Throughout history, firearms have undergone a wide variety of modifications. Sometimes the result of engineering research was very unusual specimens. We have collected the 10 most unique models firearms of the past.
Shooting organ
The birth of artillery is associated with the appearance in the 14th century of weapons that allowed continuous fire. It was a multi-barreled weapon, called the “Organ” because of its similarity with the musical instrument of the same name - the barrels were arranged in a row, like organ pipes. Such installations had a much smaller caliber. They shot from all barrels simultaneously or in turn. The most big gun This class had an organ with 144 barrels. They were located on three sides of the horse-drawn carriage. Such weapons were used both against infantry and armored cavalry. The main disadvantages of weapons were their heavy weight and long charging time.
Periscope rifle
In 1915, British Army Corporal W.C. Beech invented a periscope rifle. It was assumed that a soldier firing such weapons from a bunker or trench would not be in danger. All Beach did was attach a board with two mirrors to the rifle, positioning them like a periscope. After the appearance of the “made on the knee” rifle, many countries began to develop their own prototypes. One of the most advanced examples was the Guiberson rifle. The periscope sight was removable, and when there was no need to shoot from cover, it could be easily removed and folded into the butt. The main disadvantage of this weapon was its bulkiness. And besides, the development appeared at the very end of the First World War, so it remained unclaimed.
Pistol press
The press pistol could be concealed in the palm of your hand, was shaped differently from a traditional pistol, and still held more ammunition. Several models of pistol presses are known. For example, the Mitrailleuse pistol was shaped like a cigar, and to fire it you had to press the back cover. The Tribuzio pistol had a ring that had to be pulled out to fire the shot.
Disposable pistols
The Liberator pistol was designed for use by the Resistance during World War II. The design was simplified to the extreme to keep the pistols small and easy to conceal. If necessary, the pistol could be turned into a pile of useless pieces of iron in a matter of seconds. There was no groove in the barrel, and therefore sighting range was about 7.5 meters. In the USA, such pistols were sold for $1.72.
Another pistol of this class, the Deer Gun, was developed by the CIA in 1963. The pistol was made of aluminum casting, and only the barrel was steel. To load this weapon, you had to unscrew the barrel and load ammunition inside. This pistol costs $3.50.
Pistol-knife
Victorian era became the era of flourishing of various inventions. The British company Unwin & Rodgers, which produced pocket knives, proposed an unusual device for protecting a home from burglars - a knife with a built-in pistol. The trigger of the pistol was screwed into the door frame, and the shot was fired automatically when the door was opened. The knife pistols used 0.22 caliber bullets.
King Henry VIII's shooting cane
King Henry VIII was famous for his many failed marriages and a weakness for exotic weapons. In his collection there was a cane with a morning star on the handle, in which three pistols with a wick fuse were hidden. Today the shooting cane Henry VIII can be seen in the museum in the Tower of London.
Gun on glove
During World War II, a naval construction battalion was tasked with building airfields on the islands Pacific Ocean. The work was carried out in the jungle, and enemies could be hiding there. It was then that US Navy Captain Stanley Haight invented the Hand Firing Mechanism MK 2 pistol, which was attached to a glove and loaded with just one .38-caliber bullet.
Overhead firearms
Before the invention of weapons with clips, inventors worked for a long time to ensure that the weapon could fire several times in a row. One of the most dangerous decisions was overhead loading of rifles. Such weapons did not become widespread, since an accidental mistake or a dirty barrel led to the weapon exploding in the hands.
Dirk pistol
The Elgin was the first percussion pistol and the first pistol/dirk hybrid to enter service. American army. It was essentially a single shot Bowie knife. 150 units of such weapons were issued by the US Navy for participants in the expedition to Antarctica. True, dirk pistols did not become popular among sailors because of their bulkiness.
Pistol-brass knuckles
Brass knuckle pistols emerged in the late 1800s as weapons that could be used for both long and close combat. Such weapons were produced as a means of self-defense for ordinary citizens, but they gained particular popularity among street bandits. The most famous models The brass knuckle pistols were the French Apache and Le Centenaire, as well as the American “My Friend”.
At the end of the last century, weapons began to appear that could stop a person, saving his life. In one of the previous reviews, we talked about it, which can be used both in the fight against terrorists and as a means of self-defense.
Humans have been trying to kill each other since the beginning of time, and have developed many clever and downright stupid ways to achieve this goal. We present to your attention a list of the most ridiculous and strange military weapons in the world.
Dogs are commonly used in war for mine detection, guarding, sabotage, searching for the wounded and a variety of other tasks. They also inspired the American military to build “Big Dog,” a robotic creature created by engineers at Boston Dynamics. According to the creators' idea, this massive robot was supposed to save the strongest army from the need to carry equipment (up to 110 kg) manually in areas where conventional transport cannot be used.
However, in 2015, the military canceled the robot dog project, explaining that its size and the noise created when walking would give away the soldiers’ positions.
Thor must be sad - the military stole his thunder and lightning. Engineers at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey have found a way to harness lightning energy and have designed a weapon that shoots lightning along laser beams. This weapon is called "laser-induced plasma channel". However, the military preferred a more concise and succinct definition - “laser plasma gun.”
The laser beam, with high intensity and energy, strips electrons from air molecules and focuses the lightning, which travels along a straight and narrow path. This way it can be precisely aimed at the target. So far, such a plasma channel remains stable only a short time and there is a danger that the energy may infect those who use it.
A research project called Project Pigeon involved the creation of a pigeon bomb. American behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner trained birds to peck at a target on a screen in front of them. Thus, they directed the rocket to the desired object.
The program was revised in 1944 and then revived in 1948 as Project Orcon, but in the end, the new electronic guidance systems proved more valuable than live birds. So now only an exhibition at the American History Museum in Washington reminds us of this strange and unusual weapon.
During World War II, the Corps Marine Corps USA had an ambitious idea: to use bats like kamikaze bombers. How to do it? It's very simple: attach explosives to bats and train them to use echolocation to find a target. The military used thousands of bats in experiments, but eventually abandoned the idea because atomic bomb seemed a much more promising project.
It would seem, how can such lovely marine mammals get into the top 10 most unusual weapons? However, humans have adapted intelligent and trainable dolphins for a variety of military tasks, such as searching for underwater mines, enemy submariners and sunken objects. This was done both in the USSR, at the research center in Sevastopol, and in the USA, in San Diego.
Trained dolphins and sea lions were used by the Americans during the Gulf War, and in Russia the combat dolphin training program was discontinued in the 90s. However, in 2014, the Russian Navy took on Crimean dolphins, a former Ukrainian “heritage”, as their allowance. And in 2016, an order appeared on the government procurement website for the purchase of 5 dolphins for the Russian Ministry of Defense. So, perhaps, while you are reading this article, fighting dolphins are plying the Black Sea.
In the midst cold war The British developed a 7-ton nuclear weapon called the Blue Peacock. It was a huge steel cylinder with a plutonium core and a chemical detonating explosive inside. The bomb also contained very advanced electronic components for that time.
A dozen of these massive underground nuclear charges planned to be placed in Germany and detonated if the USSR decided to invade from the east. One problem: the ground freezes in winter, so the electronic equipment needed to run the Blue Peacock can malfunction. To overcome this difficulty, various ideas have been put forward, including the most absurd ones: from wrapping the bomb in fiberglass “blankets” to placing live chickens in the bomb with a supply of food and water necessary to survive for a week. The heat generated by the chicks will prevent the electronics from freezing. Fortunately, the British decided to reconsider their plan due to the risk of radioactive fallout, and thereby saved many chickens from an unenviable fate.
Weapons do not always injure the body; sometimes it can affect the mind. In 1950, the US Central Intelligence Agency investigated combat use psychoactive substances such as LSD. One of the types of "non-lethal" weapons developed by the CIA was cluster bomb, filled with the hallucinogen Bi-Z (quinuclidyl-3-benzilate). People participating in experiments with this substance reported that they dreamed strange dreams, as well as prolonged visual and emotional hallucinations, unexplained anxiety and headaches. However, the impact of Bi-Z on the psyche was not predictable and reliable, and the program for its use was discontinued.
During World War II, the British did not have enough steel to build ships. And the enterprising Britons conceived the idea of creating an icy killing machine: a massive aircraft carrier that would essentially be a fortified iceberg. Initially, it was planned to “cut off” the tip of the iceberg, attach engines and communication systems to it, and send it to the scene of military operations with several aircraft on board.
Then the project, called Habakkuk, transformed into something more. It was decided to take a small amount of wood pulp, mix it with water ice to create a structure that would melt in months rather than days, have a durability similar to concrete, and was not too brittle. This material was created by the English engineer Geoffrey Pike and was called pikerite. It was proposed to create an aircraft carrier with a length of 610 m, a width of 92 m and a displacement of 1.8 million tons from paykerite. It could accommodate up to 200 aircraft.
The British and the Canadians who joined the project created a prototype of the ship from pykerite, and its tests were successful. However, then the military calculated the financial and labor costs of creating a full-fledged aircraft carrier, and the Habakkuk was finished. Otherwise, almost all Canadian forests would have been used up for sawdust for giant ships.
In 2005, the Pentagon confirmed that the US military had once been interested in creating chemical weapons, which could make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible... to each other. In 1994, a US Air Force laboratory received $7.5 million to develop a weapon that contained a hormone naturally present in the body (in small quantities). If enemy soldiers inhaled it, they would feel an irresistible attraction to men. In general, the slogan “make love, not war” could have been realized on the battlefield if the tests had not shown that not all soldiers lose their heads from desire. And gay activists were outraged by the idea that homosexuals have less fighting ability than heterosexuals.
In first place in the ranking of the most amazing weapons There is a remedy that does not kill, but can hurt you, very painfully. The US military has developed a non-lethal weapon called the Active Drop System. These are powerful heat rays that heat tissues human body, creating a painful burn. The purpose of creating such a heat gun is to keep suspicious people away from military bases or other important objects, as well as to disperse large gatherings of people. So far, the installation for “pain rays” is mounted only on vehicles, but the military said they hope to make their “brainchild” smaller.
Humanity constantly came up with more and more new weapons to fight... to fight each other. Known to us modern aircraft, ships, tanks, hot weapons, spy equipment - these are just modifications of the developments of military engineers of bygone times.
TV show “The Most strange weapon" from the BBC answers our questions about where all the weapons we know today came from, and also shows us the most incredible developments of design engineers that were to shock the whole world.
Who in the West thought of creating a controlled kamikaze pigeon? Is the jetpack a movie invention? How the USSR intended to create an airplane flying centimeters from the water surface with a deadly nuclear weapons on board? The answers to all these questions can be obtained from the documentary television program “The Strangest Weapon.”
During the world wars, the West came up with incredible devices for spying and destroying enemies. Jetpack, inflatable rubber plane, pigeon with guided bomb and even a cat eavesdropping on the enemy. These are just some of the strange ideas that came to mind.
They didn't sleep in the East either. Huge Soviet "Ekranoplan"; airplane flying a few centimeters above the water cruise missiles to strike NATO ships, and other devices were supposed to give world imperialism a hard time. The series features secret footage of some of the most extraordinary military designs ever built.
With the invention of gunpowder fighting became much larger and bloodier. Now powerful armor was no longer a guarantee of a knight’s safety, so the entire concept of protection and weapons changed radically. But firearms also improved, and sometimes in extremely interesting and in an unusual way. Exactly this unusual firearms and this is what today’s selection is about.
Fire cutlery
Yes. Exactly. Spoons, forks and knives into which single-shot 6mm flintlock pistols are built. It was created in the eighteenth century in Germany. Apparently, the local Landsknechts could not bear to feel unprotected during meals. And so eat the fish and shoot the enemy. But history is silent about the number of accidental victims during meals.
Shield with built-in pistol
This unusual firearm dates back to the 1540s. Made in Italy, used in England. Dozens of such shields were mentioned in the Tower's warehouse records. The pistol was a matchlock, single-shot and loaded from the breech. The shooter could fire one, or maximum two, shots before the shield had to be used for its intended purpose.
Knife pistol
It’s not even clear what the primary idea is - to attach a cutting edge to the barrel of a pistol or to drill a channel for firing in the handle of a knife. The fact remains that the result was a multifunctional weapon that could be used both in close combat and in long-range combat. And it doesn’t matter that this is a maximum of a couple of shots - the enemy certainly does not expect that they will start shooting at him FROM A KNIFE
Giant guns
This was widely used in England during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was almost impossible to shoot such a “thing” alone, and it was also impossible to hold it in your hands. I’m generally silent about returns. And this was necessary in order to kill two birds with one stone, or rather a small flock of ducks, since the gun was loaded with a huge charge of shot. In my opinion, this is cheating. And it’s very good that the popularity of such guns has already ended.
Pistol-brass knuckles
At the end of the 18th century, the city streets were very restless. That's why this was created, combining the functions of a brass knuckles, a repeating pistol and a dagger. For a street fight, this is an ideal solution, since you can do anything with it. And yes, this thing was used not only by bandits, but also by ordinary citizens for self-defense. Eh, it was a good time - the laws on self-defense were MUCH simpler...
Shooting Ax
Shooting axes... Damn it, just regular shooting axes. You can chop down enemies, you can chop wood, you can hunt both wild animals and those enemies that you did not manage to kill... It was widely used in Germany at the end of the fifteenth century. Seriously, there were different variations of this unusual firearms, starting from something like berdyshes, ending with small assault hatchets. This is not a bayonet for you. This is for really tough men.
Disposable pistol
An absolutely brilliant idea. Simplify the design to the limit, use cheap aluminum instead of steel, make the barrel smooth, load it in advance and transfer it to the needs of the resistance to the Nazi invaders during the Second World War. The cost of this pistol was less than two bucks, the range aimed shooting- less than 10 meters, but it was quite possible to kill someone. The weapon is small, compact, invisible and very light - what else does a partisan need?
Curved weapon
Yes. For these guns, “barrel bending” is a completely official diagnosis. And no, this does not prevent them from shooting normally. Great way fire from a trench or around a corner without endangering the shooter. But bent barrels are not very convenient to use, they are very demanding in terms of quality of manufacture and operation, therefore Soviet designers, unlike the Nazi ones, they solved the problem by creating a periscope gun with a mirror system. It doesn't look so unusual, but it works much more efficiently.
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