How Did Gunpowder Change The World
Over 700 years ago the world was introduced to firearms which changed the world. Although the change was slow, there was a change. Today, over three-quarters of americans have had or have used a firearm in their life. That means that over 240 million people have used a weapon, but people see the weapon, but not how far they have come. It took 700 years to make one of the deadliest weapons in the world. Over 800 years ago the world was intrigued by the discovery of gunpowder. The mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal sparked creation in the minds of many for the use of the invention. Gunpowder became commonly used across the Old World in cannons and the one of the world’s first firearms, the hand cannon. The hand cannon was actually not
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This new system still used the old way with a wick to ignite the gunpowder. Although the system gained one new aspect they gained the ’trigger’. The next iconic thing that the matchlock system brought to firearms was the ‘lock, stock, and barrel’ design. In the early 16th century the world was introduced to the Wheellock system. The system was the first of it’s kind to use flint to ignite the containing gunpowder. The major benefit to the wheellock is it wasn’t restricted to the wick that the matchlock required. Only a few decades later the flintlock system was invented. The flintlock followed the same style as the wheellock using flint to ignite the gunpowder. One of the big improvements to firearms was made 20 years after the first flintlock was created, the snaphaunce. The grand invention that was created by the Miquelet was the ‘frizzen’ which made it so the gunpowder in the gun would stay dry. During flintlock’s peak came the next big step for firearms, accuracy. Accuracy became the big topic bringing us scopes and rifling. Scopes were more or less just the common iron sights that we have on all of our weapons today. But, rifling was a hunch thought up by archer's during the time. The archers believed that if the fletching on their arrows increased their accuracy the same could be done for
This new system still used the old way with a wick to ignite the gunpowder. Although the system gained one new aspect they gained the ’trigger’. The next iconic thing that the matchlock system brought to firearms was the ‘lock, stock, and barrel’ design. In the early 16th century the world was introduced to the Wheellock system. The system was the first of it’s kind to use flint to ignite the containing gunpowder. The major benefit to the wheellock is it wasn’t restricted to the wick that the matchlock required. Only a few decades later the flintlock system was invented. The flintlock followed the same style as the wheellock using flint to ignite the gunpowder. One of the big improvements to firearms was made 20 years after the first flintlock was created, the snaphaunce. The grand invention that was created by the Miquelet was the ‘frizzen’ which made it so the gunpowder in the gun would stay dry. During flintlock’s peak came the next big step for firearms, accuracy. Accuracy became the big topic bringing us scopes and rifling. Scopes were more or less just the common iron sights that we have on all of our weapons today. But, rifling was a hunch thought up by archer's during the time. The archers believed that if the fletching on their arrows increased their accuracy the same could be done for