Dear friends,
In this video we have discussed about how gun work?
A gun is a device or ranged weapon designed to throw a projectile using pressure or explosive force.[1][2] The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). Solid projectiles may be free-flying (as with bullets and artillery shells) or tethered (as with Tasers, spearguns and harpoon guns). A large-caliber gun is also called a cannon.
The means of projectile propulsion vary according to designs, but are traditionally effected pneumatically by a high gas pressure contained within a barrel tube (gun barrel), produced either through the rapid exothermic combustion of propellants (as with firearms), or by mechanical compression (as with air guns). The high-pressure gas is introduced behind the projectile, pushing and accelerating it down the length of the tube, imparting sufficient launch velocity to sustain its further travel towards the target once the propelling gas ceases acting upon it after it exits the muzzle. Alternatively, new-concept linear motor weapons may employ an electromagnetic field to achieve acceleration, in which case the barrel may be substituted by guide rails (as in railguns) or wrapped with magnetic coils (as in coilguns).
The first devices identified as guns or proto-guns appeared in China from around AD 1000.[3] By the end of the 13th century, they had become "true guns," metal barrel firearms that fired single projectiles which occluded the barrel.[4][5] Gunpowder and gun technology spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century.[6][7][8]
Etymology and terminology
A 'flying-cloud thunderclap-eruptor,' a proto-gun firing thunderclap bombs, from the Huolongjing.
The origin of the English word gun is considered to derive from the name given to a particular historical weapon. Domina Gunilda was the name given to a remarkably large ballista, a mechanical bolt throwing weapon of enormous size, mounted at Windsor Castle during the 14th century. This name in turn may have derived from the Old Norse woman's proper name Gunnhildr which combines two Norse words referring to battle.[9] "Gunnildr", which means "War-sword", was often shortened to "Gunna".[10]
The earliest recorded use of the term "gonne" was in a Latin document circa 1339. Other names for guns during this era were "schioppi" (Italian translation-"thunderers"), and "donrebusse" (Dutch translation-"thunder gun") which was incorporated into the English language as "blunderbuss".[10] Artillerymen were often referred to as "gonners" and "artillers"[11] "Hand gun" was first used in 1373 in reference to the handle of guns.[12]
Definition
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a gun could mean "a piece of ordnance usually with high muzzle velocity and comparatively flat trajectory," " a portable firearm," or "a device that throws a projectile."[13]
Gunpowder and firearm historian Kenneth Chase defines "firearms" and "guns" in his Firearms: A Global History to 1700 as "gunpowder weapons that use the explosive force of the gunpowder to propel a projectile from a tube: cannons, muskets, and pistols are typical examples."[14]
True gun
According to Tonio Andrade, a historian of gunpowder technology, a "true gun" is defined as a firearm which shoots a bullet that fits the barrel as opposed to one which does not, such as the shrapnel shooting fire lance.[3] As such, the fire lance, which appeared between the 10th and 12th centuries AD, as well as other early metal barrel gunpowder weapons have been described as "proto-guns"[15] Joseph Needham defined a type of firearm known as the "eruptor," which he described as a cross between a fire lance and a gun, as a "proto-gun" for the same reason.[16] He defined a fully developed firearm, a "true gun," as possessing three basic features: a metal barrel, gunpowder with high nitrate content, and a projectile that occluded the barrel.[4] The "true gun" appears to have emerged in late 1200s China, around 300 years after the appearance of the fire lance.[4][5] Although the term "gun" postdates the invention of firearms, historians have applied it to the earliest firearms such as the Heilongjiang hand cannon of 1288[17] or the vase shaped European cannon of 1326.[18]