Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Across the 16th and 17th century, firearms played an important role in the Mughal military. Known as the tufang, Mughal emperor Akbar introduced many improvements in the matchlock. [39] However until the 18th century, firearms, because of their longer loading time, were inferior to longbows. Only in the middle of the 18th century, following the ...
Bronze cannon with inscription dated the 3rd year of the Zhiyuan era (1332) of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368); discovered in Beijing in 1935. The earliest artistic depiction of what might be a hand cannon—a rock sculpture found among the Dazu Rock Carvings—is dated to 1128, much earlier than any recorded or precisely dated archaeological samples, so it is possible that the concept of a ...
As such, the fire lance, which appeared between the 10th and 12th centuries AD, as well as other early metal barrel gunpowder weapons have been described as "proto-guns" [15] Joseph Needham defined a type of firearm known as the "eruptor," which he described as a cross between a fire lance and a gun, as a "proto-gun" for the same reason. [16]
Although gunpowder was known in Europe during the High Middle Ages due to the usage of guns and explosives by the Mongols and the Chinese firearms experts employed by them as mercenaries during the Mongol conquests of Europe, it was not until the Late Middle Ages that European versions of cannons were widely developed. Their use was also first ...
Perhaps the most important advantage of the arquebus over muscle-powered weapons like longbows was sheer power. A shot from a typical 16th-century arquebus boasted between 1,300 to 1,750 J (960 to 1,290 ft⋅lbf) of kinetic energy, depending on the powder quality. A longbow arrow by contrast was about 80 J (59 ft⋅lbf), while crossbows could ...
The word cannon is derived from the Old Italian word cannone, meaning "large tube", which came from the Latin canna, in turn originating from the Greek κάννα (kanna), "reed", [16] and then generalised to mean any hollow tube-like object. [17] [18] [19] The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy and 1418 in England.
The gun contained an iron ball about nine centimeters in diameter, which is smaller than the muzzle diameter at twelve centimeters, and 0.1 kilograms of gunpowder in it when discovered, meaning that the projectile might have been another co-viative. [13] The Heilongjiang hand cannon was discovered in Heilongjiang, in northeastern China.
Old Japanese weapons and other military paraphernalia, c. 1892–95 A Gilbertese shark-toothed weapon (late 19th century). Major innovations in the history of weapons have included the adoption of different materials – from stone and wood to different metals, and modern synthetic materials such as plastics – and the developments of different weapon styles either to fit the terrain or to ...