The advent of pistols eliminated the main problem of Auedei on swords - the difference in age and physical fitness of opponents. Any nobleman could hit the target from them with ten steps. In the 18th century, duels with pistols became predominant, and fatal barrels for a complete equalization of the chances of duelists were made in pairs, absolutely identical to each other.
New from Pistoia
At the beginning of the 16th century, French cardinal Jean du Bellay tried to prohibit fights between representatives of noble families: "The disgusting custom of dueling, originated from the devil himself, in order to simultaneously destroy the soul and body, must be completely uprooted from the Christian land."
The cardinal's brother, the military leader Martin du Bellay, in his memoirs mentions a new short-barreled firearm - pistols, which were brought to France in the 1540s from the Italian city of Pistoia, where they were produced in huge quantities. This weapon quickly spread among the officers' circles and became secretly used in resolving disputes that arose.
To fire the pistols, a wick was required, which had to be kept constantly smoldering in the left hand, which created a serious obstacle for the duelists and often caused a miss even at close range.
Killing mechanisms
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The great scientist of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, proposed a brilliant idea of improving firearms. It was a wheel lock, in which the wick was exchanged for flint and a metal chaise. Pulling the trigger set in motion a spring wound by a key, spinning a corrugated metal wheel, which carved a sheaf of sparks from the flint, igniting the propellant charge. Such a lock existed on pistols for almost two centuries. A similar principle of operation is used now in lighters.
The complexity of the wheel castle, afraid of rain and mud, made gunsmiths look for an easier solution. In the 17th century, the French mechanic Chevalier d'Aubigny proposed to fix the flint between the teeth of the drummer. Pressing the trigger led to the impact of the cocked hammer with a clamped flint on a steel plate located at the ignition hole, with sparks cutting out that ignited the powder.
Special sets were made for duels. A pair of identical pistols with a flintlock was placed in a box along with accompanying accessories - ramrods, a hammer, a powder flask and tools. A particularly important element was the powder gauge for loading barrels. The seconds measured out the necessary doses of gunpowder in front of each other, making sure that they were equal. Sometimes, according to the terms of a duel, the pistols were loaded by a gunsmith in the presence of seconds, after which the box was sealed and opened only before the very beginning of the fight.
Dueling pistols gradually reached perfection, becoming a work of art. They were decorated with engraving on steel, inlaid with gold and silver. The trunks were forged from the finest grades of Damascus and deeply blued in black, brown or blue. The handles were covered with beautiful flutes. A box with a pair of pistols was expensive, but no one bargained for the weapon of honor.
Many duelists preferred pistols with a tight trigger, so as not to fire an accidental shot in high excitement until the moment of careful aiming. The bullets were round, lead, 12-15 millimeters in diameter and 10-12 grams in weight. Gunpowder was usually loaded from 4 to 8 grams. To avoid misunderstandings, the seconds brought two boxes of pistols to the duel.
Death masters
In the 18th century, many countries had their famous gunsmiths. In England - Joseph Menton and the Mortimer family, in Germany - the Küchenreitor family from Regensburg, who worked in the pistol business for almost two centuries, and in France - Nicolas Boutet and Jean-Henri Le Page. The latter was well known in Russia, his pistols were considered ideal for duels. Death kits were bought in all European capitals and even ordered by mail.
The frequent survival of the wounded in duels was due to the peculiarities of firing a pistol with a flintlock lock. After a flash of gunpowder on the shelf, it took about a second before the charge in the barrel ignited. Intense excitement made it difficult to hold the pistol in the right direction after igniting the ignition charge, and a cloud of smoke from the shelf obscured the target.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Scotsman Alexander Forsyth invented a fundamentally new ignition lock, which was later called the primer. The chemical composition igniting from the impact was placed in a copper cap-primer, put on a steel rod - a brandtube, along which the fire instantly went into the barrel. The capsule worked in any weather with virtually no misfires.
The number of casualties in duels increased as the rules remained the same and the distance between the shooters did not increase. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was killed from such a pistol. Similar dueling pistols are kept in the museum of the small French town of Amboise. They were made by the Dresden gunsmith Karl Ulbrich. The pistols that Pushkin brought with him to the Black River, unfortunately, have not survived.
Lot and speed
Any social foundations and orders will sooner or later undergo changes. The traditional duel with pistols did not escape this fate. If in Europe until the end of the 19th century there were certain rules for conducting duels in accordance with the code of honor, then in the Wild West with the invention of the revolver, duels took on a completely different character. Among the colonists of North America, the strict noble dueling code was never popular. A loaded six-shot Colt hung on the belt of each cowboy, and the result of the quarrel depended on which of the opponents, in front of many spectators, would have time to quickly pull their weapon out of the holster and fire first.
Another type of American duel involved only one pistol and two pieces of paper lying in a hat with the words "life" and "death". Whoever pulled out a piece of paper with the word "death" was obliged to shoot himself immediately. An anecdotal incident happened to the French writer Alexandre Dumas. He betted the "American" and had to shoot himself within an hour. The seconds were waiting gloomily at the threshold of the room, when, at last, a shot rang out in it … And a few seconds later, Dumas came out alive and unharmed. "I fired and … missed!" - said the writer, pouring champagne into a glass.
In the XX century, “Russian roulette” gained wide popularity first in Russia and then in other countries. According to her rules, one cartridge was loaded into an empty drum, after which the drum was turned several times. Taking turns bringing the muzzle of the revolver to their head, the opponents pulled the trigger …
Dumb witnesses
The number of victims of cowboy fights and the death toll from the "Russian roulette" are unknown. The tradition that emerged from the noble environment in the 20th century lost its romantic halo and turned into a simple murder from any revolver at hand.
But almost all European duels with pistols can be found in historical chronicles. Descriptions of the rules of the ritual have been preserved, dates, locations and titles of participants are indicated. And in museums, there are sets of pistols made by famous gunsmiths and striking the imagination of visitors with the beauty of form and decoration. They remind of how people of honor approached the barrier with them, preferring tragic death to mortal insult.
Vera Chistyakova, Alexander Ploshinsky