Chamber gun

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Demonstration of a hook rifle , a wall rifle and a chamber gun, FLM Roscheider Hof 2011

A chamber gun (also called bird , chamber snake or chamber piece ) is a design of guns . They are characterized by the fact that the space intended for the powder charge, called the chamber, has a smaller cross-section than the rest of the soul . It therefore has a smaller chamber in relation to the caliber. There are two basic types.

Removable chamber

Breech loading gun with removable chamber in the rear, frame-shaped part (around 1410)
Dardanelles gun with screwable chamber (from 1464)

In order to increase the loading speed of late medieval guns, guns with a two-part barrel were developed. This is an early form of breech loader . The longer, front part of the barrel, called the flight, is used for the accuracy of the shot. In the chamber, d. H. the shorter, rear part is where the gunpowder and bullet are loaded. Before the launch, the chamber was wedged behind the barrel. But there were also those that were fastened with screw threads. With this technology it is possible to load several chambers of the same size at the same time, to switch quickly one after the other on the respective gun and thus to increase the firing frequency considerably. The chamber could also be loaded in a protected location and the powder supply could be stored at a safe distance from the gun.

A major disadvantage compared to the otherwise common muzzle-loaders, however, was that it was not possible with the forging technology of the time to completely seal the closure between the two pipe parts. So some of the gas escaped, the powder lost some of its power and in the worst case the improperly fastened chamber caused losses in your own ranks when fired.

Firmly connected chamber

Cross section of a mortar with a pronounced powder chamber

These chamber guns narrow conically or cylindrically to the powder chamber in the rear part of the barrel. This device makes it more difficult to bring in the charge than with muzzle-loading cannons with a steady barrel. As a result, this design was used for mortars and howitzers . Examples of this configuration are the giant Mons Meg , Faule Mette or Pumhart von Steyr guns .

literature

  • Lars-Holger Thümmler: Welcome to the pages on Austrian military history . 2005 ( [4] [accessed October 10, 2011]).
  • Georg Ortenburg: Weapons and the use of weapons in the age of the Landsknechte . 1984, p. 191 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexikon , 4th edition 1857–1865, [1]
  2. ^ Ernst Götzinger: Reallexicon of German antiquities, Leipzig, published by Woldemar Urban, 1885. [2]
  3. ↑ Reference library for officers, Volume 3, Waffenlehre, Verlag Herbig, 1828, page 54 [3]
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