A swivel gun (or simply swivel)[1] is a small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlockcombination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between either the rifled or the smoothbore barrels.[2]
Swivel guns should not be confused with pivot guns, which were far larger weapons mounted on a horizontal pivot, or screw guns, which are a mountain gun with a segmented barrel.
An older term for the type is peterero (alternative spellings include "paterero" and "pederero"). The name was taken from the Spanish name for the gun, pedrero, a combination of the word piedra (stone) and the suffix -ero (-er), because stone was the first type of ammunition fired.
It had a high rate of fire, as several chambers could be prepared in advance and quickly fired in succession and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. It was used for centuries in Europe, Asia and Africa.
History
Breech-loading swivel gun with mug-shaped chamber, and wedge to hold it in place.
Although breech-loading is often considered a modern innovation which facilitated the loading of cannons,[3] breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century,[4] and used worldwide from the 16th century onward by numerous countries, many of them non-European. They have been called by many names, sometimes "Murderer", "Base", "Sling", "Port-Piece", "Serpentine", "Culverin", "Pierrier", "Stock Fowler", and "Patterero" in English;[5][6]:368–369[7] "Pierrier à boîte" in French; "Berço" in Portuguese; "Verso" in Spanish;[8] "Prangi" in Turkish;[9]:143 "Kammerschlange" (lit. "chamber snake", properly means "breech-loading falconet") in German; "Folangji" (佛郎机, from Turkish "Prangi" or Turkic "Farangi"),[9]:143 "Folangji chong"[10]:348–349 (佛郎机铳, Prangi or Farangi gun),[9]:143 "Fo-lang-chi p'ao" (佛朗机炮 or 佛朗機砲, Portuguese cannon)[11] in Chinese; "Bulang-kipo" ("불랑기포[佛郞機砲]") in Korean;[12] "Furanki" (仏郎機砲, "Frankish gun") or 子砲 ("Child cannon") in Japanese;[13][14] and "Bedil" or "bḍil" (ꦧꦣꦶꦭ) in Javanese.[15]:238 and 247 Some of them were used until the 20th century.[14]
Swivel guns were developed and used from 1364 onward.[6]:366 The guns were loaded with mug-shaped chambers, in which gunpowder and projectile had been filled in advance. The chamber was then put in place, blocked with a wedge, and then fired. As the loading was made in advance and separately, breech-loading swivel guns were quick-firing guns for their time.[16] An early description of a swivel gun puts the weight of the gun at 118 kilograms (260lb), equipped with three chambers for rotations, each 18 kilograms (40lb) in weight, and firing a 280 grams (9.9oz)lead shot.[17] The guns had a disadvantage: they leaked and lost power around the chambers, but this was compensated by the high rate of fire as multiple chambers could be prepared in advance.[18] A swivel gun could fire either cannonballs against obstacles, or grapeshot against troops.[19]
A Japanese breech-loading swivel gun of the time of the 16th century, obtained by Ōtomo Sōrin. This gun is thought to have been cast in Goa, Portuguese India. Caliber: 95mm (3.7in), length: 2.88m (9.4ft).A Mingbronze cannon with open breech.
During the Middle Ages, breech-loading swivel guns were developed by the Europeans also partly as a cheaper alternative to the very expensive bronze cast muzzle-loading cannons, as bronze was many times more expensive than iron. As cast iron was not yet technologically feasible for the Europeans, the only possibility was to use wrought iron bars hammered together and held with hoops like barrels. With this method, a one-piece design was very difficult, and a fragmental structure, with separated chamber and barrel, was then selected.[19][20]
Around 1500, Europeans learnt how to cast iron, and shifted their cannon productions to one-piece iron muzzleloaders. China started to adopt European swivel guns from 1500 onward, limiting at the same time the production of their own muzzleloaders, because of the high effectiveness of the swivel gun as an anti-personnel gun, which to them was more interesting than the sheer power of a cannonball.[19]
Usage of breech-loading swivel guns continued in Europe however, with, as early as the 17th century, characteristics very similar to the modern machine-gun or mitrailleuse.[21]
Use
Bali Museum breech-loading swivel gun (Cetbang). Length: 1833 mm. Bore: 43 mm. Length of tiller: 315 mm. Widest part: 190 mm (at the base ring).United States 30 mm 1890 steel rifled breech-loading swivel gun, brought from Madagascar to France in 1898. Length 230 cm.
Breech-loading swivel guns were used to advantage at the bow and stern on warships, but were also used in fortifications.[16]
Breech-loading guns were used by Burgundians as early as 1364. The Portuguese had versos (Berços) in c. 1410, while England has a picture of port-pieces of 1417, although the picture itself was made c. 1485.[6]:366 The Ottomans used the prangi from the mid-15th century onwards in field battles, aboard their ships, and in their forts, where prangis often comprised the majority of the ordnance.[22]:100 These weapons would spread eastward to Indian ocean, eventually reaching Southeast Asia in c. 1460 AD.[23]:95
In China and Japan, breech-loading swivel guns were brought after China defeated the Portuguese in the 16th century. At the Battle of Xicaowan in 1522, after defeating the Portuguese in battle, the Chinese captured Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns and then reverse engineered them, calling them "Folangji" or "Fo-lang-chi"[11] (佛郎機 – Frankish) guns, since the Portuguese were called "Folangji" by the Chinese. A shipwreck in 1523 apparently brought the gun to China, but the transmission may have occurred earlier.[17][24] Views diverge on whether the origin of the cannon is Portuguese or Turkish. There was a confusion whether folangji was supposed to be the name of a people (the Portuguese) or name of a weapon. In fact the word folangji represent 2 different words with different etymology. The term folangji as a weapon is related to the prangi carried in Ottoman galleys and farangi used by Babur. The word folangji as an ethnonym (Frankish or Portuguese) is unrelated.[9]:143 The Ottoman prangi guns may have reached Indian ocean before either Ottoman or Portuguese ships did.[9]:242 They may also reach China through the Silk Road.[25]:131 In the History of the reign of Wan Li (萬厲野獲編), by Shen Defu, it is said that "After the reign of Hong Zhi (1445–1505), China started having Fu-Lang-Ji cannons, the country of which was called in the old times Sam Fu Qi". In volume 30 about "The Red-Haired Foreigners" he wrote "After the reign of Zhengtong (1436–1449) China got hold of Fu-Lang-Ji cannons, the most important magic instrument of foreign people". He mentioned the cannons some 60 or 70 years prior to the first reference about Portuguese. It was impossible for the Chinese to get hold of the Portuguese cannons prior to their arrival.[26] Pelliot viewed that the folangji gun reached China before Portuguese did, possibly by anonymous carriers from Malaya.[27]:199–207 Needham noted that breech-loading guns were already familiar in Southern China in 1510, as a rebellion in Huang Kuan was destroyed by more than 100 folangji.[6]:372 It may even be earlier, brought to Fujian by a man named Wei Sheng and used in quelling a pirate incident in 1507.[10]:348
In Japan, Ōtomo Sōrin seems to have been the first recipient of the guns, possibly as early as 1551. In 1561 the Portuguese, allied with Otomo in the Siege of Moji, bombarded rival Japanese position, possibly with swivel guns.[3] In the Battle of Takajō in 1587, Ōtomo Sōrin used two swivel guns obtained from the Portuguese. The guns were nicknamed Kunikuzushi (国崩し, "Destroyer of Provinces").[17]
In the later portions of the Ming dynasty (mid 16th century onward) it appears that these type of guns were the most common and numerous type of artillery used by the Ming forces. a great deal of variation of such cannons were produced, and it appeared in pretty much all of the conflicts of this time, including the Imjin War. Until the introduction of heavy Dutch cannons in the early 17th century, there were even attempts by the Ming to make large heavy versions of such guns.
Other countries also used swivel guns. In Bali, such a gun was found in the possession of the Raja of Badung, and is now located in the Bali Museum. Numerous such guns were also used in Northern Africa by Algerian rebels in their resistance to French forces.[14]
Breech-loading swivel guns were also used extensively in Southeast Asia as early as the 16th century, apparently even before the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish there, and continued to be in use as a preferred anti-personnel weapon as late as the 20th century. The Americans fought Moros equipped with breech-loading swivel guns in the Philippines in 1904.[28]:505 In early 20th century, Chinese junks were armed with old-fashioned swivel guns, both muzzleloader and breechloader. The breech-loading guns were called "breech loading culverin" by Cardwell, they were 8 feet (2.4m) long with 1–2 inches (2.54–5.08cm) bore. These guns were fired using percussion cap mechanism.[29] Dyer c. 1930 noted the use of cannon by Makassantrepanger in Northern Australia, in particular the bronze breechloader with 2 inches (5.08cm) bore.[30]
Steel rifled breech-loading swivel guns are known which were manufactured by the United States towards the end of the 19th century, and used in colonial theaters such as in Madagascar.[31]
Configuration
Swivel guns are among the smallest types of cannon, typically measuring less than 1m (3.3ft) in length and with a bore diameter of up to 3.8cm (1+1⁄2in). They can fire a variety of ammunition but were generally used to fire grapeshot and small caliber round shot.[32][33] They were aimed through the use of a wooden handle, somewhat similar in shape to a baseball bat, attached to the breech of the weapon.
Most swivel guns were muzzleloaders, but there were some breech-loading swivel guns as early as the 1410, making them among the first such examples of this type of weapon (see berços).[34]:366 Breech-loading swivel guns had a breech shaped like a beer mug, which the gunner would take by the handle and insert into the body of the swivel gun with the breech's opening facing forwards. The gunpowder and projectiles were loaded into the breech before it was inserted into the gun. If a number of breeches were prepared beforehand, the gunner could maintain a high rate of fire for a brief period simply by swapping out the used breech and replacing it with a freshly loaded one.[35]
Applications
A swivel gun mounted on the American topsail schooner Lynx
Swivel guns were used principally aboard sailing ships, serving as short-range anti-personnel ordnance. They were not ship-sinking weapons, due to their small caliber and short range, but could do considerable damage to anyone caught in their line of fire. They were especially useful against deck-to-deck boarders, against approaching longboats bearing boarding parties, and against deck gun crews when ships were hull to hull.
Due to their relatively small size, swivel guns were highly portable and could be moved around the deck of a ship quite easily (and certainly much more easily than other types of cannon). They could be mounted on vertical timbers (pillars) which were either part of the ship's structure or were firmly bolted to that structure along either side, which provided the gunner with a reasonably steady platform from which to fire. Their portability enabled them to be installed wherever they were most needed; whereas larger cannon were useless if they were on the wrong side of the ship, swivel guns could be carried across the deck to face the enemy.
The small size of swivel guns enabled them to be used by a wide variety of vessels, including those too small to accommodate larger cannons, and also permitted their use on land; they were commonly issued to forts in North America in the 18th century, and Lewis and Clark took one with them on their famous expedition into the American interior in 1804.[36] Swivel guns also had peaceful uses. They were used for signalling purposes and for firing salutes, and also found uses in whaling, where bow-mounted swivel guns were used to fire harpoons, and fowling, where swivel guns mounted on punts were used to shoot flocks of waterfowl (see also punt gun).
Swivel guns were extensively used by the kingdoms and empires of Asia, particularly Ottoman, China, Korea, and Nusantara. The Ottomans used the prangi from the mid-15th century onwards in field battles, aboard their ships, and in their forts, where prangis often comprised the majority of the ordnance.[22]:100 These weapons would spread eastward to Indian ocean, eventually reaching Southeast Asia in c. 1460 AD.[37]:95
The Chinese knew breech-loading swivel guns since at least 1507, when it was brought to Fujian by a man named Wei Sheng and used in quelling a pirate incident in 1507.[10]:348 Needham noted that breech-loading guns were already familiar in Southern China in 1510, as a rebellion in Huang Kuan was destroyed by more than 100 folangji.[34]:372 Korea followed suit by the 1560s. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), Korean naval forces used swivel guns and larger cannon to great effect in interdicting the invading Japanese forces.[38]
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during the late 19th century. Cannons vary in gauge, effective range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the battlefield. A cannon is a type of heavy artillery weapon.
A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries.
A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun. This is distinct from the modern designs of breech-loading firearms, in which user loads the ammunition into the breech end of the barrel. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the (muzzle) end of the barrel.
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure gas(es) is used to propel a projectile out of the front end (muzzle) at a high velocity. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, and the diameter of the bore is called its caliber, usually measured in inches or millimetres.
A pivot gun was a type of cannon mounted on a fixed central emplacement which permitted it to be moved through a wide horizontal arc. They were a common weapon aboard ships and in land fortifications for several centuries but became obsolete after the invention of gun turrets.
The Lantaka also known as rentaka was a type of bronze portable cannon or swivel gun, sometimes mounted on merchant vessels and warships in Maritime Southeast Asia. It was commonly equipped by native seafaring vessels from the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia. Lela and rentaka are known by the Malays as meriam kecil, the difference is that rentaka is smaller in length and bore than a lela. and Lantakas are often called Kanyon in Filipino.
Cannons appeared in Korea by the mid 14th century during the Goryeo dynasty and quickly proliferated as naval and fortress-defense weapons. Major developments occurred throughout the 15th century, including the introduction of large siege mortars as well as major improvements that drastically increased range, power, and accuracy.
The history of firearms begins in 10th-century China, when tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make portable fire lances, operable by one person. This was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the Siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into metal-barreled hand cannons. The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century and evolved into flintlocks, blunderbusses, and other variants. The 19th and 20th centuries saw an acceleration in this evolution, with the introduction of the magazine, belt-fed weapons, metal cartridges, and the automatic firearm. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. Most modern firearms have rifled barrels.
A gun is a device designed to propel a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid, or gas. Solid projectiles may be free-flying or tethered. A large-caliber gun is also called a cannon.
Artillery in Japan was first used during the Sengoku period in the 16th century; and its use has continued to develop.
A breech-loading swivel gun was a particular type of swivel gun and a small breech-loading cannon invented in the 14th century. It was equipped with a swivel for easy rotation and was loaded by inserting a mug-shaped device called a chamber or breech block, filled with gunpowder and projectiles. It had a high rate of fire, as several chambers could be prepared in advance and quickly fired in succession and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. It was used for centuries by many countries of Europe, Asia and Africa.
The Chongtong was a term for military firearms of Goryeo and Joseon dynasty. The size of chongtong varies from small firearm to large cannon, and underwent upgrades, which can be separated in three generation type. The well-known "Cheonja", "Jija", "Hyeonja", and "Hwangja" were named after the first four characters of the Thousand Character Classic in decreasing size, thus making them equivalent to Cannons A, B, C, and D.
This is a timeline of the history of gunpowder and related topics such as weapons, warfare, and industrial applications. The timeline covers the history of gunpowder from the first hints of its origin as a Taoist alchemical product in China until its replacement by smokeless powder in the late 19th century.
Cetbang were cannons produced and used by the Majapahit Empire (1293–1527) and other kingdoms in the Indonesian archipelago. There are 2 main types of cetbang: the eastern-style cetbang which looks like a Chinese cannon and is loaded from the front, and the western-style cetbang which is shaped like a Turkish and Portuguese cannon, loaded from the back.
The Ming dynasty continued to improve on gunpowder weapons from the Yuan and Song dynasties as part of its military. During the early Ming period larger and more cannons were used in warfare. In the early 16th century Turkish and Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns and matchlock firearms were incorporated into the Ming arsenal. In the 17th century Dutch culverin were incorporated as well and became known as hongyipao. At the very end of the Ming dynasty, around 1642, Chinese combined European cannon designs with indigenous casting methods to create composite metal cannons that exemplified the best attributes of both iron and bronze cannons. While firearms never completely displaced the bow and arrow, by the end of the 16th century more firearms than bows were being ordered for production by the government, and no crossbows were mentioned at all.
Java arquebus refers to long-barreled early firearm from the Nusantara archipelago, dating back to the early 16th century. The weapon was used by Javanese armies, albeit in low number compared to total fighting men, before the arrival of Iberian explorers in the 16th century. In historical records, the weapon may be classified as arquebus or musket.
Bedil is a term from Maritime Southeast Asia which refers to various types of firearms and gunpowder weapons, from small pistols to large siege guns. The term bedil comes from wedil and wediluppu in the Tamil language. In their original form, these words refer to gunpowder blast and saltpeter, respectively. But after being absorbed into bedil in the Malay language, and in a number of other cultures in the archipelago, Tamil vocabulary is used to refer to all types of weapons that use gunpowder. The terms bedil and bedhil are known in Javanese and Balinese. In Sundanese the term is bedil, in Batak it is known as bodil, in Makasarese, badili, in Buginese, balili, in Dayak language, badil, in Tagalog, baril, in Bisayan, bádil, in Bikol languages, badil, and in Malay it is badel or bedil.
Lela or lila is a type of Malay cannon, used widely in the Nusantara archipelago. They are similar to a lantaka but longer and had larger bore. Lela can be configured as swivel gun, fixed gun, or mounted in a gun carriage. It is the equivalent of European falcon and falconet.
The prangi, paranki, piranki, pirangi, farangi, firingi, or firingiha was a type of cannon produced by the Ottoman Empire. It was subsequently copied and produced in other places such as the Mughal empire under Babur. The prangi was a breech-loading swivel gun.
↑ Alexzandra Hildred (2009). Peter Marsden (ed.). Your Noblest Shippe: Anatomy of a Tudor Warship. The Archaeology of the Mary Rose, Volume 2. The Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth. pp.297–344. ISBN978-0-9544029-2-1.
1 2 3 4 Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1 2 3 4 5 Chase, Kenneth (2003). Firearms: A Global History to 1700. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521822749.
1 2 3 Andrade, Tonio (2016). The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History. Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-13597-7.
1 2 Charney, Michael (2004). Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300-1900. BRILL. ISBN9789047406921.
↑ HISTORY AND DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE OF THE U.S. NAVY YARD, WASHINGTON COMPILED BY F. E. Farnham and J. Mundell. WASHINGTON, D.C.: GIBSON BROS, PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS. 1894 p.19
↑ Di Cosmo, Nicola. “Did Guns Matter? Firearms and the Qing Formation.” In Lynn Struve, ed., The Qing Formation in World- Historical Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2004, 121–66.
↑ de Abreu, António Graça (1991). "The Chinese, Gunpowder and the Portuguese". Review of Culture. 2: 32–40.
↑ Pelliot, Paul (1948). "Le Ḫōj̆a et le Sayyid Ḥusain de l'Histoire des Ming". T'oung Pao. 38: 81–292. doi:10.1163/156853297X00509– via JSTOR.
↑ Ooi, Keat Gin (2004). Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. ABC-CLIO. ISBN9781576077702.
↑ "Swivel Howitzer". 2021-06-02. Retrieved 2023-03-28– via USS Constitution Museum. While [swivel] howitzers could fire grenades, this practice was extremely dangerous as the gun could easily explode. Howitzers of this size were more often used like a big shotgun, firing canister or grape shot.
1 2 Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
↑ Kenneth Chase, Firearms: A Global History to 1700, p. 143. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN0-521-82274-2
↑ Michael Haynes, Lewis & Clark Tailor Made, Trail Worn: Army Life, Clothing & Weapons of the Corps of Discovery, p. 263. Farcountry Press, 2003. ISBN1-56037-238-9
↑ Averoes, M. (2020). Antara Cerita dan Sejarah: Meriam Cetbang Majapahit. Jurnal Sejarah, 3(2), 89 - 100.
↑ Kenneth Chase, Firearms: A Global History to 1700, p. 174-175. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN0-521-82274-2
Bibliography
McLaughlin, Ian (2014). The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth. ISBN9781848321878.
Perrin, Noel 1979 Giving up the Gun, Japan's reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879 David R. Godine, Boston ISBN0-87923-773-2
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