- 15-mm aircraft cannon
15-mm aircraft cannon - 2 cm Flakvierling 38
2 cm Flakvierling 38 ready for transport on special trailer - 20-mm aircraft cannon
20-mm aircraft cannon - 33
- 4.7 inch. Breech closing and firing gear
4.7 inch. Breech closing and firing gear - 40
- 45 mm light mortar
- 48
- 5 Inch R.F. gun (showing breech mechanism)
5 Inch R.F. gun (showing breech mechanism) - 5 inch Rapid-fire gun (Pedestal Mount.)
5 inch Rapid-fire gun (Pedestal Mount.) - 5-cm Pak 38
- 50
- 65-17 Infantry gun
- 75-mm recoilless gun
75-mm recoilless gun - 8-mm medium machine gun
- A Cross bow man and Slinger
- A 'Vase' or 'Pot-de-fer'
The "garot", or heavy dart, to be fired from this early gun was provided with a wooden plug made to fit the bore. The type of "garot" shown on the right was intended to be fired from a large cross-bow on a stand. - A Krupp motor gun-carrying lorry
- A Light Egyptian Chariot
The light chariots of the Egyptians enabled them to secure the fullest advantage from the speed and breeding of their horses, which at the time were considered to be the finest in the world. The Egyptian chariots were sometimes square, but more often they were semi-circular or horse-shoe shape, with the curved front towards the horses. - A Matchlock and a Firelock, or Fusil (17th Century)
The constantly smouldering match of the former rendered it a very dangerous weapon in the neighbourhood of cannon; the "snaphaunce", or "fusil", was fitted with a "fire-lock", in which a spark was struck from a flint. - A seventeenth century musketeer
A seventeenth century musketeer ready to fire his matchlock. From Jacques de Gheyn, Maniement d’Armes, 1608. The military supplies which the Pilgrims brought with them may be divided into three major categories: defensive armor, edged weapons, and projectile weapons. A completely armed man, especially in the first years, was usually equipped with one or more articles from each of the three groups, usually a helmet and corselet, a sword, and a musket. - A Slinger
- A Sprinkle or Hand-Flail of bronze
From the Museum of Mitau in Courland - A store of crossbow bolts, shafts and heads
The crossbowman is aiming at a target to the left of the picture. From a catalogue of the Arsenal of the Emperor Maximilian I. (6. 1459, d. 1519). - A ‘Charron’ armoured car with machine gun
- A ‘Schneider’ armoured car with quick-firing gun
- Aeroplanes attacking an airship from above
Airships, like aeroplanes, are being armed with guns and bombs; and their power of raising weights enables them to carry heavy weapons. Large and highly destructive bombs have been tested in the German airships, being released over the sea and aimed at targets in the form of rafts. Latest-type airships also carry guns in their cars; and the Zeppelins have a platform upon the tops of their hulls, reached by a ladder through the middle of the ship, from which a machine-gun can be fired upward. This is a very necessary precaution, and is intended to frustrate the attack of an aeroplane. It would be the aim of the latter, whenever possible, to manœuvre above its big enemy—as suggested in figure —and drop a bomb upon its hull. Hence the construction of the top platform of the airship, from which her gunners can direct a vigorous fire aloft. - Allonge
- An aeroplpane in war
An aeroplpane in war - An Italian design for a motor battery of quick-firing guns
- Ancient Screw Breech loader
- Anelaces
Anelace (Also in French, alenas, alinlaz, analasse, anlace.) A broad knife or dagger worn at the girdle. It was a well known weapon in he thirteenth century. - Arbalesters
The illustration, from a fourteenth-century manuscript, represents a siege. A walled town is on the right, and in front of the wall, acting on the part of the town, are the cross-bowmen in the cut, protected by great shields which are kept upright by a rest. The men seem to be preparing to fire, and the uniformity of their attitude, compared with the studied variety of attitude of groups of bowmen in other illustrations, suggests that they are preparing to fire a volley. - Arbalestina
The narrow cruciform loophole, called by architects ' Arbalestina,' which is usually to be seen in the masonry of a mediaeval fortress, was designed for the special use of crossbowmen in repelling an assault. To enable the crossbow, or longbow, to be aimed to the right or left through a loophole, the aperture was greatly widened out on the inside face of the perforated wall. - Archer and Crossbowman of about 1370
The kneeling figure is fitting his belt-claw to the string of his crossbow, preparatory to bending its bow. From Manuscript No. 2813 in the National Library, Paris, reproduced by J. Quicherat in his ' History of Costume in France,' 1875. - Asiatic Bow
- Ballista - Caesar covered his landing in Britain with fire from catapults and ballistas.
The ballista had horizontal arms like a bow. The arms were set in rope; a cord, fastened to the arms like a bowstring, fired arrows, darts, and stones. Like a modern field gun, the ballista shot low and directly toward the enemy. - Battering-ram
In the cut we give a representation of the battering-ram It contains curious contrivances for throwing up scaling-ladders and affixing them to the battlements, from which the inventors of our fire-escapes may have borrowed suggestions; and others for bridging wide moats and rivers with light scaffolding, which could be handled and fixed as easily and quickly as the scaling-ladders. The drawing of the ram only indicates that the machine consists of a heavy square beam of timber, provided, probably, with a metal head, which is suspended by a rope from a tall frame, and worked by manual strength. The cut is especially interesting as an illustration of the style of armour of the latter part of the fifteenth century. It gives the back as well as the front of the figure, and also several varieties of helmet. - Battleplanes convoying photographing aeroplanes
Battleplanes convoying photographing aeroplanes - Bomb-releasing mechanism
A. Lower part of aeroplane’s hull B. Revolving barrel to which bombs are clipped C. Bombs D. Releasing mechanism operated by marksman in machine. Bombs may be carried and dropped when opportunity offers; and as an improvement upon the early method, which was simply to throw these from the machine, there are releasing mechanisms now devised which carry a number of projectiles and drop them one by one as a lever is moved. The bombs, which are long, pointed, and balanced so that they will fall head first, are clipped round a barrel rather like that of a revolver, which is fixed beneath the aeroplane’s hull just below the occupants’ seat. Mechanism causes the carrying chamber to revolve and bring each bomb against a releasing catch, which—at a movement of the marksman’s lever—throws it outwards and downward. - Bow strung
The Scythian bow strung - Bow unstrung
The Scythian bow unstrung. - Bowmen and Arbalesters
The man on the right of the cut wears a visored helmet, but it has no amail; his body is protected by a skirt of mail, which appears at the shoulders and hips, and at the openings of his blue surcoat; the legs are in brown hose, and the feet in brown shoes. The centre figure has a helmet and camail, sleeves of mail, and iron breastplate of overlapping plates; the upper plate and the skirt are of red spotted with gold; his hose and shoes are of dark grey. The third man has a helmet with camail, and the body protected by mail, which shows under the arm, but he has also shoulder-pieces and elbow-pieces of plate; his surcoat is yellow, and his hose red. The artist has here admirably illustrated the use of the crossbow. In one case we see the archer stringing it by help of a little winch; in the next he is taking a bolt out of the quiver at his side with which to load his weapon; in the third we have the attitude in which it was discharged. - Breech loading Gingal (Chamber in)
- Breech loading Gingal (Chamber out)
Breech loading Gingal (Chamber out) - breechloader
Under the Swedish warrior Gustavus Adolphus, artillery began to take its true position on the field of battle. Gustavus saw the need for mobility, so he divorced anything heavier than a 12-pounder from his field artillery. His famous "leatheren" gun was so light that it could be drawn and served by two men. This gun was a wrought-copper tube screwed into a chambered brass breech, bound with four iron hoops. The copper tube was covered with layers of mastic, wrapped firmly with cords, then coated with an equalizing layer of plaster. A cover of leather, boiled and varnished, completed the gun. Naturally, the piece could withstand only a small charge, but it was highly mobile. - Brewster's and Standish's Swords
Brewster's and Standish's Swords - Bullet Mold
Bullet Mold - Catapult
The catapult was the howitzer, or mortar, of its day and could throw a hundred-pound stone 600 yards in a high arc to strike the enemy behind his wall or batter down his defenses. "In the middle of the ropes a wooden arm rises like a chariot pole," wrote the historian Marcellinus. "At the top of the arm hangs a sling. When battle is commenced, a round stone is set in the sling. Four soldiers on each side of the engine wind the arm down until it is almost level with the ground. When the arm is set free, it springs up and hurls the stone forth from its sling." In early times the weapon was called a "scorpion," for like this dreaded insect it bore its "sting" erect. - Chinese Floating Mines used againsts HMS Encounter
A, Can buoy containing powder. B, Box containing lighted match and punk below. C, Lid or slide between match and punk. D, String for pulling out slide, to allow match to ignite punk. - Combat on Foot
The engravings of Hans Burgmaier, in the Triumphs of Maximilian and the Weise Könige contain numerous authorities very valuable for the clearness and artistic skill with which the armour is depicted. We have given an illustration which represents a combat of two knights, on foot. The armour is partly covered by a surcoat; in the left-hand figure it will be seen that it is fluted. The shields will be noticed as illustrating one of the shapes then in use. - Costume of the Franks in the Eighth Century
Costume of the Franks in the Eighth Century - Cross-bow
The cross-bowman is winding up his weapon with a winch, his shield is slung at his back. - Crossbowman approaching game
Crossbowman approaching game by means of a stalkig horse - Crossbowmen
The centre figure may be seen bending his crossbow with a windlass, with his foot in the stirrup of the weapon. From Manuscript, Froissart's ' Chronicles. - Crossbowmen
They represent French soldiers at the defence of Rouen, 1419, shooting from behind the shelter of shields propped up in front of them. - Crossbowmen
The centre figure is winding up his windlass crossbow behind the shelter of a shield. From Manuscript, Froissarts ' Chronicles.' The larger shields, which were carried before the knights (by their pages) when on the march, and which were propped up in front of them as a protection from arrows in a battle or a siege, were known as pavises or mantlets. - Crossbowmen
The soldiers carry windlass crossbows. One man is winding up his weapon ; the other is shooting, with his windlass laid on the ground at his feet. - Crossbowmen killing Deer and Wild Boars
From MS. Gaston Phosbus. Fourteenth century - Diagram Showing Adaptation to the 'Large-Wheeled Tractor' Idea
The genesis of the “large-wheeled tractor” was as follows: Trenches with a parados and parapet about 4 ft. high were being constructed by the enemy in Flanders. The engineers consulted by the Land Ship Committee gave it as their considered opinion that if these obstacles were to be crossed, a wheel of not less than 15 ft. diameter would be necessary. Machines with these gigantic wheels were actually ordered, but the wooden model that was knocked together as a preliminary at once convinced even its best friends that the design was fantastic, and that any machine of the kind would be little better than useless on account of its conspicuousness and vulnerability. However, the “big wheel” idea did not utterly die, for in the upturned snout of the Mark I. Tank we have, as it were, its “toe” preserved, the track turning sharply back at about axle level, instead of mounting uselessly skyward, as would have been the case had not the old wheel idea been supplanted by that of the sliding track.