Present arms!

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.