[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: beH

[lojmIt tI'wI'nuv]

Just to educate those who may not have gotten the finer points this distinction ghunchu'wI' is making, muskets are smooth-bore weapons. Rifles have spiraling grooves inside the tube to make the bullet spin. "Flint-lock" is the term describing how the gunpowder was ignited, both for the muskets (smooth bore) commonly used by 18th century and earlier military, and the contemporary Kentucky long rifle. Many early flint-locks were later converted to percussion cap ignition in the 1800s, but are otherwise the same muskets or rifles that they were when they had flint-locks.

The easiest way to tell the difference between muskets and rifles is by looking at the outside of the barrel. If it's a smooth, rounded tube, it's a musket. If it has flat surfaces (commonly hexagonal or octagonal in cross section), then it's a rifle. The rifles had thicker metal in the barrel walls to take higher pressures to build higher velocity before releasing the bullet, and the flat surfaces on the outside of the barrel gave the tools used to dig out the rifling grooves something to hold the barrel by while twisting the groove-cutting tool inside the barrel.

The muskets were basically shotguns that could either be loaded with shot or with balls that act as modern "slugs" used as a single-projectile in modern shotguns. Part of the reputation that Americans got as sharpshooters during the Revolutionary War was because the British were using military-grade (cheap) muskets while the Americans were using hunting rifles because that's what they had. The British lined up in lines and fired at each other because the guns were so inaccurate, aiming at an individual was a silly idea. Aim at a line of people, and you are bound to hit SOMEBODY. War is a randomly distributed hell and when you stand in line, you may or may not get hit, regardless of whether anyone is actually aiming at you. The Americans didn't need to stand behind rocks and trees. They could just fire on the British while they were standing out of musket range, much the way that a modern F-15 blows away inferior jets without ever getting in range of the enemy's weapons. We never have played fair.

So, you can refer to a gun either by a term that describes the firing mechanism (flint-lock, percussion cap -- more modern weapons that use firing pins that strike percussion caps built into the cartridge don't really have a term describing this), or you can describe it by the barrel (musket/smooth-bore, rifle), or by the mechanism that brings fresh ammunition to the firing chamber (revolver, automatic --which breaks down to semi-automatic or fully automatic depending on how many bullets can be fired with a single trigger press), or by the ammunition that it uses (shotgun, .45, 9mm, .22, 38 special, .380, paper cartridge, black powder, etc.), or you can describe it by whether it's a one-hand or two-handed weapon (hand-gun/pistol, rifle/shotgun). Note that nearly all handguns are technically "rifles", though that term is reserved for the shoulder-held weapon, and nobody fires shot-gun ammo in a hand gun anymore. That's way too much kick with way too little surface distribution on the hand of the person firing the weapon.

Among semi-automatics and revolvers, there are single action (you have to cock the hammer or pull the slide before firing each shot), double-action-only (you have to pull the trigger farther than on a single-action weapon, but 3/4 of the trigger pull cocks the hammer for you, while the last quarter releases the hammer), and single/double action (a long pull will fire when the hammer is not cocked, but you can cock the hammer to get the "hair trigger" that makes a more accurate shot, since you don't tend to move the weapon to pull the trigger that small bit). Semi-automatic single/double action pistols require either cocking the hammer or double-action first shot, but part of firing the weapon cocks the hammer for the next shot. So, you might have a long, stiff first pull and short, light pulls for the rest of the magazine. Many modern semi-automatics are double-action-only because if part of the design is to be concealable, you don't want a hammer on the back of the pistol that might snag clothing as you try to pull out the pistol, and while double-action can interfere with accuracy, the newest pistols have a very light, if long, pull on the double action. The idea is that in order to be more predictable, it's better to have them all be the same, and for a weapon that needs to be pulled out of concealment, a long pull on the trigger is a good thing, so you don't accidentally shoot yourself while removing the weapon from its hiding place. Some accidents have happened because on single/double action guns, the first pull is long and stiff, but the second pull is a hair trigger.

I prefer single-double action semi-automatic .45 pistol, myself, though a double-action-only, highly concealable .20 caliber pistol has it's place in the world.

And except for the distinction between a one-handed weapon and a two-handed weapon, none of this has anything to do with the energy weapons used in the Star Trek fictional world. It's pretty clear that the fictional weapons also, to some degree, aim themselves, since they lack sites and require far less use of the eye along the weapon to hit things than any projectile weapon does. That's apparently part of the technology that isn't explained and for us 21st century guys, falls within the realm of "magic". We don't have a clue how it works.

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



On Oct 30, 2011, at 7:49 PM, ghunchu'wI' 'utlh wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 11:10 AM, Josh Badgley <joshbadgley at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Out of curiosity, I noticed that we find the word beH in such compound
>> nounds as nISwI' beH and pu' beH.  Does this mean that "beH" by itself means
>> "rifle" in the sense of "flintlock"?  Like the kind the Klingons were arming
>> the Neuralese with?
> 
> If the word "rifle" is intended to have its original definition, the
> first flintlocks seen in the episode were not rifles. The "upgrades"
> delivered by the Klingon (identified in the credits as "Krell") were.
> 
> However, I doubt that the word {beH} is strictly limited to firearms
> with a long barrel having helical grooves intended to cause a bullet
> to spin as it is fired. That wouldn't be at all appropriate for a
> {nISwI' beH}. I'm going to go along with Felix's suggestion of the
> distinction being a shoulder-braced weapon as opposed to a handheld
> one.
> 
> -- ghunchu'wI'
> 
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