Mechanical Engineering

History Of Firearms

How the world made the first firearms.

By: Nathaniel Contreras, Journalist

March 21, 2025

Prologue

During the 10th century in China there was a alchemist who was making a life extending elixir, but when making it he made a powder that can combust into fire when in contact with fire and so the Chinese used the powder in rockets for warfare and defend the land. Later this powder when known as gunpowder and when other colonies got of hold of this powder they used it to make advanced warfare. The Chinese also made a new creation the very first firearm.

Evolution

The fire lance was a fire arm which was made from a bamboo or a metal tube and inside was a spear which would be fired by gunpowder when it was lit with fire. This weapon was one out of many steps of humanity evolving its warfare and combat, which would lead to humanity upgrading their firearms. Fast forward to the 1900’s and we see a unique upgrade on the firearm, and it is now called the revolver which is made with Metal. Instead of using any form of gun powder it was bullets which would place inside one of the six chambers inside. Once the revolver was loaded the user must put their thumb on a piece of metal which would lower upon the pressure. Once lowered a other piece of metal inside the revolver would be pulled back, so as the user pull on the trigger the metal piece would slam it self on the bullet causing it to launch the bullet at incredible speeds. And gunpowder would be used to make the bullet even powerful by increasing the speed when it fires.

Present-day

In the present day we can see lots of improvement of the firearms like some have more bullets then others and some firearms have full auto. And some firearms are designed for different methods like a sniper rifle which have a longer nose than normal firearms to increase its speed and have a high view to be more accurate. And the mini gun which was designed to fire a lot of bullets to the enemy forces and the tank which is a vehicle that would shoot a powerful shot like a cannon but acts like a bomb. Today humanity has created countless upgrades to the early firearm and how ones are designed for different methods and how powerful these firearms are.