DAT HISTORY ASSIGN

            The first chemical explosive, gunpowder, is widely agreed by scholars to have been invented as early as the 9^th-century in China. The earliest manifestations as weapons came in the form of the Fire-lance, which can be seen as the direct, primitive ancestor of the first true guns. The fire-lance was a spear tipped with a cylinder of hollow bamboo which was filled with gunpowder. The bamboo cylinder was commonly packed with rocks and other solid debris intended to function as a primitive shotgun, with a wide spray of deadly projectiles. Fire lances were primarily used at close range, to give the wielder an advantage in close quarters combat. This weapon was only the first of many gunpowder based weapons, and the physical as well as morally damaging capabilities of gunpowder as a tool of destruction would revolutionize warfare.
 

            Gunpowder first came to the Middle East by the 12^th century; It had been introduced to Europe following the crusades of the 13^th century. The Arquebus, an early muzzle-loading firearm, was first used in Europe in the 14^th century. The Arquebus was a hand-held, muzzle-loading firearm resembling modern-day rifles, and uses a matchlock ignition system. The Arquebus could not match the crossbow or longbow in the hands of a skilled archer in terms of accuracy, and the rate of fire of the Arquebus is much lower than that of the bow. However, the Arquebus has a faster rate of fire then the most powerful crossbows, and was more powerful. The Arquebus also has a much smaller learning curve then the longbow; a longbowman would often spend most of his life training to shoot accurately, but an infantryman can train to use an Arquebus effectively in only a few months. The Arquebus also did not rely on the physical strength of the wielder as the bow and crossbow did, and therefore a soldier’s combat effectiveness was not as severally impacted by fatigue and physical weaknesses. The ammunition for the Arquebus could be manufactured en mass fairly easily, while the manufacturing of bolts and arrows is a genuine craft, requiring great amounts of skill. The Arquebus also has the ability to frighten and demoralize animals and enemy soldiers with the loud noise it produces. Starting in the early 1500s, armies started to adopt new and greatly more effective tactics utilizing the Arquebus. Arquebusiers would assemble into large units and fire in volleys, which greatly increased their effectiveness. This is largely how combat with firearms continued up until the mid-1800s.


            The Canon obusier de 12, colloquially known as the 12-pounder Napoleon, was a French type of canon-obusier, which literally means “Shell-gun cannon”. This artillery piece was capable of firing either shell, canister, or grapeshot unlike other field guns of the time, giving it a significant advantage over other artillery pieces. This cannon was the primary field gun used in the American Civil War, and over 1700 of them were manufactured by both sides during the war. The cannon was light and versatile enough to be moved quickly on the battlefield, and powerful enough to destroy heavy fortifications at up to a mile. The Napoleon 12-pounder was superseded by 1870 by rifled cannons, which had much greater range and accuracy.
 
           

            Invented in 1861, the Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire guns. The Gatling gun functioned by using multiple rotating barrels that fired a single bullet at a specific point on its rotation. The gun barrels were rotated by method of a hand-powered crank, and the ammunition was fed into the barrels using a gravity-powered hopper. The major innovation of the Gatling gun was not the rotating barrels, which was similar to revolvers of the time, but the addition of the hand crank and the automatic reloading of the individual barrels, which allowed for the gun to be fired as fast as the operator could crank the handle. The gun was capable of up to 200 rounds per minute, and was first used in combat by the United States in the American civil war. The inventor and patent holder of the first Gatling gun stated that he designed the gun in order to reduce the number of soldiers involved in warfare, and thus reduce human casualties.


            The Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzer developed for the Bundeswehr (The German Army). The actual gun is mounted on a large, armored vehicle similar in appearance to a tank. The howitzer is capable of firing up to 10 155 mm explosive shells a minute, and also is capable of launching shells at increasingly high trajectories in sequence in order for up to five projectiles to hit the ground at a single target simultaneously. The PzH 2000 was first used in combat in 2006 by the Dutch army operating against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The PzH 2000 is capable of speeds up to 60 kilometers per hour, and its howitzer is effective at up to 40 kilometers.
 
            A rail gun (Not to be confused with a railway gun) is an entirely electromagnetically powered gun that accelerates a conductive projectile along a pair of electro-magnetic rails. The U.S Navy has tested a rail gun capable of firing a 7 pound projectile close to 8,000 feet per second. The projectile immediately after leaving the rail gun is moving so fast that it produces a plume of plasma behind the projectile. The advantages of an electrically powered rail gun over conventional cannons are that, with practical chemically propelled projectile technology, the highest velocities possible for an unassisted projectile are around 1,500 meters per second and maximum ranges of around 50 miles. A rail gun used in a weapons system would not fire an explosive shell, but rather a solid projectile that uses its very high velocity to induce damage rather than an explosive payload. At 3 km per second, a 2 kg tungsten rod could easily penetrate a tank and potentially pass all the way through it. The lack of stored chemical explosives eliminates the dangers associated with carrying explosive ammunition, and the lack of a spent cartridge to eject from the breach of a gun could allow for a new projectile to be inserted almost immediately, significantly increasing the rate of fire. Power of up to 30 Mega joules for some rail gun designs is typically supplied by use of capacitors and inductors, which deliver a very large charge after charging from a lower, continuous power source.