Wouldnt the spark of a musket enter the eye of the shooter?

Just watched a musket demonstration.

When the hammer hits the anvil it will set off a spark that in turn ignite the gun powder . But the shooter is also aiming down the gun, so his eyes is level with the gun, right behind the hammer. Wouldnt the fireworks from spark accidentally enter the shooter's eye and blind him?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

ageshallnot

Not automatically blind the shooter, but could cause pain and injury. The problem worsened as the equipment got older.

It wasn't just muskets that had this issue. In the Franco-German war of 1870-71 the famed French Chassepot (a breech loading rifle) would spark in a similar way after it had been fired many times. French troops were known to fire from the hip rather than aim properly.

Reply 2

Napp

You weren't supposed to have your eyes facing anywhere near the musket when it discharged, have you ever seen a slo-mo video of a musket firing? Theres a large gout oif flame out of the pan as the powder ignites, somewhat nastier than a mere spark and not something you'd want to be looking at/have your eye exposed to

Then again, safety wasn't exactly top of the agenda in those days

Reply 3

TheStupidMoon

Original post by HucktheForde

Go to 11:40 in this video and you can see it's covered to stop it going back into the riflemans face but if you had lots of people in a line it might spray them from the side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz56I4n9O4U