The Hand Culverin,In the late Middle Ages the first projectile weapons to use gunpowder in Europe we
The Hand Culverin,In the late Middle Ages the first projectile weapons to use gunpowder in Europe were large cannon called culverins and bombards. While they were great for siege warfare, many arms makers saw an advantage to creating smaller firearms. The hand culverin and hand bombard first came to use around the late 14th and early 15th century. Essentially it was simply a culverin or bombard that was scaled down so that a single person could load and fire it. Unlike later firearms, the hand culverin was not made for one on one use against infantry like a musket. Rather it was a small cannon made for the purpose of bombarding the enemy on the battlefield or during sieges.Because it was one of the earliest firearms to hit the battlefield, the hand culverin is also among the simplest. Extremely crude compared to modern firearms, or even flintlock muskets, the hand culverin was composed of a simple hollow tube mounted onto a wooden staff or pole. The gunner typically held the culverin up against the shoulder, between the armpit, or over the shoulder for stability and accuracy. To fire the weapon the user sprinkled a bit of gunpowder on the touch hole. He then ignited the powder with a slowmatch (a slow burning wick made from rope soaked in potassium nitrate), which drove a spark into the breech and ignited the main charge. If the gunner was lucky, the hand culverin would fire the projectile towards the enemy without taking his fingers or exploding in his face. Due to the lack of understanding of metallurgy and the pressures involved in discharging gunpowder, it was not uncommon for deadly accidents to occur. For example King James II of Scotland was killed in a cannon explosion during this era.Since hand culverins were small cannon rather than muskets, they tended to fire a larger than usual projectile. At the very least hand culverins tended to fire projectiles 2 - 3 inches in caliber. Typically they weighed around 40 to 80 lbs. Larger culverins, such as those 4 or 5 inches in caliber, often required a pintle or swivel for use. Over time arms makers learned to produce hand culverins smaller and smaller. Eventually the hand culverin evolved into the handgonne, a weapon more like an individual firearm rather than a small cannon. The handgonne was similar to the hand culverin, only they weighed less than 20 pounds and fired smaller projectiles, around .50 to .70 caliber. The handgonne would become the ancestor of the infantry musket, and today goes down in history as the origin of the word “gun”. -- source link
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