Timeline for Can a world exist with large calibre guns but without small calibre guns?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
39 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 16, 2017 at 22:16 | vote | accept | Slarty | ||
| Nov 8, 2017 at 10:49 | comment | added | Luís Henrique | "prevent infantry or cavalry from being armed with guns" - Cavalry will be prevented from being (efficiently) armed with guns if guns must be reloaded through the muzzle - you can't do this while mounting. | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 12:38 | comment | added | user3685427 | To extend that period, simply reduce the supply of coal and iron. Cannons could be made of cast bronze - it was extremely expensive, but they could do it. Hence the first cannonmakers were the bellmakers, who already made giant cast bronze items. | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 11:53 | comment | added | Slarty | @GrimmTheOpiner you may be right. And in due course I will mark someone as having answered this question. There have been some good answers and a combination of factors could be used to ensure that the initial period of cannons but no hand guns was extended greatly. | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 11:30 | answer | added | Djaro | timeline score: 0 | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 9:36 | comment | added | Grimm The Opiner |
@Slarty What I'm after is to prevent infantry or cavalry from being armed with guns (hand guns, pistols, muskets or machine guns. Then Joe Bloggs has already answered this in the first comment. In the real world our first guns were cannon - and over time we managed to make them almost, then just about, then fairly, and finally usefully, small enough to be a single man portable weapon.
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| Oct 23, 2017 at 5:36 | answer | added | Nathan | timeline score: 1 | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 4:43 | answer | added | alephzero | timeline score: 0 | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 2:58 | comment | added | pojo-guy | It is much easier to cast a canon than to roll a small arms barrel. That is why historically canon preceded personal firearms. | |
| Oct 23, 2017 at 0:26 | comment | added | Slarty | @user3685427 interesting why was this so? | |
| Oct 22, 2017 at 19:27 | comment | added | user3685427 | Cannons were used for more than a hundred years as siege weapons, without any other form of guns in combat. They wouldn't even use those cannons in battle because they were so inaccurate, impossible to aim in less than a few hours, and usually not even assembled until they needed to be used. No one carried a cannon in its wood frame and ready to fire - that stuff is way to much extra weight. They build that stuff near whatever castle they wanted to siege, just like they built trebuchet's near the castle. Sometimes they didn't even MAKE a cannon barrel until starting the siege. | |
| Oct 22, 2017 at 16:34 | answer | added | Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні | timeline score: 5 | |
| Oct 22, 2017 at 11:32 | answer | added | Damon | timeline score: 4 | |
| Oct 22, 2017 at 5:01 | answer | added | dhinson919 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Oct 22, 2017 at 4:31 | answer | added | SpliFF | timeline score: 2 | |
| Oct 22, 2017 at 0:50 | answer | added | Loren Pechtel | timeline score: 2 | |
| S Oct 21, 2017 at 23:49 | history | edited | Brythan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Calibre is the correct UK spelling, but cannons is more correct than cannon.
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| Oct 21, 2017 at 23:44 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 21, 2017 at 23:49 | |||||
| Oct 21, 2017 at 22:45 | comment | added | ed.hank | maybe for some reason in your world things dont combust or explode as violently as on earth so they require a very large amount of powder to shot a shot, only things like boats or city defenses could hold enough powder to fire multiple rounds. | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 21:55 | answer | added | user | timeline score: 25 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 21:53 | answer | added | Ernest Albareda | timeline score: 4 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 21:38 | answer | added | Tungsteno | timeline score: 2 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 20:22 | answer | added | Slarty | timeline score: 0 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 20:18 | answer | added | Pere | timeline score: 12 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 20:02 | comment | added | Slarty | @AlexP What I'm after is to prevent infantry or cavalry from being armed with guns (hand guns, pistols, muskets or machine guns or anything else that can easily be moved around the battlefield). I'm OK with large installations, but I was hoping to retain a more ancient form of combat "in the field" | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 19:42 | answer | added | RonJohn | timeline score: 4 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 19:33 | comment | added | AlexP | Are you sure that you want a world without small calibre guns as opposed to a world without handguns? I'm asking because actual small calibre guns became practical quite late in history, in the Modern Age. In the Renaissance and Early Modern times handguns had huge calibres, from 0.50 inches up, similar to modern machine guns or larger. (The use of black powder combined with lack of precision machinery and a short barrel required huge projectiles to compensate.) | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 19:06 | comment | added | user_1818839 | They weren't made of bronze, they were made of ... drum roll ... gunmetal. | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 18:14 | answer | added | Yakk | timeline score: 17 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 17:45 | answer | added | Shalvenay | timeline score: 6 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 17:39 | comment | added | Mazura | Because there were handguns made with bronze barrels like the example from that link, circa 1803-1820. You'd have to skip the bronze age and still be in the stone age firing them out of bamboo. | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 17:05 | answer | added | o.m. | timeline score: 4 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 16:39 | answer | added | Liquid | timeline score: 5 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 15:31 | comment | added | Willk | @Luís Henrique - that is a good one. Why not make that an answer? | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 14:25 | comment | added | Luís Henrique | One possibility is a defective technology of steel. Big guns can be made of bronze (and indeed this was the material of choice for some time); small guns must be made of steel. If their steel is not resistant enough, small guns might pose so much risk of exploding in the face or their users that they won't be useful. | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 13:45 | answer | added | Joe Bloggs | timeline score: 20 | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 13:25 | comment | added | Slarty | @JoeBloggs Minimum cannon technology, but the more advanced the big guns are the better as long as there are no small handguns. The best solutions would allow the absence of handguns to continue for an extended period through history, rather than a brief interlude. | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 13:16 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | Our own world was like this for quite some time before the advent of personal firearms. Can you just use a historical setting or do you want all our modern manufacturing techniques etc available, but no small arms? | |
| Oct 21, 2017 at 13:10 | history | asked | Slarty | CC BY-SA 3.0 |