When Were Guns Invented?
Here is a timeline for you: 1232: The Chinese who invented gunpowder (black powder) first used it in a weapon – gunpowder filled tubes aka rockets. 1364: First recorded use of a firearm – shooter lit wicks by hand that ingnited gunpowder that was loaded into the gun barrel. 1400s: Matchlock guns – first mechanically firing of guns. Wicks were now attached to a clamp that sprang into gunpowder that was placed in a “flash pan”. 1509: Wheel lock guns – wicks were replaced the wheel lock that generated a spark for igniting the gunpowder. 1630: Flintlock guns – the flintlock did two things mechanically, it opened the lid of the flash pan and provided an igniting spark.
Actually gunpowder was invented some hundreds of years earlier than some of these folks are crediting. Probably around 600 AD. For the first couple of hundred years its use was limited to firecrackers, smokepots and rockets. Probably around 900-1000 AD the first primitive firearms, made from silk reinforced bamboo came into use. Mongols used smokepots to confuse and frighten their opponents in the late 1200’s. there is an account of a Polish-Luthuanian army being routed in the 1250’s with the aid of smokepots shaped like monster heads mounted the end of poles. The first known use of cannon on a European battlefield was at the Battle of Crecy in 1346.
