Zamburak | Hacker News Reader

Zamburak

en.wikipedia.org

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[...] lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher [...] elimination of much of the heavy and bulky recoil-counteracting equipment of a conventional cannon as well as a thinner-walled barrel, and thus the launch of a relatively large projectile from a platform that would not be capable of handling the weight or recoil of a conventional gun of the same size. [...]

I guess you mean similar in terms of tactical role? Certainly not in tech, besides being both being relatively large guns.

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_(vehicle)

also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachanka

The top image in that article has a drawing or maybe engraving with the weapons on the left, and on the right is ... a wand with a hand at one end and a fish in the center? Why? What is this and how did it relate to the gun?

It's a standard: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29778/29778-h/29778-h.htm#Cam...

More specifically a standard with a hand on top is a twelver Shiite symbol. You'll see the same hand on top of Shiite mosques. This is from the time of the Safavid empire.

It doesn't mean literally only wasp, "zambur" also means bee in Farsi.

Russian version of this article says the name translates from Pashto as "little bee" (althugh the sentence is built such that I'm not sure if they mean the name of the weapon itself or of the warriors - zemburekchi)

> Считалось, что артиллеристы на верблюдах, которые именовались "зембурекчи", способны были досаждать неприятелю подобно пчёлам (отсюда и название (в переводе с пуштунского - "маленькая пчёлка").

-chi is an eastern suffix similar to -er (teach/teacher), if that helps.

I think -ci (-çi -cı etc.) suffix is specifically Turkish.

You're right, I meant it is pretty common in turkish-ish group (tatar, mongol, etc), not all East.

Probably only Turkic languages, not Mongolian either.

Wikipedia says Pashto is an Iranian language, not Turkic.

For me that probability fails. Look I'm quarter tatar myself and they definitely use -chi (-че, -чы) in that exact sense. Same thing for surrounding regions, and I can even detect similar construct in mongolian songs and simple speeches when I hear these (it is reduced to -ch there). E.g. эм - drug, эмч - doctor, жолоо - to drive, жолооч - driver.

Interestingly in Hebrew slang, to "zamburize" someone is to kick their ass, usually in the context of sports.

I can't imagine the difficulty in training these animals to ignore the sounds.

De la Guérinière reports that his predecessor, writing in 1593, trained war horses by "firing pistols in the stables and having grooms play drums at the same that one feeds oats. Soon they will welcome the sounds."

apud https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8454718s/f196.item

original from somewhere in: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9107345v?rk=21459

Maybe they eventually they go deaf[0].

[0] https://www.newsarchive.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2002/06...

> The research group also includes Dr. David Jennings, a neurologist, and Dr. Amy Janda, a small animal intern, as well as two veterinary students. Janda said the sound at 60 decibels is comparable to half the noise of a jet engine.

60 decibels is the geometric mean of a barely perceptible noise and a jet engine.

Must be certainly very unhealthy for the camel. Can't imagine the blast sound, and the recoil not having an effect on the animal.

Some good examples of these on display in the fortress museums in Bikaner and Jaipur, both in India. I can't imagine them being all that accurate, but the range must have been better than smaller caliber alternatives, resulting in a psychological effect.

Further below in the article they mention that Gatling guns were mounted on camels, too. This is even more interesting, given the recoil and trying to keep an aim.

It remains me Metal Slug games.

Which lead me to read all the famous battles from the Persian army’s Nader

Check also other articles on that site - a lot of interesting stuff.

Wikipedia is fairly well known, I guess?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

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