THE EVOLUTION CHAPTER 3

OF FIREARMS
Small arms, based on its approved definition, are weapons that have a caliber of less
than 15.5 mm or 0.60 inch.

The first firearms that were developed were small arms in the form of miniature artillery
weapons and were at first called hand cannons. Ancient hand cannons were hand –
carried thus they are better examples of small arms rather than artillery weapons.

1. FIRELOCK this weapon was developed in the first quarter of 14th century. Firelock
was a simple, smooth – bore of iron, closed at the breech end except for an
opening called a touchhole.
2. MATCHLOCK this was introduced about the middle 15th century as a type of
musket. This weapon was essentially the same as the firelock, except that the slow
match was clamped in the top of a device called serpentine – an S – shape piece
of metal pivoted in the center.
3. WHEEL – LOCK the first firelock appeared about 1515. It has improved firing
mechanism compared to firelock and matchlock.
4. SNAPHANCE the snaphance was invented early in the 17th century This type of
firing mechanism consisted of a hammer powered by a trigger spring and bearing
a piece of flint.
5. FLINTLOCK the final development of the flint – ignition firearm was the flintlock. It
resembled the snaphance, except that the striker plate was L – shaped.

MAN BEHIND FIREARMS

John M. Browning - Wizard of the modern firearms and pioneered the breech loading
single shot rifled which was adopted by Winchester.

Samuel Colt - Patented the first practical revolver and maker of the Colt Peace Maker, a
famous revolver in the history.

Alexander John Forsyth - Father of the percussion powder. He successfully invented

the priming mixture and caused the integration of the primer, bullet, gunpowder and shell
into one unit.
Major Uziel Gal - An Israeli army who designed UZI (Israel) in the year 1950.

Col. Calvin H. Goddard - Father of modern Ballistics. He is the man who first utilized the
bullet comparison microscope to prove the identity of a fired bullet through comparison
with a test bullet.

John C. Garand - Designed and invented the Semi automatic U.S. Rifle Cal. 30.M1
garand.

George Hyde - A well-known expert in the field of SMG, (also known as grease gun)
developed in 1941. M3A1 (USA).

Michael Kalashnikov - Designed the AK (Automat Kalashnikova) 47 (Soviet Union)

adopted by the Russian Army in the year 1951.

George Luger – Designed the Luger MP08 (Germany).

John Wolfe Marlin – Founder of Marlin Firearms company.

Peter Paul Mauser – Invesnted and designed Mauser M1912 (Germany).

James Wolfe Rifley – Stimulated the development of the model 1855 rifle-musket.

Eliphalet Remington – One of the early rifle makers.

Elisha King Root – Designed the machinery for making Colt firearms.

Horace Smith - Founded the great firm of Smith and Wesson and pioneered the making
of breech loading rifles.

Eugene Stoner - Designed the U.S. M16 Armalite under licensed by Colt Company from
July 1959 onwards.

L.C. Smith - Developed shotgun bearing his name now the Ithaca gun Company.

John T. Thompson - Developed in the course of WW1 the Thompson M1A1 and model
of 1928 A1 (USA). He pioneered the making of Thompson sub-machine gun.

Daniel B. Wesson - Associates of Horace Smith in the making of Revolver.

David “Carbine” Williams - Maker of the first knew Carbine.

Oliver Winchester - One of the earliest rifle and pistol makers.

IMPORTANT DATES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FIREARMS

1242 A.D. Roger Bacon published the “De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae” On the
Marvelous Power of Arts and Nature), which noted Black powder formula.

1200 Roman Candle. A hallow tube, strengthened with wire or shrunken

rawhide, and loaded with alternate charges of powder and balls of tallow
wrapped in cloth. It is ignited at the muzzle. Chinese reference used of
Roman Candle is said to be at the mid of 1200’s.

1326 AD The oldest authenticated illustration of gun powder used to hurl projectile in
cannons was demonstrated in Walter de Millemete’s manuscript. In the
same period “the metrical life of Robert the Bruce” by John Barbour also
indicates the used of cannon by Edward III at Crecy. Although not
completely authenticated.

1343 AD Cannon locks were used in military as depicted in the Italian Frescoes by
Neri.

1390 Codex Germanicus 600- Translates “directions for preparation of gun

powder” How to load the gun and discharge them.

1450 The evolution of the Match Lock ignition.

1450-1500 Serpentine Lock was used to modified the conventional match lock, using
the S-shaped instead of C-shaped piece with the bottom portion serve as
the trigger.

1469 A drawing from an English manuscript shows a “ribauldegium”, a multi

charged cannon lock weapon.

1498 Introduction of the rifling and sights became better and breech loaders were
attempted although never succeeded yet even multi shots arms due to lack
of good ignition system.
1500’s The development of the Wheel lock, operates in the same principle as the
modern day cigarette lighter. At mid of 1500’s “snaphaunce” was
developed.

1575 Paper Cartridge was developed. Ball and powder charged were wrapped
in chemically treated paper to allow the carrying of numerous pre-measured
charges or preloaded rounds.

1750 The development of Breech-loading firearms leading to the making of

Ferguson Rifle of Major Patrick Ferguson, COLLIER Rifle, which is a flint
lock repeating rifle operated on a revolving principle and, the HALL Rifle
patented in 1811 by Co. John Hall and was the 1st breechloader adopted by
the U.S. Army.

1805 The Percussion System. Alexander John Forsyth discovered a compound

that would ignite upon blow that would ignite the powder charge. In 1840, it
replaces the flintlock ignition and was adopted in 1838 by the British and in
1842 by the American.

1835 The first real cartridge was developed “The Flobert Cap” same as the BB
and was considered the forerunner of .22 short cartridge.

1835 Samuel Colt patented the first revolver and marketed in 1872, a breech
loading revolver.

1836 Pin fire Cartridge, was developed by Le Faucheux. A much real pin fire
cartridge was also developed in the same year by Houiller.

1845 Rim fire cartridge, Flobert developed the BB (bullet breech) cap, which
was considered the forerunner of the .22 cal cartridge. In the same year,
New Havens Arms Company owned by Oliver F. Winchester, through the
effort of Tyler Henry developed a .44 cal rim fire cartridge for Henry Rifle.

1846 Smokeless powder was discovered. It was used in shotgun first in the year
1864 by Capt. Schultze of Prussian Army and in Rifle by the year 1884 by
M. Vieille of France.

1857 The first patent grant on a center fire cartridge was issued in France. Later
developed the Snider conversation. The Morse cartridge was also
developed.
1873 Colt Peace Maker, model 1873, .45 cal. The most famous revolver in
history and legend was manufactured.

1884 Automatic Machine Gun. Hiram Maxim developed the first fully automatic
gun.

1937 M1 Garand was adopted by the American.

1960 Bill Ruger produced his Ruger Single Shot, which was followed by
Clerke’s design and Christian Sharp’s dropping block system, one of
the earliest and most successful of the breech loading designs. The
Christian Sharp’s design is where the term “sharpshooters” was derived.