There’s a cartoon floating around online called “The Invention of Archery.” Three guys are standing beside each other. The first guy says, I really wanna stab that guy, but he’s way over there.
Firearms were likely dreamt up along the same lines. Someone hit upon the idea that blackpowder stuffed down a tube, topped with a projectile, and touched off with fire, did spectacular damage downrange. Man, I want to knock that castle down, but it’s way over there.
In Europe, cannons showed up in Italy around 1320. For the next 200 years, firearms were essentially hand cannons—short, stout barrels loaded with blackpowder, then packed with rocks, pebbles, and sometimes arrows. You jabbed a hole in the barrel’s top or side with a smoldering stick or hot iron. Firing it…