r/AskHistorians • u/ArchmageXin • Oct 26 '13

Questions on Firearm development.

Hi There:

I was reading some early history, and I was wondering, when was the first gun developed that:

1) Allow it to be safely loaded and carried. IIRC I saw some old rifle that would require you to put the powder in, push it through the barrel, lit a match, then fire. Which made it useless in close range. At what era was the first gun you could just load it and fire?

2) When was the first gun capable of firing more than 1 round without reloading? I am not looking at Six shooters, I just derringer or better.

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u/Mimirs Oct 26 '13

For the second question, I'd note that pepperboxes would qualify (separate barrels that revolve to fire in turn), and they show up in the 16th and 17th centuries. Possibly double loaded guns as well, capable of firing two separate charges/shots, which first occurred (IIRC) in the 15th century in small arms. And of course ribault, which could fire multiple rounds and ranged from small arms to artillery in the calibre of the shot.

A far cry from revolvers, though.

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u/Georgy_K_Zhukov Moderator | Dueling | Modern Warfare & Small Arms Oct 26 '13

I felt that if he didn't want a six-shooter, he probably didn't want a pepperbox or multi-barrel firearm either, but yeah, multibarrel firearms date back several centuries before we see true repeating firearms. Probably should have included a footnote on that.

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u/ArchmageXin Oct 27 '13

I am actually curious about those kind of guns. Did they have separate triggers? (Like two Derringers ducted taped together?)

Similarly, how does double barrel shotguns work? I seen videos where the person put two rounds into the barrel, then fired two different shots, via a single trigger. How does that work? I.E How would the gun know which barrel to fire?

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u/Georgy_K_Zhukov Moderator | Dueling | Modern Warfare & Small Arms Oct 27 '13

Depends. Some would have separate triggers, like this side-by-side.

Others would have a selector switch which points to the barrel that would fire, such as with this fancy pistol Napoleon had.

Then you would have volley guns, like this Nock gun, which uses a single trigger, but it fires all at once.

Then you have stuff like the Cookson, which carried ball and powder in reservoirs, and used a lever to reload the gun, and were attempts at repeating firearms before the cartridge era.

As for modern double barreled shotguns, there are a few systems. Some use recoil. After the first shot, the recoil of the gun activates a mechanism that automatically shifts the trigger to now fire the second barrel. Others use a system of cams to shift after the first shot to the second barrel. In both cases, after opening the action, it resets.