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18th Century Grenade Launcher - Hand Mortar (1760-70) (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/historyartifacts@piefed.social
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10338054

Flintlock hand mortars were use for signaling, launching fireworks, and hurling grenades.

They would be operated by two men. One who would insert a lit grenade then duck. The first man ducking would signal to the second man, the shooter, the mortar was ready to fire.

In the event of the mortar not firing when a lit grenade was inserted the operator would throw the device and reel it in by an attached strap.

Ian's Video: [5:48] https://youtu.be/kf9URQ7X0YA

InRangeTV Video: [7:01] https://youtu.be/mAzdYxa6kHA

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[–] 5 points 1 year ago*

So the powder charge in the barrel would have to be powerful enough to hurl the grenade / firework a useful distance, but not powerful enough to set it off right away?

Yeah... out of the two jobs, I think I'll take the inserting / ducking person's position, please. 😅

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    [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    A very demoman weapon.

    Kinda surprised that the bottom just opens to the wooden stock.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It’s probably a construction limitation. Not sure of their tooling limitations, but perhaps a blind hole was more difficult to achieve. Wood would just get crispy when exposed to occasional momentary ’splosions, so maybe it was just a pragmatic choice?

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