The metal barrel: a bronze hand-gun of c. 1288
A small bronze barrel with a thickened powder chamber, excavated in Acheng county, Heilongjiang province. Objects found with it date it to no later than 1290, and a chronicle describes such guns in the campaign of 1288 against the rebel prince Nayan.
Here the last step of the path begun by the fire lance is taken: the projectile closes the whole bore, and the powder no longer throws out flame and shards but pushes a bullet. This needs both strong metal and powder with a higher share of saltpetre.
According to Needham the metal barrel reached European soldiers by about 1300, in time to get into Milemete's manuscript of 1326. By which route, through the Arab world or directly through Russia, he himself leaves open.
Why this date
from a find combined with a text. The bronze barrel from Acheng county in Heilongjiang is dated no later than 1290 by the objects found with it; written sources describe metal guns (chong) in the campaign against the rebel Nayan in 1288.
What it grew from
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The fire lance: gunpowder in a tube
prerequisite for · Confidence: high
The tube of the fire lance is the ancestor of every barrel: a direct line runs from the bamboo tube through paper and leather to metal, and on to the hand-gun and cannon.
Link sources
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 210 (1986), 210
We now approach the tubular fire-lance, ancestor of all metal-barrel guns and cannon
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 221 (1986), 221
From this derived in the course of time all barrels whatsoever
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 210 (1986), 210
What grew out of it
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The earliest European illustration of a gun
influenced · Confidence: medium
The metal barrel, which appeared in China by the end of the 13th century, reached European soldiers around 1300 and got into Milemete's manuscript.
Dispute: Needham regards the transmission itself as established by China's priority in dates, but calls the route a matter of conjecture: through the Arab world, through Italian merchants at Tabriz, or directly through Russia (he cites Lattimore's argument about the word pushka). There is no direct evidence of who brought the barrel to Europe or how.
Link sources
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 570 (1986), 570
tackle the problems of how the Chinese discoveries and inventions spread out over the whole world
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 570 (1986), 570
(c) how the metal-barrel bombard and hand-gun found their way to the European military by about +1300 in time to get into the picture in the MS. of Walter de Milamete.
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 570 (1986), 570
and the last only from about +1290
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 570 (1986), 570
Node sources
- Needham J., Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, Wang Ling. «Science and Civilisation in China», vol. 5, pt. 7: «Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic», Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 304-305 (1986), 304-305
When we get to +1288 we do really meet with the metal-barrel gun