Dr. K'Nerr is the owner of Atlanta Woodright Studio. He repairs, and restores antique firearms including muzzle loaders. He began with a timeline of how guns came to be.

Early gunpowder was made with salt peter, sulfur, and charcoal. The first recorded early usage of gunpowder was in 1044 in China. In 1221, China reported gunpowder being used on fire lances and bombs. In 1259 bamboo tubes were used with clay pellets. Gunpowder was first mentioned in Europe in 1250 as being used in childrens' firecrackers. True gunpowder (formulated as we now know it) appeared in the Mongol period 1260-1368.

The first cannon was dated to 1332. Thr first firearms were crossbows with rifle barrels and locks fitted to them. They were held under the arm pit. The Petronel was held against the chest in the mid 1500's. The Spanish developed the first musket in the early 1500's. They were known for reliability, being fast loading (2 minutes) and lightweight. The Swedes invented the paper cartridge which could load in one minute. In 1500, the first shoulder-fired weapons were introduced. They were called matchlocks. These first hand-carried weapons were made by Arquebus/Hackbutt. The originals had a serpentine lock, had a snap lock (button on the side of the lock plate), weighed about 20 pounds and were 5-feet long. They took 2 - 5 minutes to load. The Flintlock was invented in 1547 in Spain. This was probably done out of necessity because matchlocks, on occasion, ignited powder trains and wagons carrying artillery powder. It was more expensive to make the matchlock, but it was worth it and no glowing matches in the night either to be spotted by the enemy. In 1530 the matchlocks led to the development of pistols.

The first revolver was made for King Louis VIII. Each cylinder had a separate pan and matchlock that was reset between firings. The first breech-loading rifle (machine gun) was made for King Henry VIII. Rifled barrels came into being in 1570 and were constructed with wrought iron. The Damascus barrel had a soft inside and a hard exterior. In 1925 sheet metal barrels were perfected. Modern stainless steel is used today for barrels. In the late 1600's, the English introduced the flintlock musket. It also took 5 minutes to load. In 1637, the French flintlock attempted to standardize design. Bayonets were first used as standard issue in 1647. The French flintlock became the universal standard handheld weapon in 1660. The percussion cap was introduced in 1807. It was invented by Scottish clergyman Alexander Forsyth. Please note that fulminated compounds were sensitive to pressure. The first version had a "scent bottle" that rotated over a small hole to prime the system. A small pin was driven into the small cavity to create the ignition. Any of these that might be left are very rare and valuable. The hammer was in the center of the barrel.

The Brown Bess musket was adopted by the British Military in 1842. Claude-Etienne Minie and Henri-Gustave Delvigne co-developed the mini ball in 1840. It was for rapid loading of a rifle and better accuracy. It was a lead projectile with an iron plate in the bottom. The lead was slightly smaller then bore with 2 grease rings. The iron plate was driven forward to swage the base of bullet to bore. Grease allowed the next bullet to easily scrape the fouling off of sides of the bore. Americans removed the iron plate and made the skirt thinner. Powder pressure deformed the skirt enough to work as well as iron plate. This was the primary weapon of our Civil War. Smokeless powder was invented in 1880. Nitrocellulose (gun cotton) dissolved in ether and alcohol.

Technology has greatly improved since then. It took 10 days to construct a rifle from start to finish during their early years. Early gunsmiths were expected to be as good with the wood as he was with the metal.

Dr. K'Nerr gave a tip about firing present day guns. Don't shoot a whole box of ammo at once. You will melt your gun barrel.