Wire ball
Wire ball , Spanish : pelota de alambre , or pelota de alambre con pólvora , or pelota con alambre , English: wire-shot , was a type of ammunition for shooting with arquebuses . It was an invention of military technology in the 16th century . It was used to repel pikemen who attacked cavalry and infantry formations with their long pikes . The projectile consisted of two hemispheres made of lead, which separated after launch, while an iron wire was stretched between them. It was not shot at the soldiers, but at their four to six meter long pikes. A well-placed shot cleared an alley for the cavalry to attack the pikemen.
The historian Inca Garcilaso de la Vega from Peru described the production of this ammunition as follows at the beginning of the 17th century :
“The wire balls are made in the same shape as the ordinary balls. You take a quarter or a third of iron wire and make a curve at both ends, like a little hook. One end of the wire is inserted into one half of the mold and the other end of the wire into the other half. In order to separate the two half-forms from each other, a piece of copper or iron sheet as thin as paper is placed in the middle. Then the liquid lead is poured in, which encloses the hooks and the ball remains divided by the metal sheet into two parts connected by the wire. In order to load them into the arquebus, they are put together as if they were a whole ball. "
See also
- French Wikipedia article: Chevrotine (lead shot with wire, French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios Reales de los Incas , Part II (1617) ( digitized from Memoria Chilena ), Book 2, Chapter 37, page 76 (translation from the Spanish user: WeHaKa)