chsdbacks #458 - Prototype of the Ampere spiral spring gun
#458 - Prototype of the Ampere spiral spring gun
The armory was originally the site of an ancient Aiel noble's country villa, and the entire armory was simply built on the ruins because of the existing foundation.
Around the armory, several acres of land were enclosed by two-meter-high wooden walls, and behind the wooden walls were rows of temporary sheds.
White steam billowed from under the sheds as fresh, basic peat was processed into loose, dry coal, emitting pale blue flames.
Blacksmiths swung iron hammers, sending white sparks flying in all directions, while alchemist priests waved their hands, transforming pound after pound of refined iron into orichalcum in the blazing fire.
The armory was surrounded by the constant clanging and the heat of the wind all day long.
Passing through the narrow passage formed by the sheds, one reached the armory's gate, guarded by dedicated soldiers and military police.
The perimeter of the armory was a high wall of mortar and one-meter-long, half-meter-wide square stones bonded together with mortar.
Inside, besides a two-story temporary wooden office and several research tanks and alchemical reactors, was a spacious shooting range.
Under the shade of the shooting range's canopy, Hohen, dressed in a simple sleeveless jacket, lowered his head, twisting his wrist, and winding up the new clockwork gun in his hand.
The gears meshed with a creaking sound, and Hohen wound it four or five times, tightening the clockwork gun's spring.
He weighed the polished and oiled gun handle, which radiated an amber luster, and the angled L-shaped stock was decorated with silver thread roses.
Lifting the clockwork gun with one hand, Hohen didn't feel it was too heavy, just a slight sense of solidity in his hand.
After all, unlike heavy clockwork guns, this clockwork gun was only 35 centimeters long, making it naturally light and easy to handle.
Aiming at the target ten meters away, Hohen casually pulled the trigger, leaving a tiny hole in the edge of the target.
"It feels less powerful than... a heavy clockwork gun." Smelling the linseed oil from the clockwork box, Hohen weighed the handgun and said, "But it's good for officers to defend themselves."
Haimoting, with her hands on her hips, was about to stick her nose in the air: "After all, the firing pin is only this short, it's already very impressive to produce this kind of power."
This handgun was a gift from Haimoting to Hohen after he arrived at the armory.
Previously, Hohen had obtained a batch of mithril and adamantite from the secret society and local nobles.
Adding mithril to metal can magically reduce some weight, but it will reduce hardness and is often used to reduce armor weight.
Adding adamantite to metal can increase hardness and toughness, which becomes an extraordinary knight's sword in the hands of knights.
This mithril is a product of the Furnace Plateau, very rare, and only the dwarves have mastered the forging techniques.
So Hohen had a whim, could mithril and adamantite be mixed into the firing pin to become an alloy, wouldn't that solve the problem of the clockwork gun's firing pin length?
As for the mithril technique, wasn't there Brock?
Brock also brought a dozen dwarves with their families, the amount of mithril was not much, it was no problem to let them help make some experimental products.
As the grand commander of all government agencies in the Papal States, Hohen immediately wrote this idea to Haimoting, asking them to try to make it.
But don't say it, it's true, they actually made it.
This handgun designed by Haimoting is one of them, not only reducing the system, but only needing to twist five times to be able to launch instantly.
Haimoting also made an article on the clockwork box and firing pin, usually Hohen can first put the lead into it, stuck on the needle, when you want to use it, you only need to temporarily twist the clockwork five times.
However, because this firing pin requires both adamantite and mithril, only one was made in total, ready for the Pope to defend himself.
After all, the Pope always rolled up his sleeves to fight himself a few times, often scaring the officers and cardinals three feet high.
"A very good gift, love from the Papal Palace." Hohen contentedly inserted the handgun into the belt on his lower back, "The pre-dinner snack is good, what about my main course?"
The so-called main course is the new rifled gun Haimoting told him, or according to Haimoting's statement - the prototype of the spiral gun has been designed.
"Here," Haimoting pouted, and a young craftsman in a gray robe stepped forward, nervously handing over a holy gun that was no different from a heavy clockwork gun.
Feeling a weight on his shoulder, Hohen clamped the spiral gun on the gun rack, aimed at the distant target, and pulled the trigger again.
But this time, to everyone's surprise, a shot hit the five rings, which was much better than before.
For a time, the craftsmen next to him immediately offered words of praise.
"As expected of the marshal of marshals, the commander-in-chief of commanders-in-chief, this gun skill is really too accurate."
"Pious! Sincere! Salute to the sun."
The craftsmen were praising, but Hohen knew in his heart that he was firing from the same aiming position and leaning position.
His gun skills had not improved at all, but the bullets had become more accurate.
Ignoring the noisy craftsmen, Hohen frowned and held the clockwork gun horizontally in his hand.
The next second, to everyone's surprise, His Holy Grandson actually turned the clockwork gun upside down, pointed the muzzle at his right eye, and looked inside.
This scared the military police, and they even thought that a witch had controlled the Holy Grandson's mind, they rushed forward, preparing to snatch the spiral gun from the Holy Grandson's hand.
The leading military policeman even kicked out, kicking the spiral gun hard, kicking it flying out.
This kick kicked off the firing pin.
Pushing away the military police surrounding Hohen and asking him "Are you okay?", he asked Haimoting in confusion: "Didn't you say that the rifling process was solved? This spiral gun clearly has no rifling."
Glaring at the military policeman who kicked, Haimoting trotted two steps, picked up the spiral gun and firing pin from the ground.
Handing the firing pin with its dim silver-gray luster to Hohen, Haimoting said: "The secret is in this firing pin, you'll know it at a glance."
Picking up the firing pin, Hohen blinked in astonishment. Unlike ordinary firing pins, this firing pin was a spiral straight line forward along the axis.
The shape is similar to that of a spiral staircase.
As if thinking of something, Hohen opened the clockwork box of the spiral gun, and sure enough, the gears inside were helical gears.
His eyes lit up, and that made sense.
When the Papal Palace gave Haimoting orders before, they were asked to develop a holy gun that could shoot more accurately and farther.
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They came up with many methods, such as adding tail fins to the bullets, extending the gun barrel, and even adding seven gears and chains to a holy gun, but none of them succeeded.
So Hohen wrote a letter saying, "Remember the principle I gave, engrave lines in the barrel, spiral lines, to launch more accurate and farther lead."
Analyzing the fundamental principle of rifling, we know that it relies on the explosion and expansion of gunpowder gas to push the bullet to rotate in the spiral rifling, so that the bullet does not deviate from the track.
But the clockwork gun is not driven by gas, but by the firing pin.
Then if you want to have the effect equivalent to rifling, wouldn't it be better to make an article directly on the firing pin?
So the firing pin in front of you is spiral, and with the helical gear, it moves forward while rotating, and at the same time drives the lead to rotate.
The defect of this is that it will slip, so paper bags, wood chips and corks are added to increase the friction between the lead and the firing pin pusher.
"Great."
Although the barrel was kicked crooked, Hohen still caressed the spiral gun with reluctance.
You know, this is a weapon for skirmish warfare, maybe it can't completely replace the holy gun (heavy clockwork gun) at present.
But once the spiral gun is popularized, under the premise of long-range aiming, Hohen can arrange a batch of light clockwork gunners and spiral gunners as skirmishers.
This is just a small step forward, but it means that his era of offline tactics is one step closer, and he has more confidence to deal with the church and Prince Kongdai.
"How many guns can be built each month?" Hohen asked hopefully.
Haimoting recalled for a few seconds: "Four or five guns a month."
"So few?" Hohen's newly aroused enthusiasm was poured a basin of cold water by Haimoting.
"This spiral firing pin is to first twist a narrow mithril forged iron plate into a spiral shape, and then drill a hole in the middle and insert an iron rod for welding, it will be twisted crooked if you are not careful.
Since the spiral firing pin is thicker than the ordinary firing pin, there is no way to make a firing pin installation bore, unless everyone punches a hole in their shoulders, so mithril must be used.
With our mithril stock, at most thirty or forty guns can be built, this is still only a prototype, and it may not be possible to actually install it until next year."
Haimoting rolled her eyes, pouring basin after basin of cold water on Hohen's head.
Reluctantly caressing the spiral gun, Hohen comforted himself in his heart, anyway, the problem of having or not having it has been solved, as for the future development, there is still a long way to go, how can it be done overnight.
"Okay, this spiral gun will be called the Haimoting Spiral Gun, register it, and I will add funds for you next year."
Hearing the funds, Haimoting's eyes almost sparkled with gold.
But after all, she is not the kind of great freshman who can seize the research results of students and colleagues, but scratched her head and said with difficulty: "This is not designed and produced by me, I only produced the handgun, this kind of long-range and accurate gun is produced by Anpei."
Only then did Hohen turn his gaze back to the shy young man in gray.
His sense of existence was so low that he was standing very close behind Hohen just now, but Hohen didn't notice him.
Seeing Hohen notice him, he gave a restrained salute: "Good afternoon, Your Majesty, I am Anpei, a watchmaker from Ibe Township, it is my greatest honor to see you."
"I am also very happy that the armory can have a genius like you." Stepping forward, Hohen patted Anpei's shoulder affectionately, "Your name is Anpei, right? Since you designed and manufactured it, let's call it the Anpei Spiral Gun."
Like the two legendary gunsmiths Ankan and Nick Di back then, Hohen named this spiral gun after his name.