It is unknown exactly when and where gunpowder was discovered. The prevailing view wants its discovery in China and its use in war. One of the first weapons, if not the first, to make use of gunpowder was the "flaming spear".
This weapon was nothing but a common spear near the tip of which was attached a tube with gunpowder and a fuse. Before contact with the enemy, the soldier carrier would set fire to the fuse, which in turn ignited the gunpowder.
The gunpowder caused an explosion that could affect the opponent at a distance of about 3 m, but causing more of a psychological than a practical effect. Gradually small pieces of iron or other metals were added to the front of the tube.
Thus with the explosion metal fragments were thrown at the enemies. Thus the flaming spear functioned roughly like a modern shrapnel-firing shotgun, but also as a kind of flamethrower. However, its range was short.
Sometimes a second barrel was attached so that the weapon could fire twice, while sometimes the lance was removed. The first evidence of the existence of the weapon dates back to around 950 AD. in China. It is also mentioned in a military text of 1044. However, the first references to its use in battle are from 1132 AD. in the siege of Dean during the Jin Dynasty.
The tube attached to the tip of the spear was made of bamboo or layers of paper. The big change came when pipes began to be made of metal, in the third quarter of the 13th century. AD Gradually the soldiers began to detach the metal tube from the spear and use it independently. Thus the early rifles were born.
Flaming spears were frequently used by the Chinese against the Mongols and with great success. The Mongols in turn adopted the weapon and used it against their opponents during their campaigns in Europe and the Middle East, thus spreading the use of the weapon.
According to depictions of the 14th c. both the Turks and the Persians, as well as the Europeans, used the weapon. There is an illustration that testifies to the use of the weapon by a knight on horseback.
The Italian metallurgist Vinnozio Birincuccio, in his treatise "De la Pirotechnia", published in 1540, depicts flaming spears and flaming lances of knights.
Developments in military technology were however rapid and soon made the weapon obsolete, mainly due to its insufficient range. So early rifles replaced it. These weapons had a much greater effective range and effectiveness.
And these were replaced in turn by the arquebuses and those by the muskets that armed, in various variations and models, the soldiers of the European armies for centuries.
It is worth noting that the last recorded use of the flaming spear in Europe was during the English Civil War, in 1643, in Bristol.
Chinese flaming spear as depicted in manuscript.
Flaming spears and flaming spears as illustrated in the book De la pyrotechnia.
Chinese soldier with flaming spear.