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A dragon is a shortened version of blunderbuss, a firearm with a short, large caliber
A dragon is a shortened version of blunderbuss, a firearm with a short, large caliber barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
which is flared at the muzzle and frequently throughout the entire bore. Dragons were typically issued to dragoon cavalry, who needed a lightweight, easily handled firearm while mounted., page 324, from a letter dated March 7, 1778
Etymology
The term ''dragon'' is taken from the fact that early versions were decorated with a carving in the form of a mythical dragon's head around the muzzle; the muzzle blast would then give the impression of a fire-breathing dragon.History and description
Early dragons were shortwheellock
A wheellock, wheel-lock or wheel lock is a friction-wheel mechanism which creates a spark that causes a firearm to fire. It was the next major development in firearms technology after the matchlock and the first self-igniting firearm. Its name i ...
firearms. It is called a dragon because the muzzle is decorated with a dragon's head. The practice comes from a time when all gunpowder weapons had distinctive names, including the culverin
A culverin was initially an ancestor of the hand-held arquebus, but later was used to describe a type of medieval and Renaissance cannon. The term is derived from the French "''couleuvrine''" (from ''couleuvre'' "grass snake", following the Lat ...
, serpentine, falcon, and falconet.p. 333, Bismark The dragon was effective only at short range, lacking accuracy at long range.
In Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, the weapon is called a tarkul, where it was one of the most well-known weapons among sailors, merchants and pirates of the archipelago. Tarkul initially used wheel-lock mechanisms. Tarkuls were used in the wars between kingdoms, by sultans in the Philippines against Spain, by the Brunei army against King Brooke, and in the Naning War of 1831 in Malacca. Around 1530, the tarkul advanced with the use of flintlock technology and since then has been more recognized as a pistol in the West.
See also
*Pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, ...
* Shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub- p ...
References
Further reading
* {{Early firearms Early firearms 18th-century weapons 19th-century weapons Weapons of the Netherlands