Picture a soldier on an 18th-century battlefield, under enemy fire, trying to reload his musket as quickly as possible. No automatic magazines, no pre-loaded bullets like today. Instead, they used paper cartridges—small cylinders containing gunpowder and a lead ball. But to use them, they had to… bite them open!
These cartridges were designed to speed up reloading. The soldier would tear off the top of the cartridge with his teeth, pour a little gunpowder into the firing pan, then dump the rest down the barrel before dropping in the lead ball. Using a ramrod, he would then pack everything down before firing. This process required both speed and precision, especially in the heat of battle.
Teeth were so essential to this technique that recruiters carefully inspected soldiers’ teeth before enlisting them. Bad teeth—or missing ones—could be a serious problem. If a soldier couldn’t quickly tear open a cartridge, he wouldn’t be effective in combat. Under Napoleon, some men even went so far as to deliberately break their teeth to avoid being drafted into the army!
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