LESSON 3: HISTORY OF BALLISTICS AND

FIREARM IDENTIFICATION
THE FIRST BASIC PROBLEMS IN BALLISTICS:
The birth of ballistics goes back to the time
1. How to maximize the speed of a projectile
when people began to study how to launch
without bursting the gun
objects like stones and hit specific long-
distance targets. Significant developments 2. How fast the gunpowder should burn
in ballistics continued when scientists
3. How a gun can survive many firings
invented propellants then guns and ballistic
without damage
measuring instruments.

C. INITIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE THEORY OF

A. THE DISCOVERY OF BLACK POWDER
TRAJECTORY
• Black powder was discovered by
• Until the mid-16th century, people
Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir
believed that cannon balls travel in
of immortality. Known also as Poudre N
straight line from the gun barrel to the
(noire), the black powder was the first
target. This belief was disproved later by
explosives used to propel missiles for
Tartaglia, Galileo and Newton.
military reasons. It’s a mixture of
potassium nitrate (saltpeter), sulfur and
• Tartaglia, an Italian mathematician
charcoal. It burns rapidly upon ignition
whose real name is Niccolo Fontana,
producing thick whitish smoke.
conducted the first systematic study on
gunnery. In 1573, he explained that no
• As early as 10th century, black powder
part of the path of a projectile could be
was used for military purposes in China to
a straight line and that the greater the
launch rockets and explosive bombs
velocity of the projectile, the flatter its
fired from catapults. The first use of
path. He invented the gunner’s
cannon appeared in 1126 when Chinese
quadrant designed to determine
soldiers used oiled bamboo tubes to
elevation of the muzzle of a gun. Using
launch missiles against their enemy at
the gunner’s quadrant, he proved that
great distances. Roger bacon (an
the slope of the gun barrel required to
English philosopher) described its
produce the greatest range is 45O from
preparation in 1242. From China, the
the horizontal ground.
military use of black powder spread to
the Middle East (Arab world) and
• Galileo Galilei proved that when a
Europe.
projectile travels in a vacuum, its
trajectory would form a parabolic arc.
The trajectory of a projectile fired in a
B. FIRST BALLISTIC PROBLEM
vacuum from inclined gun barrel
• One of the early significant historical includes both the ascending and the
events whereby basic problems related descending parts of a parabola. He
to ballistics have been solved was the discovered that the path of a
Battle of Crecy. On August 26, 1346 in cannonball rolled off the end of a plank
northern France, the English headed by is the descending part of a parabola, like
King Edward III fought the French and the trajectory of a very heavy modern
won the battle with negligible casualty. bomb dropped from an aircraft flying
It was proven for the first time in actual horizontally.
battle that the longbow is superior to the
crossbow in both range and rapidity of • Isaac Newton, a British scientist,
fire. In this battle, the English fired their introduced in 1687 the law of universal
first gun-launched projectiles and gravitation which can be used to explain
encountered the basic problems in the cause of curvilinear motion of
interior ballistics. projectiles.
D. PIONEERS IN STUDYING PROJECTILE
VELOCITY
E. 19th CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS IN
• Measuring muzzle velocity of firearm was BALLISTICS
first suggested in 1707 by Giovanni
• In 1807, Alexander John Forsythe, a
Cassini, a French astronomer. About
Scottish Presbyterian minister, introduced
1740, measuring the muzzle velocity of
the idea of using chemicals (detonator)
any firearm was made possible because
to ignite the gunpowder placed in the
of an instrument invented by a British
cartridge case. He was the first to use
engineer named Benjamin Robins. In
such kind of technique which applied
1742, Robins described before the Royal
the principle of percussion to improve
Society of England the first accurate
the design of firearms and ammunition.
ballistic measuring instrument called
His idea earned him this title - the father
‘ballistic pendulum’. The ballistic
of percussion ignition.
pendulum, however, was convenient to
use in investigating the muzzle velocity of
• In 1841, a breech-loading infantry rifle,
musket balls or round projectiles.
the so-called needle gun because of its
long sharp firing pin, was invented by
• The design of the ballistic pendulum is
Johann Dreyse.
based on the principle that the
momentum of a projectile with a small
• In 1845, a serviceable breech-loading
size and a high velocity can be
artillery rifle was developed by Major
transferred to a material having a large
Cavalli of Sardinia. Pointed cylindrical
mass with a resultant low velocity. Later
projectiles became standard issue for
the gun pendulum, a modification of
both small arms and artillery. Bullets were
ballistic pendulum, was developed by
made of soft metal so they could fit at
Benjamin Thompson.
the base of the rifling in small arms, and
copper rotating bands were added
• By determining the relationship between
near the base of artillery shells. These
the caliber, length of barrel, and charge
innovations promoted the idea of
of powder, Robins substantially
trapping the combustion gases behind
improved the science of gunnery.
the bullet while it is moving towards the
Hence, today he is called ‘the father of
gun muzzle.
modern gunnery.’ He was the first to
undertake a systematic series of
• In 1857, works of General Thomas
experiments to determine the velocity of
Jackson Rodman (an American artillerist,
projectiles. Observing that large
inventor, and ordnance specialist in
quantities of gas escaped bypassing the
United States Army) led to improvements
round projectile in smooth-bore barrels,
in the grain-form of gun powder and in
he proposed two things: the use of
making guns. Rodman made a gauge
breech-loading weapons (loaded at the
for direct measurement of the maximum
rear of the bore) with rifled barrels; and
pressure of gunpowder gases. His ideas
the use of elongated projectiles fitted in
about improving weapons were used to
the bore.
develop the ‘strongest cast iron cannon
ever made’ now known today as
• In 1840, the British physicist Sir Charles
Rodman gun, which was used
Wheatstone suggested the use of
extensively in defending coastal areas.
electricity for measuring small intervals of
time. This suggestion led to the
• In 1884, Paul Vieille in France developed
development of the chronograph, a
the first smokeless gun powder called
device for recording by electrical means
Poudre B (Poudre Blanche or white
the time required for a projectile to pass
powder) that is more efficient than black
between two screens of fine wire.
powder. Poudre B is made from
gelatinized nitrocellulose mixed with
ether and alcohol. It appeared actually
as fine powder but it looked like tiny
flakes. This French-made gunpowder
revolutionized the effectiveness of small
guns and rifles. Aside from the fact that
 practically no smoke would be formed
when discharging ammunition, Poudre B
is much more powerful than black
powder, giving an accurate rifle range
up to 1,000 yards.

• In 1887, Alfred Nobel (a Swedish chemist,

engineer, innovator, and armaments
manufacturer) introduced another kind
of smokeless gunpowder which he
patented as ‘ballistite’. This second
version of smokeless powder consisted of
10% camphor and equal parts of
nitroglycerine and collodion. The
camphor content tends to evaporate
over time, leaving a potentially unstable
explosive. (Wikipedia, 2011)

• By 1889, Sir Frederick Abel (English

chemist) together with Sir James Dewar
jointly patented a modified form of
ballistite. This third version of smokeless
powder consisted of 58% nitroglycerin by
weight, 37% (nitrocellulose) guncotton
and 5% petroleum jelly. Using acetone as
a solvent, it was produced in spaghetti-
like rods initially called ‘cord powder’
abbreviated later on as ‘cordite’ and it
gradually became more predominant
compared to Poudre B and ballistite.