The musket was infantry’s firearm in the 17th and the first half of the 18th century. Since it was heavy (it weighed about

7.5 kg), it had to rest on a support called a furket and could not be fired from a horse. Consequently, short muskets for cavalry were made. Although designated for cavalry, the weapon soon started to be used by infantry. This is how a rifle came into being in the third quarter of the 18th century. Its development went in two directions. Smoothbore rifles were the most popular; they were used to fire quickly, without aiming, over a distance of about 50-60m. A tight unit of infantry would spread bullets all around, acting like a huge and wide sweep and killing whoever happened to be in its range. The other direction was a weapon with rifled barrels and spinning projectile, which was much more accurate. The weapon was intended for experienced riflemen and loading it took a long time (both the projectile and the propelling charge were muzzle-loaded). To solve the problem, breech loading rifles were introduced in the 18th century but there was a problem with sealing the lock, which could not be solved at that time. The calibre of rifles popular at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries was 13-25 mm. At first a wheeled mechanism was used; a wound up spring caused a corrugated wheel to rub against a piece of pyrite, giving a shower of sparks. It was replaced with a flintlock mechanism in which a short hammer, called the cock, is first pulled back and then released to hit flint and produce the spark. Finally, from 1820 the percussion mechanism was used in which a metal cap containing compounds of mercury was placed on a special tube; when the hammer struck the chemicals, black powder in the cartridge chamber was ignited. One of the first rifled and breech-loading weapons was made by Alfons de Chassepot in 1866. An experienced rifleman could fire about 6-10 times a minute. About 20 years later, a cartridge was introduced - an elongated lead bullet set in a brass case, ending with a primer, which solved the problem of sealing the lock at discharge. The first rifle of this type was made by a German constructor Mauser. The next step was introduction of smokeless powder, based on nitrocellulose compounds, as a propellant. It was followed by repeated rifles, where several bullets were loaded and reloading required 2 or 4 movements of the lock. These successive inventions changed 19th century battlefields and contributed to erasing Zamość Fortress from the map of European fortresses.