History of early firearms: Handgonnes and Matchlocks

This essay takes a look at early firearm development up till the 1500’s. It is a fascinating read.

Certainly, the first uses of gunpowder are psychological - loud bangs and sausage-shaped rockets snaking across the battlefield to terrify men and horses. This is the role we can see for the fire lances of 1132. It is a short step from here to the early handgonne. I believe that while the bamboo pellet throwers of 1259 did not use true gunpowder, they certainly were a first application of the principle of using burning gases to throw a projectile…

 ~Dispater North 1411
Serpentine lock firearm, 1411


More here.

Related Posts

Stumble    Bookmark    Digg    Reddit

2 Responses to “History of early firearms: Handgonnes and Matchlocks”

  1. [...] C. built the the very first micro-gonne. A hand gonne is a hand held cannon. It fires #4 [...]

  2. dispateron 01 May 2008 at 12:58 am link comment

    glad you enjoyed my site! must update one of these days…

Leave a Reply