Juan Perez
English 7-8
10 November 2013

A Quantum Leap in Weaponry
Philosopher Jean Baudrillard once said, “Deep down, the United States, with its space and technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society.” No matter how much we advance technologically we will always depend on our primitive instincts. Since the beginning of humanity people have been fighting with each other. As humans evolved so did the weapons that were used. Humans have gone from throwing stones at their enemies to sending missiles half way across the globe. As our technology advances, the innovations get applied to our weapons systems, which in turn make them more efficient and effective.
Since the beginning of time, man has had a necessity to accomplish things, some things were simpler than others. When things got difficult man figured out how to use whatever he could find to help accomplish his goals. These items were later known as tools. Primitive tools were made out of wood, bone, and stone (Smithsonian 15). These were the most common materials at the time. However when the time came to defend ourselves these tools became weapons. At first weapons were jagged pieces of materials, such as pieces of broken bone, broken wood and jagged rocks. These tools were held in the palm of the hand (Smithsonian 18). Eventually the tools were shaped and tied to make handling more efficient, as well as to eliminate injuries due to holding the jagged object (Smithsonian 25). It wasn’t until the invention of black powder that the weapons we know of today started to be developed.
In 1861 Richard Jordan Gatling revolutionized machine guns. He did this by inventing a gun that fired multiple bullets automatically. This gun was known as the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun was a hand-cranked machine gun that had multiple barrels to avoid overheating. When you cranked the gun it rotated the barrels and fired the bullet that was fed into the gun by a magazine. However there were a few disadvantages; the gun would only fire as fast as the handle was cranked which resulted in an average rate of fire of two hundred rounds per minute. Another disadvantage was fact that it was magazine loaded. The magazine held approximately fifty rounds of ammunition, which meant you had to reload more often. Later Hiram Maxim made a huge step toward what we know as the modern machine gun. Maxim was the first to employ the belt fed operating system which fed the bullet into the breach and fired, the bullet then reloaded automatically (Ermey: machine guns). It used recoil technology, which used the force of the fired bullet to eject the casing. The barrel was submerged in a tank of water to avoid overheating. However the Maxim gun was bulky, heavy, and required the tank to constantly be refilled. Up until this point, bullets were very consistent in their circumference and the shape of their point. However, in 1906 the 30-06 bullet was introduced to the U.S. Army. It had a more pointed tip and a “boat tail end”. The boat tailed end is a section of the rear of the bullet that is more slender than the rest. This modification allows for the bullet to be more aerodynamic and fly further (Ermey: machine gun).
Around the 1500’s people wanted to have gun that was lightweight and could fit in the palm of their hand. This was the birth of the pistol. At first pistols were similar to muskets in the sense that they fired a lead ball. The wheel lock pistol was the very first attempt at a pistol. It had a wheel that you had to wind up and when you pulled the trigger the hammer fell and ignited the black powder. There was a one-third of a second delay. However this method was inconvenient in a confrontation because it took too much time to wind up the wheel. So in order to solve this problem, the flint lock pistol was invented. When the trigger was pulled it released the hammer with a flint at the end. When the hammer fell the flint would strike a piece of metal the resulting sparks lit the gunpowder. It also pioneered the first safety mechanism. In order to put the gun on safe you half cock the gun. In 1830 Rev. Alexander Forsyth invented a cap that held a small explosive charge that lit the gun powder when it was struck. This also made the gun waterproof because the igniting charge was in a sealed environment. Now that the issue of waterproofing and finding the adequate firing mechanisms were resolved there was the issue of firing multiple shots. Up to this point pistols shot only one lead ball. The first attempt to make a gun that shot multiple bullets was the duck’s foot pistol. It was a gun that had three barrels pointed at slightly different angles which fired at the same time. However the tradeoff was that it reduced the range drastically and was highly inaccurate. Colt arms were the first to successfully produce a gun that fired multiple shots and maintained accuracy. The gun was known as a revolver which was a gun that had six chambers that rotated each time the trigger was pulled, but in order for that action to take place the cocking mechanism had to be pulled back after every shot. This technology also helped with having a high capacity. It was around this time that the modern bullet was invented. It combined the percussion cap, the black powder, and the projectile together in one unit. By 1870 there was a new innovation in revolver technology known as the double action revolver. This is when the revolver fires and cocks itself simultaneously. The next step was to make a gun that holds the bullets internally and ejects the casing simultaneously. This led to the manufacturing and development of the magazine and the gas operating system. The magazine is a slender container that slides into the handle and automatically feeds the bullet into the gun. The gas operating system transferred the gas expended from the fired casings to ejecting the casing (Ermey: pistols).
The need for more range was the spark that led to the rifle. The early rifles were known as muskets. These muskets fired lead balls and had no rifling therefore it was highly inaccurate after fifty yards. Rifling is the groves inside the barrel of any gun. The rifling causes the projectile to spin as it flies, making it more accurate. In 1725, Captain John G. W. Dillin added rifling into the barrel of the gun which made the rifle more accurate. However it was a bit slow to reload due to the fact that you had to half cock and pull a lever to put another round in the chamber. The invention of the percussion cap made reloading faster. The bolt action rifle was a rifle that had a bar that the user pulled back in order to put another round in the chamber. This slowed the firing process but kept a lot of power due to the fact that none of the gas that propelled the bullet was wasted. The M1 Garand was the first rifle that incorporated a gas operating system. Later, the M16 was the first rifle to fire fully automatically (Ermey: rifles).

Artillery is defined as a piece of equipment that launches a projectile. Artillery dates back to 400 BC when the catapult was the first form of artillery. The process by which the projectile is launched is: fuse, gun powder, and finally the projectile. The explosion of the gunpowder propelled the projectile. Gunpowder was invented by the Chinese and adopted by the Europeans in the thirteenth century. There are three types of artillery; the gun, which has a straight trajectory, the howitzer, which had a short barrel and could be aimed at different angles; and mortar, which just had a short barrel. In 1776, the three-pound gun was invented. It could be wheeled into battle quickly and could be reloaded in thirty seconds and could take out fifteen men in close proximity. These were essentially cannons. As time passed the cannons and the barrel got longer. They were made out of bronze, this strengthened the barrel. In 1881, the Mark 12 one-pounder was the first form of artillery with ordnance resembling a bullet, and it worked similar to a bullet. It was loaded in the rear. It also had a recoil mechanism that transferred the energy to the ground; therefore there was no need to reset the cannon. The Howitzer meanwhile, was a versatile form of artillery. It was disassemblable and could be delivered by parachute. In 2005, the M777 Howitzer was cannon that could fire from twenty-five miles. It was made out of lightweight titanium and used GPS to acquire targets. Now the cannons are completely mobile and can leave within sixty seconds of firing (Ermey: artillery).
Rockets have been around since the twelfth century since the Chinese invented black powder. A Chinese rocket was a bamboo stick loaded with black powder. It was highly inaccurate but it lowered enemy morale. It did this by being able to travel long distances and keeping the user hidden. Later, the Japanese made a cart that held over two hundred rockets and fired them simultaneously. Rockets remained this way for a long time, it wasn’t until William Congrey and William Hale that innovations in rocketry started to grow exponentially. The Congrey rocket was the first rocket to be made out of a full metal body and also incorporated an explosive warhead. The explosions of these rockets inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner. Even though the Congrey was a great leap from the Chinese rocket it was still highly inaccurate. This all changed in 1846 when William Hale invented the Hale rocket which had vents at the bottom which caused the rocket to spin due to escaping gasses and this made it more accurate. During World War II the Germans mastered rocket technology. They developed the b1 and b2 rockets. These were surface-to-surface rockets that were the size of fighter planes. However, these rockets were not practical for field use. America was the first to create a better rocket launcher; this rocket launcher was known as the bazooka. The bazooka was the first portable rocket. Due to its mobility it devastated the German army during World War I. Two open ends, one in the front to let out the rocket and one in the rear let out gasses, balanced the launcher and dealt with recoil. However it did have multiple drawbacks. Occasionally rockets would jam and explode the smoke trail it left would compromise your location. When firing rockets you had to load the rocket in the barrel of the launcher but in 1981 a launcher was invented where the rocket was pre-loaded. It was called the AT-4 rocket launcher. The AT-4 had beyond armor capabilities which mean the rocket has two charges; the first destroyed the armor of tanks and the second charge destroyed the interior of the tank. The AT-4 was the most accurate of its time and was three times more effective. The maximum thickness of armor plating that can be penetrated by the AT-4 is fourteen inches. As many soldiers discovered targets don’t usually stay stationary and are constantly on the move. There was demand for a rocket that could track its target; in 1972 the TOW missile was the first attempt of this goal. The missile was launched from a vehicle-mounted tube. When launched, the missile is guided by a wire that was shot at the target. It was first used in Vietnam to take down helicopters and armor. The only issue that was left was the safety of the soldiers firing the rockets. This was solved with the invention of “fire and forget” rockets, which once fired do not need more guidance. The reason this is possible is because the rocket locks onto the target’s coordinates and followed it. This allowed the soldiers to exit the area safely and be less vulnerable to an attack. No matter where the target went the missile followed the target. This advancement was extremely devastating when paired with the method of overhead attack. No matter where the target moved it would be tracked by the missile and hit the top of the target where the armor is generally be the weakest (Ermey: rockets).
Albert Einstein once said “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Our weapons are becoming so advanced and destructive that their use just might send us back to a more primitive age, Or possibly even cause the destruction of the world. We have come a long way with our weapons but we have to be careful not to send ourselves back to the Stone Age.

Lock n load with R.lee Ermy: pistols sami103435.may 11 2012.youtube.october 16 2013

Lock n load with R.lee Ermey: machine guns sami103435.may 11 2012.youtube.october 14 2013
Lock n load with R.lee Ermy-rockets sami103435.may 11 2012.youtube.october 23 2013
Lock n load with R.lee ermy- rifles sami103435.may 11 2012.youtube.october 15 2013
Lock n load with R.lee ermy- artillery sami103435.may 11 2012.youtube.october 17 2013
Smithsonian. The definitive visual guide to the objects of warfare.newyork: DK publishing 2012. Print