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Monday, December 05, 2022
Wirecutter had a real interesting gif about flintlocks,
and I'm passing it on
4 comments:
RHT447
said...
Saw that. A couple of notes--
--Looks like the frizzen has a pivoting cover with a small handle so you can charge the pan without tipping the frizzen forward.
--the dent made by the lead ball in the armor is the origin of the term "proof mark", proving to the customer that the armor would protect against gun fire.
I'm guessing an iron-tipped crossbow bolt would penetrate.
Note all the gas spurting from the muzzle _ahead_ of the ball. Smoothbore muzzleloaders left clearance between the ball and the bore so black powder residue wouldn't make it too difficult to reload after a few shots, but this meant a loss of gas and energy.
Early muzzleloading rifles partly solved this by wrapping a cloth patch around the ball to give a somewhat flexible seal and contact with the rifling, but it took several times as long to reload. By the Civil War era, rifled muskets used some variation of the Minie ball, which was undersized when loaded but had a hollow in the rear that expanded when fired to fit tightly against the bore.
RHT: A crossbow bolt with a strong enough spring acting as the bow could certainly penetrate deeper than a smoothbore ball, but it took minutes of turning a winch to cock such a powerful crossbow for the next shot. I expect it would have been close to impossible to wear armor in battle heavy enough to stop a Civil War rifled musket, and each soldier could fire several rounds a minute. The earlier patched-ball rifles would have had less power and a slower rate of fire, and some (the Kentucky rifle) had a much smaller caliber and lighter ball and powder load, for when a frontiersmen had to carry a year or more worth of ammo.
Finally, much of the best armor of the era of smoothbore muskets was never intended to be worn in battle. It was for jousting, a sport where heavily-protected rich men tried to knock each other off their horses. Unlike a battle, the men had assistance getting up on the horse, and the horse only had to carry the weight a few minutes, so jousting armor could be much heavier. It still wasn't enough for full protection - King Henry VIII of England was crippled by a fall (perhaps this was why even marrying several much younger women didn't give him a healthy male heir), and Henry II of France was killed by a splinter from a lance through his eye, leaving his kingdom to a boy who didn't survive long.
4 comments:
Saw that. A couple of notes--
--Looks like the frizzen has a pivoting cover with a small handle so you can charge the pan without tipping the frizzen forward.
--the dent made by the lead ball in the armor is the origin of the term "proof mark", proving to the customer that the armor would protect against gun fire.
I'm guessing an iron-tipped crossbow bolt would penetrate.
Yeah, this was pretty cool.
Note all the gas spurting from the muzzle _ahead_ of the ball. Smoothbore muzzleloaders left clearance between the ball and the bore so black powder residue wouldn't make it too difficult to reload after a few shots, but this meant a loss of gas and energy.
Early muzzleloading rifles partly solved this by wrapping a cloth patch around the ball to give a somewhat flexible seal and contact with the rifling, but it took several times as long to reload. By the Civil War era, rifled muskets used some variation of the Minie ball, which was undersized when loaded but had a hollow in the rear that expanded when fired to fit tightly against the bore.
RHT: A crossbow bolt with a strong enough spring acting as the bow could certainly penetrate deeper than a smoothbore ball, but it took minutes of turning a winch to cock such a powerful crossbow for the next shot. I expect it would have been close to impossible to wear armor in battle heavy enough to stop a Civil War rifled musket, and each soldier could fire several rounds a minute. The earlier patched-ball rifles would have had less power and a slower rate of fire, and some (the Kentucky rifle) had a much smaller caliber and lighter ball and powder load, for when a frontiersmen had to carry a year or more worth of ammo.
Finally, much of the best armor of the era of smoothbore muskets was never intended to be worn in battle. It was for jousting, a sport where heavily-protected rich men tried to knock each other off their horses. Unlike a battle, the men had assistance getting up on the horse, and the horse only had to carry the weight a few minutes, so jousting armor could be much heavier. It still wasn't enough for full protection - King Henry VIII of England was crippled by a fall (perhaps this was why even marrying several much younger women didn't give him a healthy male heir), and Henry II of France was killed by a splinter from a lance through his eye, leaving his kingdom to a boy who didn't survive long.
Really, shooting a flinter without eye protection!
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