Old Gun. Stock Photo

The oldest mortar was practically the same technology as the mortar of the 18th century, it was cast as a whole, directly with the inner cavity. Material could serve as bronze, or (rarely) pure copper. Barrel length was insignificant, - 1.5 -2 caliber, and bore most often was purely a tapered. Thus, for loading could be used relatively round stone virtually any size, he lay on top of gunpowder, then cracks between stone and the barrel walls законопачивались tow, but in one place had a hole, through which passed the wick - impregnated nitrate and fat rag. To shoot the gunner to set fire to the wick, then, was hiding in the folds of the landscape. Ancient gun beat very inaccurate (trunk was quite short, and conical) and poorly was bad, gunpowder poor and usefully burned only a small portion of it. Besides, the sizes of the guns that era were small - caliber on the stone kernel was of the order of 6 pounds, which is very little for mortars.