HIS 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Hand Cannon, Ballista, Siege Engine
13 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Early guns show arrow bundles (closely packed projectile flew farther) Led to use of cannonballs (stone and iron) Small chinese hand cannons in sweden date to 1300. Chinese accounts confirm mongols used guns there. Thickened metal around point of explosion at rear. Bronze hand cannon from 1332: 1-foot-long, weighs 8 pounds (3. 4kg) Hundreds of larger cannons survive after 1350. Dynasty in power used them to suppress rebellions or defensively. Rebels did not have cannons (gunpowder was an imperial monopoly) No incentive to build bigger and better guns. Later this meant: europeans arrived by sea with superior cannons, chinese emperors turned to jesuit missionaries as gunnery advisors. A brief history of siege weapon before cannons. Ballista: derived from crossbows but designed to send heavier bolts. Catapults: general catch-all term for ballistas, onagers, mangonels, etc. used from greek times and onward: all used torsion to power arm when hook is released. The chinese, europeans, and islamic peoples were outstandingly mechanically minded.
