Editing Swivel gun (section)

==History==
[[File:Breech loading swivel gun with mug and wedge.jpg|thumb|left|Breech-loading swivel gun with mug-shaped chamber, and wedge to hold it in place.]]
Although [[breech-loading]] is often considered a modern innovation which facilitated the loading of cannons,<ref name="Turnbull, p. 105">Turnbull, p. 105</ref> breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fggBGcbQDsQC&pg=PA105 ''Samurai – The World of the Warrior'' Stephen Turnbull p. 105]</ref> 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", "Base", "Sling", "Port-Piece", "Serpentine", "Culverin", "Pierrier", "Stock Fowler", and "Patterero" in English;<ref name="Hildred">{{cite book|author=Alexzandra Hildred|title=Your Noblest Shippe: Anatomy of a Tudor Warship. The Archaeology of the ''Mary Rose'', Volume 2|publisher=The Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth|year=2009|isbn=978-0-9544029-2-1|editor=Peter Marsden|pages=297–344}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1986|location=Cambridge}}</ref>{{Rp|368–369}}<ref>Grose, Francis (1801). ''[https://archive.org/details/militaryantiquit01grosuoft/page/402/mode/2up Military antiquities respecting a history of the English army, from the conquest to the present time]''. London: T. Egerton Whitehall & G. Kearsley. pp. 402–403.</ref> "Pierrier à boîte" in French; "Berço" in Portuguese; "Verso" in Spanish;<ref>''Spanish Galleon 1530–1690 by Angus Konstam p. 15 [https://books.google.com/books?id=6ApBsCi1FnMC&pg=PA15]''</ref> "[[Prangi]]" in Turkish;<ref name=":03">{{cite book|last=Chase|first=Kenneth|title=Firearms: A Global History to 1700|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=9780521822749}}</ref>{{Rp|143}} "[[:de:Kammergeschütz|Kammerschlange]]" (lit. "chamber snake", properly means "breech-loading [[Falconet (cannon)|falconet]]") in German; "[[Farang|Folangji]]" (佛郎机, from [[Turkish language|Turkish]] "Prangi" or [[Chagatai language|Turkic]] "Farangi"),<ref name=":03" />{{Rp|143}} "Folangji chong"<ref name=":Andrade" />{{rp|348–349}} (佛郎机铳, Prangi or Farangi gun),<ref name=":03" />{{Rp|143}} "Fo-lang-chi p'ao" (佛朗机炮 or 佛朗機砲, [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] cannon)<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Charney|first=Michael|title=Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300–1900|publisher=Brill|year=2004|isbn=9789047406921}}</ref> in Chinese; "Bulang-kipo" ("불랑기포[佛郞機砲]") in Korean;<ref>[[:ko:불랑기포]]</ref> "Furanki" (仏郎機砲, "Frankish gun") or 子砲 ("Child cannon") in Japanese;<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fggBGcbQDsQC&pg=PA106 ''Samurai – The World of the Warrior'' Stephen Turnbull p. 106]</ref><ref name="Musée de l'Armée, Paris">Musée de l'Armée, Paris.</ref> and "Bedil" or "bḍil" (ꦧꦣꦶꦭ) in Javanese.<ref name=":7">{{cite journal|last=Manguin|first=Pierre-Yves |date=1976 |title=L'Artillerie legere nousantarienne: A propos de six canons conserves dans des collections portugaises|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02509117/file/arasi_0004-3958_1976_num_32_1_1103.pdf|journal=Arts Asiatiques|volume=32|pages=233–268|doi=10.3406/arasi.1976.1103|s2cid=191565174 }}</ref>{{Rp|238 and 247}} Some of them were used until the 20th century.<ref name="Musée de l'Armée, Paris"/>

Swivel guns were developed and used from 1364 onward.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|366}} 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.<ref name="Perrin, p. 29">Perrin, p. 29</ref> An early description of a swivel gun puts the weight of the gun at {{convert|118|kg}}, equipped with three chambers for rotations, each {{convert|18|kg}} in weight, and firing a {{convert|280|g}} [[lead]] shot.<ref name="Turnbull p. 106">Turnbull p. 106</ref> 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.<ref>Turnbull pp. 105–106</ref> A swivel gun could fire either cannonballs against obstacles, or [[grapeshot]] against troops.<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=esnWJkYRCJ4C&pg=PA143 ''Firearms: a global history to 1700'' by Kenneth Warren Chase p. 143]</ref>

[[File:Oda Nobunaga swivel breech loading gun.jpg|thumb|A Japanese breech-loading swivel gun of the time of the 16th century, obtained by [[Ōtomo Sōrin]]. This gun is thought to have been cast in [[Goa]], [[Portuguese India]]. Caliber: {{convert|95|mm|in|abbr=on}}, length: {{convert|2.88|m|ft|abbr=on}}.]]
[[File:Ming_bronze_cannon.JPG|thumb|A [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] [[bronze]] cannon with open breech.]]
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.<ref name="books.google.com"/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YKqsjKHwQ-8C&pg=PA34 ''Tudor Warships (1): Henry VIII's Navy'' Angus Konstam p.34]</ref>

[[File:Breech loading swivel cannon Munich 1632.jpg|thumb|left|Breech-loading swivel cannon, left by [[Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden|Gustavus Adolphus]] at [[Munich]], 1632.]]
Around 1500, Europeans learnt how to cast iron, and shifted their cannon productions to one-piece iron muzzleloaders. China started to adopt European swivel guns from 1500 onward, limiting at the same time the production of their own muzzleloaders, because of the high effectiveness of the swivel gun as an [[anti-personnel]] gun, which to them was more interesting than the sheer power of a cannonball.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Usage of breech-loading swivel guns continued in Europe however, with, as early as the 17th century, characteristics very similar to the modern [[machine-gun]] or [[mitrailleuse]].<ref>History and Descriptive Guide of the U.S. Navy Yard, Washington Compiled by  F. E. Farnham and J. Mundell. Washington, D.C.:
Gibson Bros, Printers and Bookbinders  1894 p. 19 [https://web.archive.org/web/20071208021718/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/wny1894guide.htm]</ref>