While I was reading about the several uses of maces for yesterday's post, I ended up getting acquainted with siege equipment and weapons - something I had seen in movies, but never bothered to learn more about.
     For starters, everybody knw that the Middle Ages were quite, how shall I say it, let's go with bloody! Name your war of choice: from the Crusades in the Holy Land to the Battle of Hundred Years, nations-states squabbled a lot with each other. And, naturally, all these fights destroyed thousands of homes, castles and even entire villages.
     During this time, siege weapons were used to tear down structures, kill soldiers and intimidate enemies. But these weapons had been around for centuries, dating back to ancient Greece. Who knew!
     And we have plenty of weapons to choose from! For example: catapults could hurl javelins, darts, rocks and other missiles over 300 feet. The ballista worked like a giant crossbow, throwing projectiles from a torsion spring. The siege tower was a movable mini-fortress that was essential to protecting soldiers. Constructed with four walls, ladders and various windows all set on wheels, the tower could be moved right up to an enemy's castle. Battering rams were used to break down drawbridges or doors to allow soldiers to storm any fortified structure. In short, sieges were tough and rough. No wonder people got calmer as the ages passed... Or did they?

~Ally

     If there's one weapon I never cared much about - except when it was used against Éowyn in The Lord of The Rings by the Witch King of Angmar -, it's the mace. I don't know how it can be good in a fight, although it CAN break arms and shields, as the White Lady of Rohan kindly showed us.
     Nevertheless, some people swear maces can be very useful in a fight. I mean, with its lightweight wooden handle and heavy iron head, which makes it essentially a heavy club, the mace could easily be swung or thrown with great force but little effort, tearing through chain mail and flank armor. Sounds like an advantage to me!
     And, for my surprise, although they were used in Europe from the 13th-15th centuries, earlier versions of the mace date back to ancient Egypt! The flanged mace - that spiked metal ball on the end of a chain -, was used during battle and for torture or punishment. Iaiks.
     During the late Middle Ages, royalty and city officials often adopted the mace as a city or township's emblem because the weapon was symbolic of great power (!). Through the centuries into today, the mace has been transformed from a battle weapon to a jeweled ceremonial piece.

~Ally

     Every time I see a Medieval period movie, series or documentary, the mais weapon  shown is the sword. However, if you think about it, you notice that swords were very difficult to create and required a skilled specialist to forge and maintain.
     Although a blacksmith worked with soft iron, a swordsmith or bladesmith had to take numerous steps to heat iron into steel and forge the blade properly before polishing and cleaning. A separate skilled laborer -- called a hiltmaker -- would fashion the handle of the sword, so you get an idea of how complex it is. As you can see in the picture above, Medieval swords appeared in a variety of forms, but generally had a long, wide, straight, double-edged blade with a simple cross-guard (or "cruciform" hilt).
     Daggers and knives, however, were made of steel and widely carried as a secondary weapon to be used alongside the sword in close combat. But knights weren't the only ones who wielded these weapons. Given how easy it is to produce even a rudimentary blade, they were commonly used as a form of personal protection.

~Ally

      I was going to start this post with a silly joke about a famous Brazilian volleyball player, but nevermind. I forgot it on the way here.
    Anywhoooo, let's talk about volley guns. Although their name sounds strange, they're more common than you think, and you've probably seen one in movies or for real, if you have visited some war museums. A volley gun is described as a gun with several barrels for firing a number of shots, either simultaneously or in sequence. They differ from modern machine guns in that they lack automatic loading and automatic fire and are limited by the number of barrels bundled together.
     In practice the large ones were not particularly more useful than a cannon firing canister shot or grapeshot. Since they were mounted on a carriage, they could be as hard to aim and move around as a cannon, and the many barrels took as long or longer to reload. They also tended to be relatively expensive since they were more complex than a cannon, due to all the barrels and ignition fuses, and each barrel had to be individually maintained and cleaned.
     And they're older than you think! So you get an idea, they were used in the Hundred Years War by the army of Edward III of England, in 1339, but it was a medieval version of it, called the Ribauldequin. Who knew, right?!

~Ally

     Contrary to what I thought, pepper-boxes aren't boxes meant to store pepper. Nop. In this case, a pepperbox or pepperpot is a small revolver, in fact, a multiple-barrel repeating firearm that has three or more barrels grouped around a central axis. It mostly appears in the form of a multi-shot handheld firearm. Pepperboxes exist in all ammunition systems: matchlock, wheellock, flintlock, percussion, pinfire, rimfire and centerfire. And it resembles a pepper grinder, that'd where its name comes from.
     The pepperbox, at least the firearm that is mostly associated with this term, was invented in the 1830s and was meant mainly for civilian use. It spread rapidly in the United Kingdom, the USA and some parts of continental Europe. It was similar to the later revolver in that it contained bullets in separate chambers in a rotating cylinder. Unlike the revolver, however, each chamber had its own barrel, making a complex indexing system unnecessary (though pepperboxes with such a system do exist).
     This type of firearm was popular in North America from 1830 until the American Civil War, but the concept was introduced much earlier. In the 15th century, several single-shot barrels were attached to a stock, being fired individually by means of a match.
     Around 1790, pepperboxes were built on the basis of flintlock systems, notably by Nock in England and "Segallas" in Belgium. These weapons, building on the success of the earlier two-barrel turnover pistols, were fitted with three, four or seven barrels. These early pepperboxes were hand-rotated.
     The invention of the percussion cap by Joshua Shaw, building on Alexander Forsyth's innovations, and the industrial revolution allowed pepperbox revolvers to be mass-produced, making them more affordable than the early handmade guns previously only seen in the hands of the rich. Examples of these early weapons are the English Budding (probably the first English percussion pepperbox), the Swedish Engholm and the American threebarrel Manhattan pistol. Most percussion pepperboxes have a circular flange around the rear of the cylinder to prevent the capped nipples being accidentally fired if the gun were to be knocked whilst in a pocket, or dropped.
     The pepperbox experienced a kind of "revival" in the late 19th century as a short, easily concealable pocketweapon that used pinfire cartridges. A special variation of this kind of handgun, in which the shortness of the barrel cluster was fully utilized, is the French "Apache revolver." This weapon, allegedly popular among Paris street gangs, was fitted with a folding blade and knuckle-duster. The pepperboxes from this period disappeared with the demise of the pinfire cartridge.
     The pepperbox design was also used for a small number of weapon designs in the 20th century, such as the Mossberg produced the Mossberg Brownie (1920), a 4-barrel .22LR pocket-pistol marketed to trappers, and COP 357 Derringer (1970's), produced as a backup weapon for police officers.

~Ally

     Some friends invited me the other day to take a test to see how many days would I last in a zombie-filled world. The result was quite disappointing for me, since, according to them, I would only live for 65 days after the zombie apocalypse began. So I decided to search for new weapons to improve my knowledge on zombie killing, and stumbled upon a gunblade.
     Gunblades or pistol swords are exactly what you're thinking they are: a combination os a sword and a gun. And before you think "hey, a rifle with bayonete is the same thing", well, it isn't. It differs from a rifle with a bayonet because the gunblade is designed primarily for use as a sword, and the firearm component is typically considered a secondary weapon, an addition to the blade, rather than the sword being a secondary addition to the pistol. Oh, and it's important to say that the two components of these weapons typically cannot be separated, unlike most bayonet-fixed rifles, for example.
    When I first saw it, I thought it was from a steampunk movie or something, but turns out they're real! According to historians, some flintlock pistols of the 17th and 18th centuries were constructed as gun-swords, with the barrel of the pistol attached to the side of the blade of a shortsword or dagger. A shell guard protected the firing mechanism when it was used as a sword. These were commonly used by French and German hunters to kill wounded wild boar. It also appeared in other countries such as India, where they were called Katar, a thrusting dagger with two built-in pistols that could be fired by squeezing the bars of the handgrip together.
     Sadly, though, pistol swords were not widely used and became uncommon relatively quickly, due to their expense and because instead of getting two weapons in one, one got a heavy pistol and a heavy, off-balance sword. So much for my awesome zombie killing weapon.

~Ally

      Care for more weapons' documentaries? "Yes, please, do bring them on!"

~Ally

      My friend Leo was very kind to show me this documentary. He knows I'm crazy about Vikings, swords and documentaries, so this was a perfect combination! Learn about how this powerful ancient people developed their weapons, which helped them to conquer many territories. Enjoy!

~Ally

      Ancient folks were very creative when it came to killing people.
     The idea of throwing flames as a war weapon is suposed to be thought by the first time during the Byzantine Era. It employed a device that appeared to be a hand-held pump that was capable of shooting fire. The weapon had a piston and siphon-hose, and once ignited, it could shoot fire to the victims. With this powerful weapon, it was possible to kill a whole army and ignite anything that the fire lands on.

~Ally

      Whenever I think about warhammers, only one person comes in mind: Robert Baratheon from the " A Song of Ice and Fire" series by G. R. R. Martin. Ok, two: Thor and his Mjolnir too. They're not real life examples, I know, but it got me wondering: I never heard about a warrior's tomb where a warhammer was found. So I decided to research a little bit on the subject.
     As a weapon, the hammer is described as a perforating instrument on one side and blunting one on the other, possibly used since the Stone Age but was perfected for war during the Middle Age. It has a similar use when compared to the mace and other weapons wielded by knights. The handle could have several lengths. The long ones were used as infantry rod weapons against knights and the short ones were used in close combats or as part of the arsenal used on the horse. A third sharp point, coming out of the half of the head of the hammer, in the direction of the cable, made it even more versatile.
    They were very useful against the better armors developed during the 14th and 15th centuries (when steel production was perfected). The warhammer could strike more powerful blows than swords - whose power was diminished with the use or armors. The great strengh of the blows could penetrate the adversary's defenses, especially when used by a mounted knight. Even when it didn't penetrate the armor, the impact caused serious damage. The blunt side of the head could be used to smash the target's armor, or even his shield. The other side could be used to perforate heavy armors. Against mounted adversaries, the blow could be directed to the horse's paws (poor things!), causing the enemy to be knocked to the ground, where it would be easier to fight.
     Another weapons that are like warhammers include: the Bec of Corbin, Lucerne's Hammer and the cavalry pick. Since I'm not familiar with any of those, you'll probably see them mentioned here again.

~Ally