From Iron Pots to Rifles
c1300 AD
1300 1300
30.00E31.00N
SCI

EGYPT
	While the Chinese invented gunpowder, the idea of using it to shoot a projectile belongs to others, possibly the Arabs.
	The first cannons to appear in Europe turned up in the 1300s.  Primitive pots-de-fer (iron pots) were reportedly used at the battle of Cr‚cy in 1346.  These were bottle-shaped devices containing gunpowder.  The projectile was an iron arrow inserted in the neck.
	There have been three major improvements in guns over the following centuries.  The first was the development of increasingly effective methods of igniting the charge that propelled the projectile.  The second was rifling, spiraling grooves along the barrel of the gun that spins the bullet and makes it fly straight.  The third was the development of breech loading, which meant the gun could be loaded from the back instead of from the front.
	Today bullets are attached to metal cartridges filled with explosive and backed by a primer (a small cap of a chemical that explodes when struck).  When a pin strikes the primer, the chemical explodes, igniting the main charge and propelling the bullet through the barrel.