ground brown coal (brown powder), cotton wool or dried sawdust (white gunpowder). There was even “blue” gunpowder, in which coal was replaced with cornflower flowers.

Sulfur was also not always present in gunpowder. For cannons, the charge in which was ignited not by sparks, but by a torch or a hot rod, gunpowder could be made consisting only of saltpeter and brown coal. When firing from guns, sulfur could not be mixed into the gunpowder, but poured directly onto the shelf.

Inventor of gunpowder

Invented? Well, step aside, don't stand there like a donkey

In 1320, the German monk Berthold Schwarz finally “invented” gunpowder. It is now impossible to determine how many people in different countries They invented gunpowder before Schwartz, but we can say with confidence that after him no one succeeded!

Berthold Schwartz (whose name, by the way, was Berthold Niger) of course, did not invent anything. The “classic” composition of gunpowder became known to Europeans even before its birth. But in his treatise “On the Benefits of Gunpowder,” he gave clear practical recommendations for the manufacture and use of gunpowder and cannons. It was thanks to his work that during the second half of the 14th century the art of fire shooting began to rapidly spread in Europe.

The first gunpowder factory was built in 1340 in Strasbourg. Soon after this, the production of saltpeter and gunpowder began in Russia. The exact date of this event is not known, but already in 1400 Moscow burned for the first time as a result of an explosion in a gunpowder workshop.

Fire tubes

First depiction of a European cannon, 1326

The simplest hand-held firearm - the hand grip - appeared in China already in the middle of the 12th century. The most ancient samopals of the Spanish Moors date back to the same period. And from the beginning of the 14th century, “fire-fighting pipes” began to be fired in Europe. Hand cranks appear in the chronicles under many names. The Chinese called such a weapon pao, the Moors called it modfa or carabine (hence “carbine”), and the Europeans called it hand bombard, handcanona, sclopetta, petrinal or culverina.

The handle weighed from 4 to 6 kilograms and was a blank of soft iron, copper or bronze drilled from the inside. The barrel length ranged from 25 to 40 centimeters, the caliber could be 30 millimeters or more. The projectile was usually a round lead bullet. In Europe, however, until the beginning of the 15th century, lead was rare, and self-propelled guns were often loaded with small stones.

Swedish hand cannon from the 14th century

As a rule, the petrinal was mounted on a shaft, the end of which was clamped under the armpit or inserted into the current of the cuirass. Less commonly, the butt could cover the shooter's shoulder from above. Such tricks had to be resorted to because it was impossible to rest the butt of the handbrake on the shoulder: after all, the shooter could support the weapon with only one hand, and with the other he brought the fire to the fuse. The charge was ignited with a “scorching candle” - a wooden stick soaked in saltpeter. The stick was pressed against the ignition hole and turned, rolling in the fingers. Sparks and pieces of smoldering wood fell inside the barrel and sooner or later ignited the gunpowder.

Dutch hand culverins from the 15th century

The extremely low accuracy of the weapon allowed effective shooting only from a point-blank range. And the shot itself occurred with a long and unpredictable delay. Only the destructive power of this weapon aroused respect. Although a bullet made of stone or soft lead at that time was still inferior to a crossbow bolt in penetrating power, a 30-mm ball fired at point-blank range left such a hole that it was worth looking at.

It was a hole, but it was still necessary to get in. And the depressingly low accuracy of the petrinal did not allow one to expect that the shot would have any consequences other than fire and noise. It may seem strange, but it was enough! Hand bombards were valued precisely for the roar, flash and cloud of sulfur-smelling smoke that accompanied the shot. Loading them with a bullet was not always considered advisable. The Petrinali-sklopetta was not even equipped with a butt and was intended exclusively for blank shooting.

15th century French marksman

The knight's horse was not afraid of fire. But if, instead of honestly stabbing him with pikes, he was blinded by a flash, deafened by a roar, and even insulted by the stench of burning sulfur, he still lost his courage and threw off the rider. Against horses not accustomed to shots and explosions, this method worked flawlessly.

But the knights were not able to introduce their horses to gunpowder right away. In the 14th century, “smoke powder” was an expensive and rare commodity in Europe. And most importantly, at first he aroused fear not only among the horses, but also among the riders. The smell of “hellish brimstone” made superstitious people tremble. However, people in Europe quickly got used to the smell. But the loudness of the shot was listed among the advantages of firearms until the 17th century.

Arquebus

At the beginning of the 15th century, self-propelled guns were still too primitive to seriously compete with bows and crossbows. But fire tubes quickly improved. Already in the 30s of the 15th century, the pilot hole was moved to the side, and a shelf for seed powder began to be welded next to it. This gunpowder, upon contact with fire, flared up instantly, and after just a split second, the hot gases ignited the charge in the barrel. The gun began to fire quickly and reliably, and most importantly, it became possible to mechanize the process of lowering the wick. In the second half of the 15th century, fire tubes acquired a lock and butt borrowed from the crossbow.

Japanese flint arquebus, 16th century

At the same time, metalworking technologies were also improved. The trunks were now made only from the purest and softest iron. This made it possible to minimize the likelihood of explosion when fired. On the other hand, the development of deep drilling techniques made it possible to make gun barrels lighter and longer.

This is how the arquebus appeared - a weapon with a caliber of 13–18 millimeters, weighing 3–4 kilograms and a barrel length of 50–70 centimeters. An ordinary 16-mm arquebus ejected a 20-gram bullet with an initial speed of about 300 meters per second. Such bullets could no longer rip people’s heads off, but from 30 meters they would make holes in steel armor.

Firing accuracy increased, but was still insufficient. An arquebusier could hit a person only from 20–25 meters, and at 120 meters, shooting even at such a target as a pikeman battle turned into a waste of ammunition. However, light guns retained approximately the same characteristics until the mid-19th century - only the lock changed. And in our time, shooting a bullet from a smoothbore rifle is effective no further than 50 meters.

Even modern shotgun bullets are designed not for accuracy, but for impact force.

Arquebusier, 1585

Loading an arquebus was a rather complicated procedure. To begin with, the shooter disconnected the smoldering wick and put it in a metal case attached to his belt or hat with slits for air access. Then he uncorked one of the several wooden or tin cartridges he had - “loaders”, or “gazyrs” - and poured a pre-measured amount of gunpowder from it into the barrel. Then he nailed the gunpowder to the treasury with a ramrod and stuffed a felt wad into the barrel to prevent gunpowder from spilling out. Then - a bullet and another wad, this time to hold the bullet. Finally, from the horn or from another charge, the shooter poured some gunpowder onto the shelf, slammed the lid of the shelf and reattached the wick to the trigger lips. It took an experienced warrior about 2 minutes to do everything.

In the second half of the 15th century, arquebusiers took a strong place in European armies and began to quickly push out competitors - archers and crossbowmen. But how could this happen? After all, the combat qualities of the guns still left much to be desired. Competitions between arquebusiers and crossbowmen led to a stunning result - formally, the guns turned out to be worse in all respects! The penetrating power of the bolt and the bullet was approximately equal, but the crossbowman shot 4–8 times more often and at the same time did not miss a tall target even from 150 meters!

Geneva arquebusiers, reconstruction

The problem with the crossbow was that its advantages were of little practical value. Bolts and arrows flew like a fly in the eye during competitions when the target was motionless and the distance to it was known in advance. In a real situation, the arquebusier, who did not have to take into account the wind, the movement of the target and the distance to it, had the best chance of hitting. In addition, bullets did not have the habit of getting stuck in shields and sliding off armor; they could not be dodged. The rate of fire was not of great practical importance: both the arquebusier and the crossbowman only had time to fire once at the attacking cavalry.

The spread of arquebuses was restrained only by their high cost at that time. Even in 1537, Hetman Tarnovsky complained that “there are few arquebuses in the Polish army, only vile hand cranks.” The Cossacks used bows and self-propelled guns until the mid-17th century.

Pearl gunpowder

The gazyrs, worn on the chests of Caucasian warriors, gradually became an element of the national costume.

In the Middle Ages, gunpowder was prepared in the form of powder, or “pulp.” When loading the weapon, the “pulp” stuck to the inner surface of the barrel and had to be nailed to the fuse with a ramrod for a long time. In the 15th century, to speed up the loading of cannons, lumps or small “pancakes” began to be sculpted from powder pulp. And at the beginning of the 16th century, “pearl” gunpowder, consisting of small hard grains, was invented.

The grains no longer stuck to the walls, but rolled down to the breech of the barrel under their own weight. In addition, graining made it possible to increase the power of gunpowder almost twice, and the duration of gunpowder storage by 20 times. Gunpowder in the form of pulp easily absorbed atmospheric moisture and deteriorated irreversibly within 3 years.

However, due to the high cost of “pearl” gunpowder, the pulp often continued to be used for loading guns until the mid-17th century. The Cossacks used homemade gunpowder in the 18th century.

Musket

Contrary to popular belief, knights did not consider firearms “non-knightly” at all.

It is a fairly common misconception that the advent of firearms marked the end of the romantic “age of chivalry.” In fact, arming 5–10% of soldiers with arquebuses did not lead to a noticeable change in the tactics of European armies. At the beginning of the 16th century, bows, crossbows, darts and slings were still widely used. Heavy knightly armor continued to be improved, and the main means of counteracting cavalry remained the pike. The Middle Ages continued as if nothing had happened.

The romantic era of the Middle Ages ended only in 1525, when at the Battle of Pavia the Spaniards first used matchlock guns of a new type - muskets.

Battle of Pavia: museum panorama

How was a musket different from an arquebus? Size! Weighing 7–9 kilograms, the musket had a caliber of 22–23 millimeters and a barrel about one and a half meters long. Only in Spain - the most technically developed country in Europe at that time - could a durable and relatively light barrel of such length and caliber be made.

Naturally, such a bulky and massive gun could only be fired from a support, and two people had to operate it. But a bullet weighing 50–60 grams flew out of the musket at a speed of over 500 meters per second. She not only killed the armored horse, but also stopped it. The musket hit with such force that the shooter had to wear a cuirass or a leather pad on his shoulder to prevent the recoil from splitting his collarbone.

Musket: Assassin of the Middle Ages. 16th century

The long barrel provided the musket with relatively good accuracy for a smooth gun. The musketeer hit a person not from 20–25, but from 30–35 meters. But of much greater importance was the increase in the effective salvo firing range to 200–240 meters. At this entire distance, the bullets retained the ability to hit knightly horses and pierce the iron armor of pikemen.

The musket combined the capabilities of the arquebus and pike, and became the first weapon in history that gave the shooter the opportunity to repel the onslaught of cavalry in open terrain. Musketeers did not have to run away from cavalry during a battle, therefore, unlike arquebusiers, they made extensive use of armor.

Due to the large weight of their weapons, musketeers, like crossbowmen, preferred to travel on horseback.

Throughout the 16th century, there remained few musketeers in European armies. Musketeer companies (detachments of 100–200 people) were considered the elite of the infantry and were formed from nobles. This was partly due to the high cost of weapons (as a rule, a musketeer’s equipment also included a riding horse). But even more important were the high requirements for durability. When the cavalry rushed to attack, the musketeers had to repel it or die.

Pishchal

Sagittarius

In terms of its purpose, the Russian archery arquebus corresponded to the Spanish musket. But the technical backwardness of Rus' that emerged in the 15th century could not but affect the combat properties of guns. Even pure - “white” - iron for making barrels at the beginning of the 16th century still had to be imported “from the Germans”!

As a result, with the same weight as the musket, the arquebus was much shorter and had 2–3 times less power. Which, however, had no practical significance, given that eastern horses were much smaller than European ones. The accuracy of the weapon was also satisfactory: from 50 meters the archer did not miss a two-meter high fence.

In addition to streltsy arquebuses, light “mounted” guns (having a strap for carrying behind the back) were also produced in Muscovy, which were used by mounted (“stirrup”) archers and Cossacks. In terms of their characteristics, “curtain arquebuses” corresponded to European arquebuses.

Pistol

Smoldering wicks, of course, caused a lot of inconvenience for the shooters. However, the simplicity and reliability of the matchlock forced the infantry to put up with its shortcomings until the end of the 17th century. Another thing is the cavalry. The rider needed a weapon that was comfortable, always ready to fire and suitable for holding with one hand.

Wheel lock in Da Vinci's drawings

The first attempts to create a castle in which fire would be produced using iron flint and “flint” (that is, a piece of sulfur pyrite or pyrite) were made back in the 15th century. Since the second half of the 15th century, “grating locks” have been known, which were ordinary household flints installed above a shelf. With one hand the shooter aimed the weapon, and with the other he struck the flint with a file. Due to the obvious impracticality, grater locks did not become widespread.

The wheel castle, which appeared at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, became much more popular in Europe, the diagram of which was preserved in the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. The ribbed flint was given the shape of a gear. The spring of the mechanism was cocked with the key supplied to the lock. When the trigger was pressed, the wheel began to rotate, striking sparks from the flint.

German wheel pistol, 16th century

The wheel lock was very reminiscent of a watch and was not inferior to a watch in complexity. The capricious mechanism was very sensitive to clogging with gunpowder fumes and flint fragments. After 20-30 shots it stopped firing. The shooter could not disassemble it and clean it on his own.

Since the advantages of the wheel lock were of the greatest value to the cavalry, the weapon equipped with it was made convenient for the rider - one-handed. Starting from the 30s of the 16th century in Europe, knightly spears were replaced by shortened wheeled arquebuses without a butt. Since the production of such weapons began in the Italian city of Pistol, one-handed arquebuses began to be called pistols. However, by the end of the century, pistols were also produced at the Moscow Armory.

European military pistols of the 16th and 17th centuries were very bulky designs. The barrel had a caliber of 14–16 millimeters and a length of at least 30 centimeters. The total length of the pistol exceeded half a meter, and the weight could reach 2 kilograms. However, the pistols struck very inaccurately and weakly. The range of an aimed shot did not exceed several meters, and even bullets fired at point-blank range bounced off cuirasses and helmets.

In the 16th century, pistols were often combined with bladed weapons, such as a club head (“apple”) or even an ax blade.

In addition to their large dimensions, pistols of the early period were characterized by rich decoration and intricate design. Pistols of the 16th and early 17th centuries were often made with multiple barrels. Including one with a rotating block of 3-4 barrels, like a revolver! All this was very interesting, very progressive... And in practice, of course, it did not work.

The wheel lock itself cost so much money that decorating the pistol with gold and pearls no longer significantly affected its price. In the 16th century, wheeled weapons were affordable only by very rich people and had more prestige than combat value.

Asian pistols were distinguished by their special grace and were highly valued in Europe

* * *

The appearance of firearms was a turning point in the history of military art. For the first time, a person began to use not muscular strength, but the energy of burning gunpowder to inflict damage on an enemy. And this energy, by the standards of the Middle Ages, was stunning. Noisy and clumsy firecrackers, now unable to cause anything but laughter, several centuries ago inspired people with great respect.

Beginning in the 16th century, the development of firearms began to determine the tactics of sea and land battles. The balance between close and ranged combat began to shift in favor of the latter. The importance of protective equipment began to decline, and the role of field fortifications began to increase. These trends continue to this day. Weapons that use chemical energy to eject a projectile continue to improve. Apparently, it will maintain its position for a very long time.

Firearms- a weapon in which the pressure force of gases formed during the combustion of a propellant explosive (powder) or special flammable mixtures is used to eject a projectile (mine, bullet) from the barrel bore. It combines means of direct destruction (artillery shell, mine, bullet) and a means of throwing them towards the target (cannon, mortar, machine gun, etc.). It is divided into artillery and small arms and grenade launchers.

Firearms also include multiple launch rocket systems.

It is officially believed that firearms arose in Europe in the 14th century, when the development of technology made it possible to use the energy of gunpowder. This marked a new era in military affairs - the emergence of artillery, including a separate branch of artillery - hand artillery.

The first examples of hand-held firearms were relatively short iron or bronze pipes, tightly sealed at one end, which sometimes ended with a rod (entirely metal or turning into a shaft). Pipes without rods were attached to stocks, which were roughly processed wooden blocks.

Loading the weapon was carried out in the most primitive way - a charge of gunpowder was poured into the channel, and then an iron or lead bullet was inserted into it. The shooter held the weapon under his armpit or rested it on his shoulder (however, sometimes the ground also served as a rest). The charge was ignited by bringing the smoldering wick to a small hole in the wall of the barrel.

Already in the first quarter of the 15th century, the first improvements appeared in the design of hand-held firearms - the barrels became longer, the butts were curved, the priming holes were located not on the aiming line, but on the side (and near these holes there were shelves on which the priming was poured), but on the barrel itself sighting devices appeared. Such weapons in Western Europe were called culverins. The firing efficiency of such samples remained quite low, and the charging process took several minutes. The method of igniting the charge was a big inconvenience - the smoldering fuse distracted the shooter from aiming.
The design of small arms during the XIV-XV centuries. remained unchanged. Only minor improvements were made. In particular, from the second half of the 15th century, the wick began to be attached to the end of a curved lever, hinged on the weapon. When one end of the lever was pressed, the other (with a smoldering wick attached) touched the seed and ignited it. The lever was called “serpentine”. Sometimes all weapons were called serpentine. But in Europe the word arquebus was more often used, and in Rus' - arquebus.

The impetus for the further development of firearms was the appearance of spark locks at the beginning of the 16th century. Their widespread distribution became possible only thanks to general development technology in Europe. The most widespread will be the so-called Nuremberg wheel lock. To activate its pre-cocked mechanism, the trigger had to be pulled. At the same time, a special wheel was released and began to rotate quickly, the notched edge of which was touched simultaneously with the start of rotation by a trigger with clamped pyrite. Before pressing the trigger, the trigger was pressed by the force of a double spring against the lid of the shelf, which, when the wheel began to rotate, automatically moved away, allowing the pyrite to come into contact with the wheel, as a result of which sparks were immediately struck, igniting the powder seed. Before firing (of course, after introducing gunpowder and a bullet into the barrel), it was necessary to wind the wheel spring with a key, move the trigger away from the shelf in order to sprinkle powder seed on it, close the shelf, push the lid on it, and bring the trigger to it. Guns with wheel locks had many advantages over matchlocks. More convenient handling, reliability and the ability to shoot in any weather. The main disadvantage of wheel locks was their high cost, which made it possible to equip only elite units of the army with such guns.
Around the same time (beginning of the 16th century), the spark-percussion flintlock appeared in Europe. In it, the sparks that ignited the charge were struck from a piece of flint attached to the trigger hitting a steel plate. The advantage of the impact flintlock over the wheel lock was its ease of production and use. The design of the percussion flintlock allowed the shooters to reduce the interval between two shots to 1 minute. This is how flint weapons appeared, which were used for several centuries.

“Flintlock weapon - the term is more often used to designate a firearm with a flintlock, the charge in which was ignited by sparks generated by the flint when it struck a flint plate.

In the 16th-19th centuries, flint weapons were in service in all countries of the world (including Russia). In Russia, flintlock weapons were used from 17.5 to 21.5 mm caliber, weighing from 4.0 to 5.6 kg. Average range of a flintlock rifle: from 140 to 800 meters. There were two types of flintlock guns: smoothbore and rifled. The rate of fire for smooth-bore ones was 1 shot per minute, and for rifled ones - 1 shot per 5 minutes. In the mid-19th century, rifles replaced flintlocks."

A little history:

The secret (if, of course, we can talk about a secret here) lies in the special properties of saltpeter. Namely, the ability of this substance to release oxygen when heated. If saltpeter is mixed with any fuel and set on fire, a “chain reaction” will begin. The oxygen released by saltpeter will increase the intensity of combustion, and the hotter the flame flares up, the more oxygen will be released.
People learned to use saltpeter to increase the effectiveness of incendiary mixtures back in the 1st millennium BC. It was just not easy to find her. In countries with hot and very humid climates, white, snow-like crystals could sometimes be found on the site of old fire pits. But in Europe, saltpeter was found only in stinking sewer tunnels or in bat-inhabited caves.

Before gunpowder was used for explosions and throwing cannonballs and bullets, saltpeter-based compounds had long been used to make incendiary shells and flamethrowers. For example, the legendary “Greek fire” was a mixture of saltpeter with oil, sulfur and rosin. Sulfur, which ignites at low temperatures, was added to facilitate ignition of the composition. Rosin was required to thicken the “cocktail” so that the charge would not flow out of the flamethrower pipe.

The Byzantines were not the inventors of “Greek fire”, but borrowed it from the Arabs back in the 7th century. The saltpeter and oil necessary for its production were also purchased in Asia. If we take into account that the Arabs themselves called saltpeter “Chinese salt”, and rockets - “Chinese arrows”, it will not be difficult to guess where this technology came from.

In 1320, the German monk Berthold Schwartz finally “invented gunpowder.” Now it is impossible to establish how many people in different countries invented gunpowder before Schwartz, but we can say with confidence that after him no one succeeded!

Berthold Schwartz, of course, did not invent anything. The “classic” composition of gunpowder became known to Europeans even before its birth. But in his treatise “On the Benefits of Gunpowder,” he gave clear practical recommendations for the manufacture and use of gunpowder and cannons. It was thanks to his work that during the second half of the 14th century the art of fire shooting began to rapidly spread in Europe.

The first gunpowder factory was built in 1340 in Strasbourg. Soon after this, the production of saltpeter and gunpowder began in Russia. The exact date of this event is not known, but already in 1400 Moscow burned for the first time as a result of an explosion in a gunpowder workshop.

The simplest hand-held firearm - the hand grip - appeared in China already in the middle of the 12th century. The most ancient samopals of the Spanish Moors date back to the same period. And from the beginning of the 14th century, “fire-fighting pipes” began to be fired in Europe. Hand cranks appear in the chronicles under many names. The Chinese called such a weapon pao, the Moors called it modfa or carabine (hence the word “carbine”), and the Europeans called it hand bombard, handcanona, sclopetta, petrinal or culverina.

The handle weighed from 4 to 6 kilograms and was a blank of soft iron, copper or bronze drilled from the inside. The barrel length ranged from 25 to 40 centimeters, the caliber could be 30 millimeters or more. The projectile was usually a round lead bullet. In Europe, however, until the beginning of the 15th century, lead was rare, and self-propelled guns were often loaded with small stones.

As a rule, the petrinal was mounted on a shaft, the end of which was clamped under the armpit or inserted into the current of the cuirass. Less commonly, the butt could cover the shooter's shoulder from above. Such tricks had to be resorted to because it was impossible to rest the butt of the handbrake on the shoulder: after all, the shooter could support the weapon with only one hand, and with the other he brought the fire to the fuse. The charge was ignited with a “scorching candle” - a wooden stick soaked in saltpeter. The stick was pressed against the ignition hole and turned, rolling in the fingers. Sparks and pieces of smoldering wood fell inside the barrel and sooner or later ignited the gunpowder.

The extremely low accuracy of the weapon allowed effective shooting only from a point-blank range. And the shot itself occurred with a long and unpredictable delay. Only the destructive power of this weapon aroused respect. Although a bullet made of stone or soft lead at that time was still inferior to a crossbow bolt in penetrating power, a 30-mm ball fired at point-blank range left such a hole that it was worth looking at.

It was a hole, but it was still necessary to get in. And the depressingly low accuracy of the petrinal did not allow one to expect that the shot would have any consequences other than fire and noise. It may seem strange, but it was enough! Hand bombards were valued precisely for the roar, flash and cloud of sulfur-smelling smoke that accompanied the shot. Loading them with a bullet was not always considered advisable. The Petrinali-sklopetta was not even equipped with a butt and was intended exclusively for blank shooting.

The knight's horse was not afraid of fire. But if, instead of honestly stabbing him with pikes, he was blinded by a flash, deafened by a roar, and even insulted by the stench of burning sulfur, he still lost his courage and threw off the rider. Against horses not accustomed to shots and explosions, this method worked flawlessly. But the knights were not able to introduce their horses to gunpowder right away. In the 14th century, “smoke powder” was an expensive and rare commodity in Europe. And most importantly, at first he aroused fear not only among the horses, but also among the riders. The smell of “hellish brimstone” made superstitious people tremble. However, people in Europe quickly got used to the smell. But the loudness of the shot was listed among the advantages of firearms until the 17th century.

This is what the European petrinal looked like.

At the beginning of the 15th century, self-propelled guns were still too primitive to seriously compete with bows and crossbows. But fire tubes quickly improved. Already in the 30s of the 15th century, the pilot hole was moved to the side, and a shelf for seed powder began to be welded next to it. This gunpowder, upon contact with fire, flared up instantly, and after just a split second, the hot gases ignited the charge in the barrel. The gun began to fire quickly and reliably, and most importantly, it became possible to mechanize the process of lowering the wick. In the second half of the 15th century, fire tubes acquired a lock and butt borrowed from the crossbow.

At the same time, metalworking technologies were also improved. The trunks were now made only from the purest and softest iron. This made it possible to minimize the likelihood of explosion when fired. On the other hand, the development of deep drilling techniques made it possible to make gun barrels lighter and longer.

This is how the arquebus appeared - a weapon with a caliber of 13-18 millimeters, weighing 3-4 kilograms and a barrel length of 50-70 centimeters. An ordinary 16-mm arquebus ejected a 20-gram bullet with an initial speed of about 300 meters per second. Such bullets could no longer rip people’s heads off, but from 30 meters they would make holes in steel armor.

Firing accuracy increased, but was still insufficient. An arquebusier hit a person only from 20-25 meters, and at 120 meters, shooting even at such a target as a pikeman battle turned into a waste of ammunition. However, light guns retained approximately the same characteristics until the mid-19th century - only the lock changed. And in our time, shooting a bullet from a smoothbore rifle is effective no further than 50 meters.

In the second half of the 15th century, arquebusiers took a strong place in European armies and began to quickly push out competitors - archers and crossbowmen. But how could this happen? After all, the combat qualities of the guns still left much to be desired. Competitions between arquebusiers and crossbowmen led to a stunning result - formally, the guns turned out to be worse in all respects! The penetrating power of the bolt and the bullet was approximately equal, but the crossbowman shot 4-8 times more often and at the same time did not miss a tall target even from 150 meters! Low-power rifles of the 16th and 17th centuries rested the butt not on the shoulder, but on the cheek.

The problem with the crossbow was that its advantages were of little practical value. Bolts and arrows flew “in the eye” in competitions when the target was motionless and the distance to it was known in advance. In a real situation, the arquebusier, who did not have to take into account the wind, the movement of the target and the distance to it, had the best chance of hitting. In addition, bullets did not have the habit of getting stuck in shields and sliding off armor; they could not be dodged. The rate of fire was not of great practical importance: both the arquebusier and the crossbowman only had time to fire once at the attacking cavalry.

The spread of arquebuses was restrained only by their high cost at that time. Even in 1537, Hetman Tarnovsky complained that “there are few arquebuses in the Polish army, only vile hand cranks.” The Cossacks used bows and self-propelled guns until the mid-17th century.

It is a fairly common misconception that the advent of firearms marked the end of the romantic “age of chivalry.” In fact, arming 5-10% of soldiers with arquebuses did not lead to a noticeable change in the tactics of European armies. At the beginning of the 16th century, bows, crossbows, darts and slings were still widely used. Heavy knightly armor continued to be improved, and the main means of counteracting cavalry remained the pike. The Middle Ages continued as if nothing had happened.

The romantic era of the Middle Ages ended only in 1525, when at the Battle of Pavia the Spaniards first used matchlock guns of a new type - muskets.

How was a musket different from an arquebus? Size! Weighing 7-9 kilograms, the musket had a caliber of 22-23 millimeters and a barrel about one and a half meters long. Only in Spain - the most technically developed country in Europe at that time - could a durable and relatively light barrel of such length and caliber be made.

Naturally, such a bulky and massive gun could only be fired from a support, and two people had to operate it. But a bullet weighing 50-60 grams flew out of the musket at a speed of over 500 meters per second. She not only killed the armored horse, but also stopped it. The musket hit with such force that the shooter had to wear a cuirass or a leather pad on his shoulder to prevent the recoil from splitting his collarbone.

The long barrel provided the musket with relatively good accuracy for a smooth gun. The musketeer hit a person not from 20-25, but from 30-35 meters. But of much greater importance was the increase in the effective salvo firing range to 200-240 meters. At this entire distance, the bullets retained the ability to hit knightly horses and pierce the iron armor of pikemen. The musket combined the capabilities of the arquebus and pike, and became the first weapon in history that gave the shooter the opportunity to repel the onslaught of cavalry in open terrain. Musketeers did not have to run away from cavalry during a battle, therefore, unlike arquebusiers, they made extensive use of armor.

Throughout the 16th century, there remained few musketeers in European armies. Musketeer companies (detachments of 100-200 people) were considered the elite of the infantry and were formed from nobles. This was partly due to the high cost of weapons (as a rule, a musketeer’s equipment also included a riding horse). But even more important were the high requirements for durability. When the cavalry rushed to attack, the musketeers had to repel it or die.

Smoldering wicks, of course, caused a lot of inconvenience for the shooters. However, the simplicity and reliability of the matchlock forced the infantry to put up with its shortcomings until the end of the 17th century. Another thing is the cavalry. The rider needed a weapon that was comfortable, always ready to fire and suitable for holding with one hand.

The first attempts to create a castle in which fire would be produced using iron flint and “flint” (that is, a piece of sulfur pyrite or pyrite) were made back in the 15th century. Since the second half of the 15th century, “grating locks” have been known, which were ordinary household flints installed above a shelf. With one hand the shooter aimed the weapon, and with the other he struck the flint with a file. Due to the obvious impracticality, grater locks did not become widespread.

The wheel castle, which appeared at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, became much more popular in Europe, the diagram of which was preserved in the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. The ribbed flint was given the shape of a gear. The spring of the mechanism was cocked with the key supplied to the lock. When the trigger was pressed, the wheel began to rotate, striking sparks from the flint.

The wheel lock was very reminiscent of a watch and was not inferior to a watch in complexity. The capricious mechanism was very sensitive to clogging with gunpowder fumes and flint fragments. After 20-30 shots it refused. The shooter could not disassemble it and clean it on his own.

Since the advantages of the wheel lock were of the greatest value to the cavalry, the weapon equipped with it was made convenient for the rider - one-handed. Starting from the 30s of the 16th century in Europe, knightly spears were replaced by shortened wheeled arquebuses without a butt. Since the production of such weapons began in the Italian city of Pistol, one-handed arquebuses began to be called pistols. However, by the end of the century, pistols were also produced at the Moscow Armory.

European military pistols of the 16th and 17th centuries were very bulky designs. The barrel had a caliber of 14-16 millimeters and a length of at least 30 centimeters. The total length of the pistol exceeded half a meter, and the weight could reach 2 kilograms. However, the pistols struck very inaccurately and weakly. The range of an aimed shot did not exceed several meters, and even bullets fired at point-blank range bounced off cuirasses and helmets.

On February 25, 1836, Samuel Colt patented his revolver design. This pistol became one of the most famous repeating revolvers and revolutionized gun combat during the Civil War. Colt's design turned out to be just the beginning of firearm innovation.

Here is the story of how such weapons evolved from primitive tools to ultra-precise instruments that bring death.

Chinese squeaks

The simplest type of firearm appeared in twelfth-century China and was a arquebus loaded with gunpowder and a pike that warriors carried with them.

Primitive gun

Gunpowder came to Europe along the Silk Road, and since then people began experimenting with simple guns. They were in use in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Matchlock shotgun

During the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe and Asia, firearms technology advanced greatly. Guns appeared in which gunpowder was ignited using a complex system called a matchlock.

Flintlock gun

The wick lock was soon replaced by a flintlock. Pistols and rifles, known to everyone today, appeared, which will soon become the most common weapons in the army.

Musket

The muzzle-loaded smoothbore weapon, called a musket, was the most common flintlock rifle, often carrying a bayonet.

Whitworth rifle

During the American Civil War, both sides widely used the first sniper rifle, the Whitworth rifle, which could hit very distant targets with its rifled barrel.

Breech-loading shotgun

Rear-loading weapons became very common in the 19th century. Almost all shotguns and rifles were like this.

Springfield rifle

The Springfield rifle was one of the first to be breech-loading. It was developed in the 1850s and became known for its accuracy because it used standardized cartridges.

Gatling gun

In 1861, Dr. Richard Gatling invented rapid-fire weapons. The machine gun fired bullets from several barrels rotating under the force of gravity.

Revolver-pepper shaker

The problem of loading a weapon with more than one bullet at a time was practically solved by a multi-barreled pepper pistol with rotating barrels. The shooter had to twist the barrels manually after each shot.

Colt revolver

In 1836, Samuel Colt invented the revolver, which soon became the first mass-produced revolver and was widely used during the Civil War.

Lever-action rifles and hard drives

Reloading a rifle of this type is done manually by moving the trigger guard in a semicircle around the trigger. The most popular model that brought popularity to this weapon is the Winchester, model 1873.

Bolt action rifles

The bolt action soon became the most commonly used method of reloading rifles. The rate of fire of such weapons had a great effect in the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Machine guns

The size and weight of the earliest machine guns, Gatling guns, greatly limited their use in warfare. Smaller and more convenient machine guns were invented on the eve of the First World War and brought considerable destruction.

Cartridge strips

The cartridge belt very quickly became popular because it made it possible to simply store a large number of cartridges and quickly load them into weapons (mainly into machine guns).

The shops

A magazine is a device for storing ammunition in close proximity to or directly on the repeating weapon itself. Magazines received enormous development during the First World War as a means of quickly reloading mainly weapons such as pistols.

Browning HP and semi-automatic shotguns

The nine-millimeter Browning HP pistol, developed by American firearms inventor John Browning in 1929, became one of the most famous models semi-automatic pistols due to its widespread use during World War II. Semi-automatic shotguns are also known as semi-automatic shotguns. These weapons reload cartridges automatically after each shot, but semi-automatic weapons do not require continuous fire, unlike automatic weapons.

Sniper rifle Garand M1

The M1 Garand rifle was invented by John Garand, and General George Patton called it "the greatest weapon of the day." This semi-automatic rifle replaced the Springfield rifle in the US Army in 1939 and performed quite well during World War II.

Thompson submachine gun

The Thompson or Tommy gun gained a bad reputation during the American Prohibition era due to the fact that it was these weapons that were used by gangsters. However, Tommy guns also saw action in World War II.

Browning M2

The 50-caliber Browning M2 was a heavy machine gun developed at the end of World War I by John Browning and used extensively in World War II. Known for its reliability and firepower, this machine gun is still used by the American and NATO armies to this day.

AK-47

The AK-47 was not the very first assault rifle, but nevertheless it is more famous than others. The assault rifle was invented by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1948. Due to the reliability of these weapons, the AK-47 and its various variants remain the most widely used assault rifles today.

M-16 rifle

The M-16 rifle and its various variants were developed in 1963 for jungle warfare during the Vietnam War. The M-16 soon became the standard combat rifle of American troops. Its variants remain in service to this day and have also spread to the armed forces of other countries.

Modern firearms

Modern firearms technology strives to reduce weight and ease of use in order to increase the mobility and capabilities of soldiers in combat.

3D weapon production

The personal firearms market is becoming increasingly technologically advanced. Today it is even possible to 3D print plastic weapons that fire live ammunition.