Breech-loading swivel gun

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, pre-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.

Although breech-loading is often considered as a modern innovation which facilitated the loading of cannons, breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century, 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" in English, "Perrier à boîte" in French, "Berços" in Portuguese, "Versos" in Spanish, "Stangenbüchse" in German, "Folangji" ("佛朗机炮/佛朗機砲, Frankish gun") in Chinese, "Bulang-kipo" ("불랑기포[佛郞機砲]") in Korean, and "Furanki" (仏郎機砲, "Frankish gun") or 子砲 ("Child cannon") in Japanese. Some of them were used until the 20th century.

Breech-loading swivel guns were developed surprisingly early, and were used from 1370 onward. 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. An early description of a breech-loading swivel gun puts the weight of the gun at 118 kg, equipped with three chambers for rotations, each 18 kg in weight, and firing a 280 g lead shot. 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. Breech-loading swivel gun could fire either cannonballs against obstacles, or grapeshot against troops.

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.

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