SAR 20#2

MATERIAL
WITNESS
BY DAVE LAKE
Steel,
SIMPLIFIED.
Steel is the stuff of which the modern world is made. It is pervasive in
history and its presence and application mirrors the rise and fall of man and
his kingdoms as well as his proliferation around the globe. Scientists and engineers
of the past century have been largely unsuccessful at creating its
replacement. Barring the limitations imposed by the basic laws of physics,
there are not many problems that cannot be solved by the judicious application
of steel in one of its many forms. There is perhaps no better example of
Mankind’s technological triumph than when he used steel to create the gun.
The oldest known “gun” by todays definition was developed in China
(agree most anthropologists and archaeologists). The first guns created by
the ancient Chinese were likely bamboo- or other hollowed out wooden tubes,
which may not have been used to fire a projectile. There is some conjecture
that these guns were first implemented as “shock and awe” technique- firing
off bursts of flame and smoke to intimidate and confound a battlefield foe. It
is unclear when exactly the gun would be used to fire a projectile- which was
likely an accident the first time it happened. Man’s inherent need and ability to
fix and improve things around him would ultimately adapt the simple pyrotechnic
display into an implement crafted from steel, and intended to fire a projectile.
The rest of the story of the gun follows man through the middle Ages,
the time of exploration and conquest, and ultimately the industrialization and
modernization of manufacturing and the globalization of commerce. There are
marked times, usually times of war that spawned the great advancements
in the science of the gun. Mounted cavalry, siege weapons, personal body
armor, cannon and naval warfare all demanded that the gun become more
potent and precise. Distance and accuracy and power would become requisite
qualifications of the gun. Sometime in the last 500 years, the science of
the gun seems to have reached a plateau, relatively speaking. Every shooter
from a matchlock pistol to a shore gun battery would be made of steel (as they
still are). Steel could provide the strength to exploit the power required to inflict
the ranged effect we associate with the modern firearm.
The meter of the modern small arm often and deservedly defers to the “mil
spec.” This is an established code of standardization. It envelops a set of rules
and requirements for anything claiming to be up to par. It is not necessarily
WWW.SMALLARMSREVIEW.COM 81 SAR Vol. 20, No. 2