Wilkinson Frederick. Guns

The Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1975. — 160 p.Perhaps the romantic streak in many of us gives a special appeal to an antique firearm, conjuring up an association with highwaymen, pirates, cowboys and the Redcoats. However, a slightly closer studv of any of these weapons will soon reveal a history which began over a thousand years ago in China where an unknown inventor mixed three chemicals together. He could not have foreseen the impact that this mixture was to have on the world, for this compound was gunpowder. The first crude firearms made their appearance in Europe earlv in the fourteenth century. At first they were unreliable and ineffective, but slowly their design and power increased and by the sixteenth century they were beginning to dominate the battlefields. From then on, their story became more and more involved with inventors seeking ways to improve the performance of firearms.