Page 32 - Inventions - A Visual Encyclopedia (DK - Smithsonian)

Gunpowder Arquebus

■ What? Hook gun
■
■ ■ Who? Unknown
weapons 15th century
■ Where and when? Northern Europe,
■
Serpentine was
attached here.
German
By the 13th century, knowledge of how to be fired from the chest or shoulder. It
arquebus, c. 1500
EARLY BREAKTHROUGHS EARLY BREAKTHROUGHS to the rest of Asia and into Europe. People consists of a metal tube fitted to a wooden
make gunpowder had spread beyond China
The arquebus was the first gun to

soon saw how this deadly invention could be
stock, or handle. Its name comes from an
Old French word meaning “hook gun,”
used as a weapon. As armed forces began to
because many models had a hook on the
barrel to hold the weapon steady against
use gunpowder in increasingly powerful and
a support. The gun was fired with an
accurate firearms, warfare changed rapidly.
S-shaped lever called a “serpentine” that
lowered a lit match into a pan of gunpowder,
creating a flash.
Earliest known picture of a fireball from
a 10th-century Chinese wall painting Flash pan
carrying gunpowder
Fire chariot
Matchlock
musket,
■ ■ What? Rocket launcher c. 1750s
■ ■ Who? Chinese
■ ■ Where and when? China, 14th century Matchlock firearm
Although the Chinese were the first
to invent simple rocket launchers, the ■ ■ What? Arquebus with matchlock mechanism
Koreans developed a more powerful ■ ■ Who? Unknown
weapon called the hwacha, or fire ■ ■ Where and when? Northern Europe, c. 1475
chariot—a two-wheeled cart on which The matchlock made firing weapons quicker.
was mounted a rectangular wooden frame. It was a trigger-controlled device that used
This frame was loaded with singijeon, or a spring to move a lit match toward a
fire arrows, each carrying a gunpowder gunpowder charge placed at the rear of
charge timed to explode when an arrow the weapon. This set off a small explosion,
struck its target. The largest hwacha could which produced high-pressure gas that shot
launch 200 fire arrows all at once, at down the barrel, forcing out the ammunition.
a range of 330–1,475 ft (100–450 m).
First fireball

■ ■ What? Grenade WOW!
■ ■ Who? Medieval Chinese
■ ■ Where and when? China, 11th century
Reloading early
A fireball, or grenade, is a small bomb
that can be thrown by hand. Early fireballs, firearms such as the
first developed in China, were hollow clay musket took a long
or metal vessels filled with gunpowder. time: even the
Attached to the fireball was a paper fuse, best-trained
which was lit and left to burn down until soldiers could fire
it ignited the gunpowder, causing the no more than five
weapon to explode. times a minute.
Hwacha
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