In today’s wars, cannons are no longer a strange weapon, but not everyone knows when the first cannon was born.
World history records that firearms originated in China, but the first cannon was born in Europe . In the 9th century, the Chinese began to make the first type of gunpowder called huo-yao (fire weapon). It was originally used to cure skin infections with its main ingredients including Sodium Nitrate, Graphite Sulfur but later the military discovered the possibility of using huo-yao to create bombs, mines and fireworks.
The first cannon was born in the 13th century. (Image: Getty).
By the “Silk Road” , gunpowder was transported to Europe around the 13th century. Here, the gunpowder recipe is radically improved to create the greatest destructive power including 75% Sodium Nitrate, 15% coal and 10% Sulfur.
In fact, the earliest official document on firearms is an English manuscript titled “The Quest of Kings” from 1326, which includes a drawing of a man manipulating a shotgun. a small cannon with no commentary. When studying the paintings, experts discovered that the cannon has a tapered shape to the back, the mouth of the barrel is flared, showing that Europeans at that time began to attach importance to the durability of the detonation site.
The gunner would light a fire through a hole with a red-hot iron – a common igniter of early cannons, and the bullet was an arrow. Another notable point of the picture is the method of installing the cannon. Accordingly, the earliest cannon was placed on wooden bracing, the barrel aimed at the target of attack.
Also in 1326, the first real cannon recorded was a bronze cannon that used iron shells to defend Florence in Italy. An English document recorded in 1338 is a contract for the delivery of two iron cannons and one two-barrel iron cannon and one bronze cannon to the defenders of the war declared to the king.
The Battle of Arnemuiden between England and France in 1338 was the first time cannons were used on naval ships. The British Royal Navy’s battleship Christopher was the first ship in the world to be equipped with three cannons with 48 pins, made of iron, decorated with feathers, brimstone and explosive sulfur.
Extremely powerful cannons have the ability to change the course of the war. (Image: Getty).
By the end of the 14th century, the common method of making cannon barrels consisted of placing iron sheets vertically, using a hammer to fasten them together, and using iron rings for reinforcement. At the beginning of the 15th century, an important development of gunpowder was particle explosives, but people could not make weapons capable of taking advantage of this more powerful drug, so larger guns had to be cast. By the 16th century, people used iron to cast cannons instead of copper, because copper was more expensive. The first iron cannons of the British army were cast in 1543 and by 1574 there were many types of cannons of various sizes.
At that time the cannons did not have the ability to maneuver. During the reign of the Swedish King Gustav Adolf II (1594-1632), new artillery manufacturing techniques were improved to carry engines in battle. King Gustav divided artillery into two types including field artillery and siege artillery. He also created the famous leather cannon, which had a light copper barrel tied with ropes and reinforced with leather – better maneuverability than all previous artillery.
Modern cannons are easily distinguished by their large caliber, which fires warheads (explosive) or rockets and have different sizes and weights to suit the requirements of being compatible with special combat vehicles and combat vehicles. for the transportation. However, the most important feature of modern artillery is the use of indirect fire, ie the target is not necessarily within sight. Indirect fire appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, a great step forward thanks to the development of fire prediction methods during World War I.