The round ball

[musketman]

Chinese official Tseng Kung-Liang describes military "fire arrows", which use black powder to launch arrows out of wood or bamboo tubes. 1045 a.d.

My question is this:
In the dawn of firearms, when did the lead round ball become the primary projectile used in muzzleloaders?

I know they were used (unpatched) in the early days of muzzleloading, but can anyone pin down a exact date/decade/century?

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

I've never seen any research specifically about the lead ball, just a mention here and there when discussing the development of powder. Some early large cannons fired stones, a lot of them acquired at the scene to save weight and space during transport to a siege. It's thought (but can't be proven) that the earliest Chinese bamboo guns fired small stones or clay balls, which would make sense as a precursor to the lead ball.

As far as figuring out when the first lead ball was cast for use as a projectile, that's probably even harder than figuring out who first came up with the idea of using that 'evil black powder' to launch a projectile in the first place.

 

[Teleoceras]

Squirrelsaurus Rex:

One thing that is definite was that bolts like those for a crossbow were used up to at least the beginning of the 16th Century. The Milemete Manuscript of 1326 had a picture of a bolt being used.

I have read references that the bolts used copper fletchings and leather washers. I remember seeing a show on The History Channel a few years back when a period cannon was made and fired using the bolts.

Does anybody remember which show that was?

 

[tg]

I remember the show but not the specific name of it, I thinbk it also showed large arrows used as cannon projectiles and I have seen period drawings of this as well it looks asthough the first step was to use existing projectile types in ML guns then the ball and other types developed later.

 

[musketman]

The Milemete Manuscript of 1326 had a picture of a bolt being used.

Drawing by Walter de Milemete, 1327

PROJECTILES: The arrow projectile is particularly interesting, since the manuscript evidence all mention balls being fired. This leads to the conclusion that there were two types of early cannons--those that projected cannon balls for siege situations and those that acted like high-powered crossbows. Cannon arrows were most likely fashioned out of bronze, with even bronze feathers attached, and wadded at the end with leather to produce the tight fit needed to project the arrow out. Cannonballs could be cast out of lead or iron, but it was cheaper to use stones, whittled down to fit.

 

[miqueleter]

Italian historian Pierino Beli in his report on the siege of Lucca by the Florentines in 1430 wrote of the use of hand cannons, described thusly, "a sort of club, about three feet in length, to which they had fastened iron pipes... which threw small iron balls by force of fire." Italics mine. So by 1430, we have a record of round balls of metal were being launched from hand held guns. I know, it says "iron", but it also said "balls".

 

Crossbows were used in parallel to firearms quite long after 1600. In the German region, there were two variations: the heavy crossbow throwing bolts and the "schnepper" or "schneller" which threw balls. The latter was lighter and could by cocked by hand.

Robert

 

modern tanks (m-1) are smoothbores and shoot arrows (havent we come a long way)accuratly. what you have is a 4-1/2 plastic projectile that falls apart on firing and releases a 1-1/2" arrow at fantastic velocity. The arrow is made from depleted uranium and is very heavy, it does not spin for stablization. It uses the drag princapal for stabilization. The fins are there for drag, just like a modern arrow.
If you know someone who makes their own arrows have them put on the fletching straight and you will see that arrows are stabilized by drag, not rotation. This is secret tanker lore.

 

[roundball]

...put on the fletching straight and you will see that arrows are stabilized by drag, not rotation...

Arrows certainly get stabilization from drag, much like the tail on a shuttlecock in badminton...but most arrows also benefit from intentional rotation using spiraled fletching, to minimize / offset the tendency of an arrow to plane off in a single direction...particularly with broadheads whose flat blades can really take a shaft off course.

I thought tank barrels were rifled, and the plastic sabot around the depleted uranium 'fletchette' gets the stabilation rotation going, same as a patch / sabot does in a rifled muzzleloader

 

[Hawkeye]

"I thought tank barrels were rifled, and the plastic sabot around the depleted uranium 'fletchette' gets the stabilation rotation going, same as a patch / sabot does in a rifled muzzleloader"

Negative, the 120MM gun on the M-1A1 and follow on models is a smoothbore. Most of the later Soviet tanks (T-72, T-80 etc) were also smooth bores. The sabot simply holds the fletchette for the trip down the bore.

 

[benvenuto]

The earliest authenticated document for the use of cannons in Europe is an order by the council of Florence to employ masters for the making of iron arrows and balls and "cannones de metallo" on February 11th, 1326. In two manuscripts of 1326, by Walter de Milemete, cannons are illustrated although not mentioned in the text. They are shown firing large metal bolts (musket arrows were stocked by European armies until the 1600s). Other early accounts mention cannon being shipped from Ghent (1313), and used against the Scots (1327). A manuscript from Rouen mentions "Pots de fer a traire garros a feu" in 1338 ("pots of iron to throw arrows with (or of) fire").

http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/handgonnes.htm