![]() ![]() When hot gases from black powder combustion expanded into the hollow-based Minié ball, they caused the soft bullet to flare out and grip the rifled barrel. His eponymous bullet was still made of lead, but it was conical, not round. Rifling worked better if the projectile fit snugly in the barrel, which meant lead balls needed a cover, or patch, to increase their diameter.Ī major breakthrough arrived in the 1850s, courtesy of a French army officer named Claude-Étienne Minié. These grooves dug into the projectile as it moved down the barrel, causing it to spin and giving it a truer flight. Then, in the 15th century, German gunmakers invented rifling – the process of cutting spiral grooves into the inside wall of the barrel. That bouncing didn't do much for accuracy. The balls were smaller than the diameter of the bore, so that, upon firing, they bounced along the barrel until they exited. These bullets, also known as musket balls or "rounds," would reign supreme until the 1800s and the development of an aerodynamic projectile.Įarly smoothbore muskets received lead balls through the muzzle. And because they were softer, lead balls posed little risk of damaging gun barrels. Soldiers and hunters could resupply their ammunition while they cooked dinner. Lead had a low melting point, so it could be cast in a ladle over a wood fire. Then, in the early 1600s, lead balls started flying over battlefields. Iron balls were popular for a while, but they were difficult to make, required extreme temperatures to melt and often ruptured the musket barrels trying to fire them. This led arms manufacturers to explore metal bullets, made by pouring molten metal into a mold and letting it harden. The earliest ammunition consisted of small round stones, but these had little effect on armor-covered warriors. However, the struggle of nations to exert superiority over their enemies by amassing more and better weapons has been an ongoing reality for eons. and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. Most people think of the arms race as a competition occurring between the U.S. ![]()
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