Proto-gun , from the
Huolongjing. , dated to 1288 CE, the world's oldest surviving firearm. It includes a touch hole and a gunpowder chamber
Gunpowder was invented in China during the 9th century. The first firearm was the
fire lance, which was invented in China between the 10–12th centuries. It was depicted in a silk painting dated to the mid-10th century, but textual evidence of its use does not appear until 1132, describing the
siege of De'an. It consisted of a bamboo tube of gunpowder tied to a spear or other polearm. By the late 1100s, ingredients such as pieces of shrapnel like porcelain shards or small iron pellets were added to the tube so that they would be blown out with the gunpowder. It was relatively short ranged and had a range of roughly 3 meters by the early 13th century. This fire lance is considered by some historians to be a "proto-gun" because its projectiles did not occlude the barrel. There was also another "proto-gun" called the eruptor, according to Joseph Needham, which did not have a lance but still did not shoot projectiles which occluded the barrel.
Transition to true guns from the Chinese
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) Over the centuries in China, several improvements were made to the fire lances and slowly transformed it into the metal-barreled hand cannon (
huochong). The proportion of
saltpeter in the propellant was increased to maximise its explosive power. To better withstand that explosive power, the paper and
bamboo of which fire-lance barrels were originally made came to be replaced by metal. The metal barrel fire lances began to be used without the lance and became guns by the late 13th century. Guns such as the
hand cannon were being used in the
Yuan dynasty by the 1280s. Surviving cannons such as the
Heilongjiang hand cannon and the
Xanadu Gun have been found dating to the late 13th century and possibly earlier in the early 13th century. In 1287, the Yuan dynasty deployed
Jurchen troops with hand cannons to put down a rebellion by the
Mongol prince
Nayan. The
History of Yuan records that the cannons of Li Ting's soldiers "caused great damage" and created "such confusion that the enemy soldiers attacked and killed each other." The hand cannons were used again in the beginning of 1288. Li Ting's "gun-soldiers" or
chongzu () carried the hand cannons "on their backs". The passage on the 1288 battle is also the first to use the name
chong () with the metal
radical jin () for metal-barrel firearms.
Chong was used instead of the earlier and more ambiguous term
huo tong (fire tube; ), which may refer to the tubes of
fire lances, proto-cannons, or signal flares. Hand cannons may have been used in the
Mongol invasions of Japan. Japanese descriptions of the invasions mention iron and bamboo
pao causing "light and fire" and emitting 2–3,000 iron bullets. The
Nihon Kokujokushi, written around 1300, mentions
huo tong (fire tubes) at the Battle of Tsushima in 1274 and the second coastal assault led by Holdon in 1281. The
Hachiman Gudoukun of 1360 mentions iron
pao "which caused a flash of light and a loud noise when fired." The
Taiheki of 1370 mentions "iron
pao shaped like a bell."
Spread , 1380 The exact nature of the spread of firearms and its route is uncertain. One theory is that gunpowder and cannons arrived in
Europe via the
Silk Road through the Middle East.
Hasan al-Rammah had already written about fire lances in the 13th century, so proto-guns were known in the Middle East at that point. Another theory is that it was brought to Europe during the
Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century. By 1338 hand cannons were in widespread use in France. English
Privy Wardrobe accounts list "ribaldis", a type of cannon, in the 1340s, and siege guns were used by the English at
Calais in 1346. Early guns and the men who used them were often associated with the devil and the gunner's craft was considered a
black art, a point reinforced by the smell of
sulfur on battlefields created from the firing of guns along with the
muzzle blast and accompanying
flash. Around the late 14th century in Europe, smaller and portable hand-held
cannons were developed, creating in effect the first smooth-bore personal firearm. In the late 15th century the
Ottoman Empire used firearms as part of its regular infantry. In the Middle East, the Arabs seem to have used the hand cannon to some degree during the 14th century. Cannons are attested in India starting from 1366. from the
Binglu, 1606. The
Joseon kingdom in
Korea learned how to produce gunpowder from China by 1372 and started producing cannons by 1377. In
Southeast Asia,
Đại Việt soldiers used hand cannons at the very latest by 1390 when they employed them in killing
Champa king Che Bong Nga. Chinese observer recorded the
Javanese use of hand cannon for marriage ceremony in 1413 during
Zheng He's voyage. Hand guns were utilized effectively during the
Hussite Wars. Japan knew of gunpowder due to the
Mongol invasions during the 13th century, but did not acquire a cannon until a monk took one back to Japan from China in 1510, and guns were not produced until 1543, when the
Portuguese introduced
matchlocks which were known as
tanegashima to the Japanese.
Gunpowder technology entered Java in the
Mongol invasion of Java (1293 A.D.).
Majapahit under
Mahapatih (prime minister)
Gajah Mada utilized gunpowder technology obtained from the
Yuan dynasty for use in the naval fleet. During the following years, the Majapahit army have begun producing cannons known as
cetbang. Early cetbang (also called Eastern-style cetbang) resembled Chinese cannons and hand cannons. Eastern-style cetbangs were mostly made of bronze and were front-loaded cannons. It fires arrow-like projectiles, but round bullets and co-viative projectiles can also be used. These arrows can be solid-tipped without explosives, or with explosives and incendiary materials placed behind the tip. Near the rear, there is a combustion chamber or room, which refers to the bulging part near the rear of the gun, where the gunpowder is placed. The cetbang is mounted on a fixed mount, or as a hand cannon mounted on the end of a pole. There is a tube-like section on the back of the cannon. In the hand cannon-type cetbang, this tube is used as a socket for a pole.
Arquebus and musket (1608) The
arquebus was a firearm that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the early 15th century. Its name is derived from the German word
Hackenbüchse. It originally described a hand cannon with a lug or hook on the underside for stabilizing the weapon, usually on defensive fortifications. In the early 1500s, heavier variants known as "
muskets" that were fired from resting Y-shaped supports appeared. The musket was able to penetrate heavy armor, and as a result armor declined, which also made the heavy musket obsolete. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, it was the term
musket which remained in use up into the 1800s. It may not be completely inaccurate to suggest that the musket was in its fabrication simply a larger arquebus. At least on one occasion the musket and arquebus have been used interchangeably to refer to the same weapon, and even referred to as an "arquebus musket." A Habsburg commander in the mid-1560s once referred to muskets as "double arquebuses." A
shoulder stock was added to the arquebus around 1470 and the matchlock mechanism sometime before 1475. The matchlock arquebus was the first firearm equipped with a
trigger mechanism and the first portable shoulder-arms firearm. Before the matchlock, handheld firearms were fired from the chest, tucked under one arm, while the other arm maneuvered a hot pricker to the touch hole to ignite the gunpowder. The Ottomans may have used arquebuses as early as the first half of the 15th century during the
Ottoman–Hungarian wars of 1443–1444. The arquebus was used in substantial numbers during the reign of king
Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (r. 1458–1490). Arquebuses were used by 1472 by the Spanish and Portuguese at Zamora. Likewise, the Castilians used arquebuses as well in 1476. Later, a larger arquebus known as a musket was used for breaching heavy armor, but this declined along with heavy armor. Matchlock firearms continued to be called musket. They were used throughout Asia by the mid-1500s.
Transition to classic guns Guns reached their "classic" form in the 1480s. The "classic gun" is so called because of the long duration of its design, which was longer, lighter, more efficient, and more accurate compared to its predecessors 30 years prior. The design persisted for nearly 300 years and cannons of the 1480s show little variation from as well as surprising similarity with cannons three centuries later in the 1750s. This 300-year period during which the classic gun dominated gives it its moniker. The classic gun differed from older generations of firearms through an assortment of improvements. Their longer length-to-bore ratio imparted more energy into the shot, enabling the projectile to shoot further. They were also lighter since the barrel walls were thinner, allowing faster dissipation of heat. They no longer needed the help of a wooden plug to load since they offered a tighter fit between projectile and barrel, further increasing the accuracy of firearms – and were deadlier due to developments such as gunpowder corning and iron shot.
Modern guns Several developments in the 19th century led to the development of modern guns. In 1815,
Joshua Shaw invented
percussion caps, which replaced the
flintlock trigger system. The new percussion caps allowed guns to shoot reliably in any weather condition. In 1835,
Casimir Lefaucheux invented the first practical
breech loading firearm with a
cartridge. The new cartridge contained a conical bullet, a cardboard powder tube, and a copper base that incorporated a primer pellet.
Rifles and
Winchester rifle While
rifled guns did exist prior to the 19th century in the form of grooves cut into the interior of a barrel, these were considered specialist weapons and limited in number. The rate of fire of handheld guns began to increase drastically. In 1836,
Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse invented the
Dreyse needle gun, a breech-loading rifle which increased the rate of fire to six times that of muzzle loading weapons. In 1854,
Volcanic Repeating Arms produced a rifle with a self-contained
cartridge. In 1849,
Claude-Étienne Minié invented the
Minié ball, the first projectile that could easily slide down a rifled barrel, which made rifles a viable military firearm, ending the
smoothbore musket era. Rifles were deployed during the
Crimean War with resounding success and proved vastly superior to smoothbore muskets. In 1860,
Benjamin Tyler Henry created the
Henry rifle, the first reliable
repeating rifle. An improved version of the Henry rifle was developed by
Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1873, known as the Model 1873
Winchester rifle.
Smokeless powder was invented in 1880 and began replacing
gunpowder, which came to be known as black powder. By the start of the 20th century, smokeless powder was adopted throughout the world and black powder, what was previously known as gunpowder, was relegated to hobbyist usage.
Machine guns In 1861,
Richard Jordan Gatling invented the
Gatling gun, the first successful machine gun, capable of firing 200 gunpowder cartridges in a minute. It was fielded by the Union forces during the
American Civil War in the 1860s. In 1884,
Hiram Maxim invented the
Maxim gun, the first single-barreled machine gun. The world's first
submachine gun (a fully automatic firearm which fires pistol cartridges) able to be maneuvered by a single soldier is the
MP 18.1, invented by
Theodor Bergmann. It was introduced into service in 1918 by the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of the
Stosstruppen (assault groups specialized in trench combat). In civilian use, the
captive bolt pistol is used in agriculture to humanely stun farm animals for slaughter. The first assault rifle was introduced during
World War II by the Germans, known as the
StG44. It was the first firearm to bridge the gap between long range rifles, machine guns, and short range submachine guns. Since the mid-20th century, guns that fire beams of energy rather than solid projectiles have been developed, and also guns that can be fired by means other than the use of gunpowder. ==Operating principle==