Original subtitles

Weapons have existed as long as human kind.

For millennia, they have determined

the destiny of generations.

Weapons bring suffering and death.

They show what humans can inflict upon other humans.

But they're also intended to keep the peace

and pave new ways for technology.

(dramatic music)

Since humans began fighting against one another,

speed has been the deciding factor between life and death.

With complex experiments, we want to determine

how this effected the development of weapons technology

and changed the course of history.

The revolver has a rotating cylinder

to increase firing speed.

I'll gladly take six shots, five shots,

four shots, over someone who only has one.

The sling projectiles can

be almost as dangerous as modern firearms.

Whether you're wearing armor or not,

if it hits you in the head it's certainly gonna kill you.

With the revolutionary chariot,

death by bow and arrow can happen at lightening speed.

A game changing weapon,

it brought mobility to the battlefield.

Our first weapon, the chariot.

Designed to bring warriors quickly to the enemy

while at the same time protecting them

from attacks with it's speed.

In the 17th century BC on the Nile Delta,

the hooves of thousands of horses shake the ground

as the Hyksos people attack with their chariots.

For the Egyptians,

the vehicle is a completely new weapon system,

and it takes quite a bit of practice to master.

The skillsets required on board involved archery,

javelin work, and doing all of this from

a relatively fast moving and awkward platform.

So this is a skillset involving keeping your balance,

using weapons in a new and difficult environment.

The Hyksos come from the near east,

bringing the technology of the chariot with them.

It mobilizes their warriors to give them

a decisive advantage over the Pharaohs army.

For the first time in it's 1500 year history,

Egypt is occupied by foreign rule.

The Hyksos continue their rule

of the country for another century.

Weapons expert Mike Loades wants to reveal the secret

to the chariots success.

How was it constructed?

And what makes it effective on the battlefield?

The primary function is for the archer.

So he has a driver, but the main warrior is the archer.

All of this, the horses, the wheels, the chariot,

all it's for is to put an archer on the battlefield.

(intense music)

A weapon system faster and more mobile

than ever seen before in the ancient world.

Made of light wood and leather.

It was most commonly used by warriors with bows and arrows.

But spearman and ax fighters also used chariots.

When chariots first came thundering

on to the ancient battle field, warfare changed.

Now for the first time squadrons of chariots

could come streaming in for surprise attack.

Chariots could control the battlefield,

they could frustrate enemy troop movements,

they could respond instantly to changing situations,

they had mobility.

This was a new tactic in the Generals toolkit.

And with it came a new type of warrior, the cavalryman.

He was elite, he was expensive,

and above all else, he was heroic.

This technological revolution in warfare

would have never been possible without one of mankind's

greatest inventions, the wheel.

The first known wheel dates back

to more than 5000 years ago.

It was discovered in Slavonia in 2002.

Made of ash and oak wood, this disk wheel and it's wagon

were most likely used for agriculture.

And artifact from Poland shows

the oldest depiction of a wheel.

The Bronocice vase dates back to around 3500 BC.

(speaking in foreign language)

The wheel is unbelievably

important for mankind.

At first it wasn't really designed for speed.

Large solid wood disk wheels just

wouldn't give you too much speed.

But you could use them to officially transport loads

with a cart using, for example, a team of oxen.

And that was absolutely a relief

in workload for the neolithic population.

The first evidence pointing to the use of wheels in war

can be found on the Ur Standard

which dates back to 3000 BC.

The wooden box, which comes from a royal tomb

in present day Iraq shows pictures of peace on one side,

and pictures of war on the other.

On the chariot, disk wheels are recognizable.

Most likely a representation of a Sumerian military victory.

The original Sumerian chariots

are essentially four wheel carts

powered by asses.

These are not fast vehicles, they're not dynamic,

they're just mobile platforms from which men can fight.

Spears, maybe bows and arrows, they're not fast.

They don't change the pace of battle,

they probably enable men to arrive at battle

fresher than they would have done

if they'd marched there or run there.

So they have some advantages,

but they're not fundamentally transformational weapons.

Another invention is necessary, spokes.

Initially, wheels are equipped with four spokes,

which doesn't exactly make them stable.

And then a big innovation

was to just use more spokes,

so that you could distribute the load better,

and you could put more weight onto the axle.

A four spoked wheel is likely enough

to be used on the battlefield,

but with a heavy load, it can quickly break.

The first solution, twice as man spokes.

But this also increases weight at the expense of speed.

The brilliant compromise, six spokes.

Providing optimal stability and maneuverability.

While still under the Hyksos occupation,

the Egyptians begin improving their chariot technology.

They experiment with different materials and designs,

until they find the most efficient solution.

What the Egyptians did, was they got pieces of timber,

like this, so that each spoke is actually two pieces,

but the bend goes into the next spoke.

So this is that spoke, and it comes onto this one here.

So this joint is now incredibly strong because it was grown.

They would take young trees,

and at a young age, bend them over, here is the joint.

That is now as strong as you can get it,

and it's quick to assemble.

In the 1920's in the Valley of the Kings,

scientists make a spectacular discovery.

Tutankhamen's tomb reveals, among other things,

six perfectly preserved chariots.

Even after the end of foreign rule,

the Egyptians continued to use Hyksos technology.

No one knows whether the chariot played a role

in shifting the balance of power.

In a workshop, restorers have spent several weeks

building an Egyptian chariot for us.

Based on the highly sophisticated

royal carriage of Tutankhamen.

(speaking in foreign language)

Designing these chariots

really was a science in it's own right.

People spent 200 or more years developing the technology.

They understood that it depended on the material.

I couldn't use wood that was too heavy,

or else I wouldn't be able to transport it very well.

And I potentially needed individual parts

that I was able to replace,

which made the entire vehicle more flexible.

And in doing so, I'd have the advantage in combat.

(dramatic music)

With individual parts,

it comes down to what weighs the least,

and what is the most useful for battle.

(speaking in foreign language)

They also considered the issue of suspension

so that the shooter could remain as stable as possible,

and if you drove over a hole you wouldn't miss completely.

So they came up with strategies like a leather platform

for the archer to stand on.

They really thought a lot about the individual parts,

which is fascinating technological work.

A woven leather platform for a chariot

needs to be extremely sturdy in order to carry a crew

of up to three men.

On the other hand, it needs to be flexible enough

to cushion them from any impact

from the ground along the way.

The finished chariot, built from natural materials,

according to historical models.

Leather straps hold the wooden poles together

from the yolk in front of the horses

all the way to the axle at the rear of the carriage.

You can see the axle runs up the rear of the platform,

so all the weight is on the wheels,

it's not on the horses.

And these wheels are independent.

They are on a fixed axle,

and the wheels move independently on the axle.

The Battle of Kadesh, 1274 BC,

the Egyptians battle against the Hittites,

their new rivals for domination of the near east.

Both sides have the same weapons at their disposal.

According to ancient sources,

over 5000 chariots face off as the two great powers

of antiquity clash on the battlefield.

The Egyptians and the Hittites were involved

in a very serious arms race with the new chariot technology.

And the chariots are used to engage the enemy

and engage each other.

And essentially it's a battle about chariots

and that's certainly how the Egyptians represent

their version in which they win.

And the Hittites had a version

in which of course they won as well.

It's one of histories greatest drawn battles.

(horses neighing)

The Hittites chariots are heavier

and less agile than the Egyptians.

Which also a result of their larger three men crews.

And thus, the Egyptians win at least the race for speed.

We want to put the Egyptian chariot to the test

on a race course to take a look at it's driving performance.

Today, one factor plays a crucial role as it did long ago.

The horses.

Men drove chariots for about 1000 years

before they rode horses.

And that's because early horses were really quite small.

They weren't big enough

and strong enough to carry a mans weight.

But you could pull a man by putting him

in a wheeled vehicle.

Our well trained race horses

are 1.6 meters tall.

Egyptian horses were about 30 centimeters smaller.

But they had a special trick.

You see they've got this neck fork here.

This is quite different to modern harness.

The horses are just attached just by the whither there.

Only one attachment with a yolk joining them.

So with this system, it's much more challenging

to drive them and to keep them straight.

Takes a lot more driving expertise.

But on the battlefield, it was more efficient.

If one of your horses got shot,

then you could change the team very quickly,

like a Formula One pit crew.

Men would rush in, one, two, straps,

you could take the team out

and get another team in really quickly.

How fast can this kind of

chariot go on a flat surface?

The first test for our replica is a distance of 50 meters.

So what time did we get?

6.50.

That's not bad, six seconds, 50 meters,

that's, you know, 12 seconds for 100 meters.

With two horses, Mike Loades manages

a speed of 30 kilometers per hour.

An impressive speed for ancient times,

but it wasn't possible everywhere.

(speaking in foreign language)

You have to imagine that in ancient times,

of course they needed to plan the chariot operation.

And that meant their choice battlefield

depended on where they could most

effectively use their chariots.

We know that the Egyptians specifically sent out

clean up crews to collect stones

so that nothing would trip up the vehicles

and then they could drive right up to the enemy

and take full advantage of their speed and efficiency.

The most important requirement

to have the swiftest chariot after the spoke wheel,

domesticated horses.

They're animals with stamina, agile, fast,

and they can be trained.

Ideal for warfare.

The horse is the single most important animal of war.

It's carried men towards, it's carried men in battle,

and it's carried them out of battle again.

It's critical to the logistics of war,

to the moving of heavy equipment, artillery for example.

Horses a creature that has been selectively bread

over thousands of years to serve mans military needs.

The importance of horse

breeding more than 3000 years ago

is demonstrated by a document known as the Kikkuli Text.

Written by Hittite in the 14th century BC.

(speaking in foreign language)

When you look at the Kikkuli Text,

if you know anything about horses,

you notice immediately that a team is

trained to optimal performance as fast as possible.

There are different training sessions,

there are instructions about feeding.

Only oats, then only alfalfa,

and then they were taken on night rides,

which was probably also so that enemy spies

couldn't figure out when you had

your chariot teams ready to run,

when they're ready for action.

That needed to be kept secret for as long as possible.

A lot of effort is needed

to get the best out of the horses.

But the archer also needs a

chariot driver that he can rely on.

For our second test, we bring in backup.

So, now I have a driver and I am the archer.

This was the main two man crew in battle.

You had the driver and the warrior who was the archer.

What we see on the Egyptian chariots is on both sides

crossed quiver, so the presumption is that I can shoot here

and turn around and use these arrows to shoot on that side.

And change, and that I can get over using these arrows

on this side and turn and use those.

That I should be able to shoot

from all four corners of the chariot.

Because in a battle, especially chariot to chariot battle,

you don't know where the chariot

is coming out of the dust clouds.

So you need to be able to move around.

(intense music)

How well can Mike Loades aim at full speed?

From an arrow chariot, archers need to be

able to shoot in all directions.

(intense music)

The chariots suspension should make sure

that Mike can keep his balance.

Nine out of 12 shots hit their target.

So I had a few misses, but you know,

if you were in battle, for every one you miss,

there's a man standing behind.

So it would have hit somebody in dense ranks of men.

It's fine to shoot from this platform.

If you imagine thousands of chariots on the battlefield,

which there were, then the dust clouds,

you wouldn't be able to see where they were,

they're moving and you can't see where they are,

that's fast enough not to be shot back at.

So I think for it's time,

it was a really useful weapon, and a game changing weapon.

It brought mobility to the battlefield.

But there are also drawbacks.

A highly trained chariot unit is extremely expensive.

And can only be used on the plains

and not in the forest or the mountains.

As the horse gains popularity,

cavalrymen replace the chariot.

Our next weapon.

For centuries, it decides the victors of ancient battles.

And yet today, it is associated almost exclusively

with a story from the bible, the sling.

2000 years ago in Greek Roman and other armies,

slingers are in high demand.

Yet only a few pieces of evidence

has been handed down about this simple range weapon.

Dating back to the second century AD,

this relief on Trajan's Column

depicts Iberians using slings.

An indication of their great importance

during the era of the Roman Empire.

In ancient battles, the use of the sling was common.

And the sling was used in much the same way as

muskets and rifles in early 18th century,

19th century warfare.

Our expert Mike Loades is headed to Denmark.

In a historic village he wants to discover the secret

of his almost forgotten ancient super weapon.

The sling is possibly the earliest weapon

that gave man mechanical advantage.

What it did was it

extended the length of his arm,

it made them longer leavers,

so you could throw with more speed and more force.

During the Stone Age,

slings are used for hunting.

And later there specific snapping sound

can be heard on the battlefield.

An ancient sling is between 60 to 100 centimeters long,

and made up of braided plant fibers.

It's projectiles weigh between 30 to 250 grams.

These stones located in modern day Turkey

are some of the earliest evidence of the sling.

They date back to around 8500 years ago.

In expert hands the sling's a really powerful weapon.

It was a breaker of heads and a smasher of bones.

And the best slingers came from the Balearic Isles.

They were sought after by all the ancient armies,

the Greeks, the Romans, and the Carthaginians.

Legend has it that the mothers of children

in the Balearic Isles would not let them eat,

would not give them their food

until they could hit it with a sling.

There was such a cultural tradition there,

and it last today, even today,

the best slingers come from the Balearics.

(intense music)

Talented slingers are celebrated stars

in the Balearic Islands.

On Mallorca in Sa Pobla,

the Slinging World Championship takes place every year.

(cheering)

Not surprisingly, the best slinger in the world

is also from the Balearic Islands.

Luis pons Livermore is a multiple time champion

and will support us with our experiments.

You have different parts, the ring,

where you put the finger,

the pouch where you put the stone or whatever,

and the final is the tail that have two functions.

One is the crack, make a, like a noise.

Like a whiplash.

Yeah, like a whip, and the other one, for good precision.

But if this snaps like a whip,

that means this is going incredibly fast.

I mean this is a high speed weapon.

It is.

I mean, you can throw a rock,

but when you throw it with this, then it becomes a bullet.

An important factor

for speed is known as the band.

The longer it is, the faster the projectile will launch.

The part in the middle is known as the pouch.

You're making the divide here,

which is this part of the sling,

which is critical.

Yeah, let's have these two parts exactly the same.

The world champion slinger

knows exactly how to make the weapon himself.

The plant fibers are extremely resistant to tearing.

How old were you when you made your first sling?

Probably 10 years old.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Began, 10, 11.

You would never never throw with someone else's sling?

No.

There's a pride in making your own sling.

No, all the slings different.

With practice movements,

Luis finishes his sling in less than 30 minutes.

That's fantastic, that was so quick.

It seems so easy, but it's elaborate.

During ancient wars,

slingers are used in a variety of ways.

In Caesar's time, a typical Roman battle formation

is made up of heavily armed legionaries

arranged into blocks on the battlefield.

Each block, known as a cohort,

consists of close to 500 soldiers.

Those with slings are placed in between

the individual blocks as well as in the front rows.

Once the battle starts you could have the elite slingers

like the Balearic slingers,

you could have them in the frontline,

men who can aim accurately,

men who could target a general on a horse at 300 meters,

but you could also use regular slingers

behind ranks of archers, because the sling has got

a greater range than the bow and arrow.

And these men would be throwing high in the air,

bringing down a tempest of stones,

falling on the heads of the enemy.

In addition to the Balearic snipers,

less well trained men with slings also play a key role.

But how difficult is it to master the weapon?

We want to find out in an experiment with three amateurs.

For safety reasons,

tennis balls will be used instead of stones.

The ring goes on the middle finger,

you put it like this and it's hanging out of your hand, K?

You pick the tail, and you close within your hand like this,

okay, soft, and you see the pouch,

you have to be same level, alright?

When you have this, you have to put that

tennis ball just on top.

Once you get the ball in position

and you have the sling in your hand,

you spin it three, four times, you have to pull your arm,

and when you pull your arm,

you have to get towards the tail.

So having a sling is like having a long arm.

For example, if you want to pass the ball like this,

and it's going to go out it's the same.

You have to, to get the momentum to pull it front

and open your hand forward.

Their target, a tin can 10 meters away.

Who scores on their first try?

For world champion Luis, it's a piece of cake.

No pressure.

No pressure.

(intense music)

The amateur have a hard time with their slings.

Accurate shots are a rare exception.

(laughing)

It's harder than I thought.

Because my balls were all over the place, so (laughing),

I don't know, in 10 years I might be as good as him.

Even in ancient times, years of training

are what distinguishes the snipers

from just another soldier with a sling.

There's a lot of debate around how long it takes

to become an expert in something,

and there's figures around from

20 hours up until 10000 hours.

But what we do know, simply is,

that the more you practice something,

the better you become at it.

Even if you're not naturally good at something.

A sling is simple to make

and can be mastered through training,

making it the weapon of ordinary people.

A message that can also be found in the New Testament.

In the famous story of David and Goliath,

a small Israeli boy faces a massive Philistine warrior.

The young shepard reaches into his satchel,

takes out a stone, and slings it

to hit the giant in the forehead.

This tells us everything about the sling.

It's a leveling weapon.

It allows somebody who is,

not of elite status, doesn't have all the elite equipment

of armor, sword, and horse,

to do something really significant on the battlefield.

Even today the sling

can still be highly symbolic.

Such as when Palestinians stand up

to Israeli soldiers with slings.

David versus Goliath.

An age old tradition of the Holy Land.

So it's almost like a, despite what you've got,

we are stronger than you,

we have got more resilience then you.

And that weapon almost symbolizes that resilience.

Long ago and today as well,

mainly stones are used as ammunition, available anywhere,

but not every stone is suitable.

But they have to be a uniform shape,

it's no good me picking up these stones.

No, nothing.

Because they will throw all over the place.

All over the place, they will not gonna stay in line.

Maybe you can lose it when you go spinning.

So you have to either find stones

that are a nice even shape, or you have to...

Make them.

Make them.

This kind of prepared stone projectile

weighs about 200 grams.

What kind of impact does it have?

15 Meters away, a wooden and tin target

is set up for a test.

The slings characteristic whip crack noise

is heard every time that the back part of the sling

breaks the sound barrier during the shot.

The sound wave of the sling band gets faster and faster

as it continues to the slack end,

where it reaches twice the speed of sound.

You've just eaten that, stone after stone,

just eating away, and you were doing it over and over again,

it's a very rhythmic action.

Yeah, if you have the point,

you have to keep shooting, shooting, shooting, again.

Look at the impact on the metal,

I mean it's a terrifying weapon.

Terrifying weapon.

I mean those stones, that,

that's gonna kill you, that speed that you're throwing,

with that whip crack force,

whether you're wearing armor or not,

if it hits you in the head it's certainly gonna kill you.

Yeah, obviously.

How fast does the stone projectile travel

when it's shot by our champion, Luis?

We test the speed with a high precision digital meter.

(cracking)

But in order for a measurement to be made,

Luis needs to shoot directly through the opening.

Success, but what speed did the stone reach?

52 meters per second!

So that's 186, 187 kilometers per hour, pretty fast.

(laughing)

A sling can accomplish top speeds,

but precise aim is difficult, especially in combat.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ancient slings weren't precision instruments

partly because of the material they were made from.

The smallest change of angle would cause

an extreme change to your trajectory.

A delay of just two-tenths of a second before release

can result in a deviation of 30 degrees

in the projectiles trajectory.

To increase their hit rate,

ancient warriors choose projectiles

that are as uniform as possible.

These kind of standardized lead projectiles

were produced more than 2000 years ago.

So we've got two very different missiles here.

We've got the heavy rock and the Roman glans,

which is Latin for acorn,

and you can see that's an acorn shape.

Lead projectiles known as glans by the Romans

can be produced at any camp fire,

since lead melts at a temperature of 328 degrees centigrade.

The lead projectiles often also contain a message

as a kind of sarcastic note to the enemy.

On this one it says in Greek letters, take that.

The tradition of writing on projectiles

continues to this day.

During World War II, allied aircraft crews

decorate their bombs with greetings to the Germans.

In two wars against Iraq,

Americans addressed their bombs to Saddam Hussein.

Them taking some small psychological step

to give them a message, they're probably not

going to necessarily see that message,

but it gives that person a sense of being able

to demonstrate the anger they feel inside.

The emotion that they've got inside.

What they want to say to that person.

So by putting it on the weapon,

it almost makes them feel a little bit of satisfaction.

In war it can also help to

personalize your weapon by giving it a name.

(speaking in foreign language)

That's why people used to name their weapons

and send some sort of greeting along with them.

Swords are supposed to be magical.

And when they name their swords Iron Eater or Long and Sharp

I suppose the name alone meant to say it all.

In the ancient world and during the Middle Ages

swords take on mythical qualities.

In modern times, soldiers often feel that they have

a special relationship with their firearms.

Which they show by taking extra care of them.

Behind this desire there is a need to preserve

something personal in the midst

of what can often seem to be an inhuman war.

A miracle weapon may also be called upon for extra help

when it comes to matters of life or death.

Our next experiment tests the effect of a sling

on a hypothetical enemy.

World champion Luis slings stones

at a realistic leather skin dummy block.

(cracking)

Our camera records the moment of impact.

Look at that, and we can see how hard it hit

but how far it has bounced back.

Here it is, I mean this is,

one, two, three, four, five,

that's six meters from where it hit.

So that was tremendous impact,

and you hit him right over the heart.

That would have smashed his ribs and stopped his heart.

Yeah.

Next up we try the lead cast glans.

How well can the smallest sharp edge

projectiles penetrate the dummy?

Look at this Luis, that is chilling.

It's actually in there.

You actually got it inside the man.

This has gone through and embedded deep inside.

That is a weapon.

Slingers appear again

and again in world history.

In this 14th century depiction from the middle ages,

they are shown next to archers.

During their conquest of the Incan empire,

Spain is confronted with warriors bearing slings.

(dramatic music)

The sling is finally replaced almost everywhere

with the emergence of firearms.

Starting in the 16th century,

they completely change the nature of warfare.

Small handguns are used in combat,

in addition to muskets and later rifles.

The revolver is legendary.

Not only because of it's speed.

It's myth is closely tied to a

romanticized ideal of the Wild West.

Cowboys, outlaws, and sheriffs.

They all have the revolver in their holsters,

and whoever draws faster wins.

(gun firing)

But fewer know that the revolver

also influenced military conflicts,

such as the American Civil War.

Since one of it's design details

gives it the advantage in speed.

The history of war is about,

is a constant search for an advantage,

having weapons that are faster than

the enemies weapons is a great advantage.

If you can shoot faster you can

kill him quicker than he can kill you.

Dreams of a pistol that can fire more than one shot in a row

have been around for quite some time.

But designs are either too expensive

or like these pepper-box models, too heavy.

Until a young American enters the ring,

with big ideas and no shortage of entrepreneurial spirit.

Samuel Colt is a classic American entrepreneur.

He's a showman, he delights in public display in,

doing something exceptional.

He first came to public attention by blowing up a ship.

Everybody got very wet and nobody bought the torpedo.

Supposedly, Colt comes up with the idea

for the revolvers mechanism while on a ship.

Legend has it, that at an age of just 16,

depending on the version of the tale,

he notices either the helm or a specific maneuver.

When the anchor is hoisted,

a wench clamps after each rotation.

This basic principle is later the inspiration

for the revolver magazine.

He then comes up with the idea

of the revolving six chambered pistol.

Which becomes his trademark.

The first revolver that Colt sells

to the army on a large scale, is the Colt Walker,

produced in 1847 for the Mexican American War.

Jon Rivera is a former policeman

and professional weapons expert,

who has won several rapid fire competitions.

At a shooting range with Jon

we want to discover the secret of the Colt.

The Colt Walker weight just under two kilos,

caliber, .44, meaning roughly an 11 millimeter diameter.

Samuel Colt is the godfather of firearms.

From 1861 to 1865,

in the American Civil War,

the States of the Union battle

against the Confederates of the South.

The North wants to abolish slavery,

and the South wants to keep things the way they are.

More than three million soldiers fight

their own countrymen.

Ultimately an estimated 750000 of them are killed.

The high death toll is a consequence

of the use of modern weapons.

Colt sells close to 400000 revolvers to the union alone.

And many of the firearms he sells are Colt Walkers.

How fast could Civil War soldiers shoot with it?

In the olden days, what they would do,

is they would have a deer horn or something similar to this,

and they'd put their finger over the top

and they would turn it upside down, they'd get a measuring,

and they would pour directly into the cylinder,

and drop in a 44 grain round projectile in it.

The Colt Walker though

still needs to be loaded from the front.

I'm gonna center on the ball, and I'm gonna push it down,

and seat it.

That came to a complete rest so now I know that is

actually seated in the bottom of the cylinder.

So imagine the difficulty if you're riding

or in combat and somebody's shooting at you right now,

as you're trying to manipulate and load your gun.

We want to test how quickly six shots

can be fired with a Colt Walker.

This is considered cavalry style with the butts forward,

'cause if you're riding a horse,

and you need to get out your firearm,

it's easier to cross draw and come up to your target

then it is because the barrel is so long,

coming all the way up your side and coming on to target.

It's pull out across the body,

up, hammer back, acquire the target, (cracking) fire.

See the caps falling out.

Acquire target.

(cracking)

After every shot,

Jon Rivera needs to raise the weapon

up to a vertical position so that the detonators fall out.

(gun firing)

With this early version known as a single action revolver

the shooter has to manually cock the gun every time.

This rotates the barrel and locks it into

correct position for the next shot.

The complex mechanism is prone to errors.

We had a misfire on this one,

so I only got four shots off on target,

and this one is a prime example of what happens

if you don't raise the gun and clear it.

What happened is it's fragmented.

And if I continue, and I didn't raise it up and shake it,

watch, it'll jam down below

and now my gun is no longer good.

Jon Rivera needs a total of 15 seconds to fire four shots.

The reloading process would cost him over another minute.

Nevertheless, the weapon still provides

an advantage for soldiers in combat.

It is ridiculously heavy,

and if you're holding it out you're gonna be shaking,

and if you're riding a horse,

it's gonna be hard to acquire a target and stay on it.

It was state of the art at the time,

I mean I'll gladly take six shots, five shots,

four shots, over someone who only has one,

any day of the week.

The revolver is known as a side weapon

by the military, a last resort for cases of close combat.

It can be easily beat my a rifle

in terms of range and precision.

But it still was fired countless times

on Civil War battlefields.

So, Samuel Colt sold the firearm

to both the Confederate and to the Union,

and although it was the same weapon,

it was used differently.

The Confederate, smaller, not quite as funded,

were gorilla warfare, so what they would do is they would

sneak in through the trees, through the bushes,

and it was easy to carry a pistol,

where as the long rifle would get

caught on shrubs as you went through or trees,

whereas the Union, this was a cavalry gun.

They would carry it cross draw, quick, agile,

they could get up on to the Confederate quickly

and come up on the target and shoot.

Samuel Colt continues to develop his weapon,

and puts a popular idea of a era into practice.

Mass production using standardized interchangeable parts.

(speaking in foreign language)

At the 1851 World's Fair in London,

Samuel Colt takes 10 of his guns apart

and mixes them up on a table.

He then puts them back together,

and proves that every weapon is operational.

They all work and can shoot.

This demonstrated the extent that their production

had already been standardized,

so that the parts were all individually interchangeable.

And at the time, that was a new thing for weapon systems.

With his revolver models,

Colt continues to build upon his legend.

The 1851 Navy is his most successful model,

selling 250000 units.

Many consider his 1860 Army model

to be the best of the early revolvers.

And finally, his Single Action Army 1873

is the first revolver that can be

loaded with copper cartridges.

Allowing for even more speed.

By introducing the cartridge,

you could carry multiple rounds in your pocket,

you can carry 'em on your belt,

you see the old cowboy movies with the loops in the back.

You could load and come up on your target faster,

and in doing so, get off your shots,

versus the old one, remember where you had to do the cap

and ball and make sure that the cap would fall out.

And if you became proficient with your firearm,

you can actually come up and with your opposite hand,

get off six shots.

The ultimate legend of the Wild West.

An outlaw and a sheriff face off in a duel.

They both pull quickly to shoot from the hip,

realistic, or just a Hollywood fantasy?

Sports gunman Jon Rivera demonstrates

this kind of targeted hip shot.

It takes a lot of training to be actually able to aim.

So if you notice, I never brought

the gun up higher than my hip, okay?

So, motion is time.

If I'm taking the gun and coming all the way up,

and coming on target, versus a gun fighter,

who practices enough and can hit from this,

it's not a fair fight.

How fast can he shoot with the revolver?

Jon Rivera uses a modern weapon optimized for competition.

There we go.

We time him for six shots.

A slow motion replay shows that with

a fluid movement of both hands,

Jon can fire shot after shot in seconds.

That's how it's done.

So basically all those shots were right about,

within just over a second and a half.

I would say that's pretty fast.

I would hate to be downrange.

In direct comparison to the Colt Walker,

in the time it takes Jon to fire

just one shot with a Colt Walker,

he can manage six with a newer Colt model.

(western music)

In the United States, speed and trick shooting

has turned into a competitive sport.

The main event is fast draw.

Judging who pulls their gun the quickest

to fire one or more shots.

And it's entertaining for the fans as well.

The revolvers legendary status began

in the middle of the 19th century

with Samuel Colt's early models.

What we've got with Samuel Colt is somebody who sees

an opportunity to create something more than a product.

He's creating, well,

I don't think a revolver is a lifestyle but it's certainly,

it's that kind of designer branded good.

But an obsession with these kinds of firearms

also kills around 15000 people

per year in the United States.

From a numerical standpoint,

there is almost one gun for each

of the country's inhabitants.

The highest density in the world.

And the National Rifle Association, NRA for short,

is also to thank.

(speaking in foreign language)

In today's controversial discussions

about the NRA, it's important not to forget

that the organization was originally founded in 1871

to teach civilians about the safe use of firearms.

Since the 1970's,

the NRA has played a major role in US politics.

Their most important priority,

preventing stricter laws on firearms.

Even if bloody tragedies have

become a part of everyday life.

What we're looking at is a country where the gun

is part of culture and identity,

in a way that it isn't in older countries.

And the National Rifle Association

has demonstrated that there is an enormous political support

for retaining the right to keep and bare

whatever weapons you like to have.

These can be military grade assault rifles,

hunting rifles, all kinds of weapons,

the Americans are essentially in love with weapons.

Mass shooting in schools

steadily start new debates about stricter laws on firearms.

Some states have changed their laws,

but the number of acts of violence has not decreased.

Samuel Colts invention of the revolver,

also contributes to the United States

current issues with gun control.

By the 20th century, their military replaces the revolver

with semi automatic self loading pistols.

Today, it is primarily popular with collectors and marksmen.

Speed is still a decisive factor for armies.

How fast will weapons of the future be?

Have we already reached the limits of what is possible?

A US Navy design could open up a new chapter

in the race for high speed weapons.

A laser gun that can destroy a target

precisely within milliseconds.

Initial test done by Navy ships

in the Arabian Gulf have been successful.

An invisible laser beam that comes out of nowhere

and hits at the speed of light.

Is this the future of war?

(dramatic music)