SMALL ARMS. Included under this title are the various types of firearms that from their portable form may be classed as hand weapons, as distinguished from ordnance. In their earliest forms, small arms do not differ from cannon except in size. These weapons, dating from the 14th century, were suspended from the neck of the trooper. This cavalry weapon, known as the bombardello, was succeeded by the hand culverin, mounted on a wooden stock, and fired from a rest by a slowmatch. It took two men to fire it and, except tor the terror caused by its noise, was a far less effective weapon than the crossbow. The stock and barrel gradually took on a form not unlike the present one, and the slowmatch was fastened to a serpentine or cock on the piece. This was manipulated by a lever or spring, and transferred the fire from a match on the barrel to a flashpan containing powder and situated just under the touchhole. This piece, known as the matchlock, was partly superseded in 1515 by the wheellock, in which the trigger released a clockwork which rotated a grooved metal wheel against a piece of pyrites or flint, thus igniting the priming. The wheellock was too expensive for military purposes, and was con fined to fowling pieces, which it first made reasonably convenient.
The flintlock originated in Spain about 1600, though it did not come into general military use till nearly a century later. The priming was ignited by the contact between a flint held in a frame not unlike the serpentine of the match lock and the cover of the flashpan. The flint lock was the prevailing arm as late as 1840. It was almost invariably muzzleloading, as as sumed the forms of pistol, smooth bore musket and rifle. The rifle dates back almost to the beginning of the history of firearms, and is characterized by helical grooving on the inside of the barrel. This secures against the escape of gas past the bullet, and gives a predetermined axis of spin to the bullet, thus increasing the accuracy of fire.
In 1807 a Scotch clergyman by the name of Forsyth patented the use of fulminates for the ignition of the charge in firearms. This grad
ually came to be adopted in place of the flint lock. The mechanism was much like that of the flintlock : the flint was replaced by a metal hammer, and the flashpan and touchhole by a nipple containing a metal cap of fulminate. The reinvention of the breechloader (for the breechloader in a primitive form is as old as the gun itself) took place soon afterward. The first military rifle was the needlegun of the Prussians. invented by Dreyse in 1839 It was a crude bolt action weapon with very imperfect obturation, as a paper cartridge was used. The French soon followed suit, first with the Ta batiere and then with the Chassepot. In 1866 the British adopted the Snider rifle, remodeled from the old Enfield. The Martini falling block rifle was adopted in 1871. In 1872 the Mauser boltaction rifle was made the arm of the German army. This gun is the type of most modern military rifles.
During this period, the ammunition under went improvement along with the gun. The round bullet was replaced by one cylindroconical in shape, and the cartridge case of paper gave way to one, first of coiled brass, and then of drawn brass. This made escape of gas impos sible and solved the problems which had vexed the inventors of breechloading arms from the 15th century on. The magazine principal grad ually came into use — first in the form of a tube magazine now retained only by the French Lebel — then of a box under the action and finally of a box loaded with five or six cart ridges at once by a clip or charger. The calibre was then reduced to the neighborhood of .3 inches or less, and a muzzle velocity of over 1,800 feet per second was attained. This was made possible by the invention of the copper jacketed, non-stripping bullet by Major Rubin of the Swiss army. Soon afterward smokeless powder was introduced, and the military rifle had assumed practically all its present features. The Krag-Jorgensenand Springfield mentioned below are typical military arms.