History Trivia Thread Reducks

[Malthus]

Gustavus Adolphus.

Nope - much earlier.

[Drakken]

Genghis Khan?

[FunkMonk]

Grumbler?

[Martinus]

Heh, I just came across an obscure one - which famour historical person was depicted as the target in the first picture to depict hand-gun violence?

Was the person a contemporary to the picture? Because I suppose someone in the 16th century may have drawn a picture of Julius Ceasear or something...

[Viking]

William of Orange?

[Malthus]

Heh, I just came across an obscure one - which famour historical person was depicted as the target in the first picture to depict hand-gun violence?

Was the person a contemporary to the picture? Because I suppose someone in the 16th century may have drawn a picture of Julius Ceasear or something...

Good question ... and the answer is no. The person is not a contemporary of the picture. 

[Malthus]

Okay, here it is. The guy being threatened with an early hand-gun was ... the Buddha. 

The gun in question was the Chinese "fire lance":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lance

The picture:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/FireLanceAndGrenade10thCenturyDunhuang.jpg

Guy with the gun is the snake-haired demon in the upper right (another demon is holding a grenade!)

[Razgovory]

I don't think that's really a hand gun, anymore then a Bazooka is a hand gun.

[Malthus]

I don't think that's really a hand gun, anymore then a Bazooka is a hand gun.

It's the earliest hand-held gunpowder weapon that used exploding gunpowder to fire a projectile out of a tube. A bazooka works on a different principle altogether - it's a rocket launcher.

This is of course a trick question, the trick spotted by Martinus - that the guy being menaced lived one thousand six hundred years before the invention of such weapons. Also, ironic that it is the Buddha, associated with peaceful stuff.

[Drakken]

Also, ironic that it is the Buddha, associated with peaceful stuff.

There are a lot of Japanese Buddhists that would disagree with you.

[Razgovory]

I don't think that's really a hand gun, anymore then a Bazooka is a hand gun.

It's the earliest hand-held gunpowder weapon that used exploding gunpowder to fire a projectile out of a tube. A bazooka works on a different principle altogether - it's a rocket launcher.

This is of course a trick question, the trick spotted by Martinus - that the guy being menaced lived one thousand six hundred years before the invention of such weapons. Also, ironic that it is the Buddha, associated with peaceful stuff.

Being hand held doesn't make it a hand gun.

[Malthus]

Also, ironic that it is the Buddha, associated with peaceful stuff.

There are a lot of Japanese Buddhists that would disagree with you.

I didn't know that the Buddha was personally known to be a bad-ass, even among Japanese types. 

[Malthus]

I don't think that's really a hand gun, anymore then a Bazooka is a hand gun.

It's the earliest hand-held gunpowder weapon that used exploding gunpowder to fire a projectile out of a tube. A bazooka works on a different principle altogether - it's a rocket launcher.

This is of course a trick question, the trick spotted by Martinus - that the guy being menaced lived one thousand six hundred years before the invention of such weapons. Also, ironic that it is the Buddha, associated with peaceful stuff.

Being hand held doesn't make it a hand gun.

I disagree.

A handgun is a firearm designed to be handheld, in either one or both hands. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns (which are mounted against the shoulder).

and

Handheld firearms were first made in China where gunpowder was first developed. They were hand cannons (although they were not necessarily fired from the hand, but rather at the end of a handle). By the 14th century, they existed in Europe as well. The first handheld firearms that might better be called "pistols" were made as early as the 15th century, but their creator is unknown.[5] By the 18th century, the term came to be used often to refer to handheld firearms. Practical revolver designs appeared in the 19th century, but it was not until the mid-twentieth century that the (sometimes-observed) differentiation in usage of the words "pistol" and "revolver" evolved among some speakers and the use of "handgun" became prevalent. Previously there had been no such differentiation, and in fact Samuel Colt's original patent was for a "revolving-breech pistol." There is no literal equivalent for "handgun" in the Romance languages, which continue to use cognates of the word "pistol".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handgun#Multiple_senses_of_the_word_.22pistol.22

You are mistaking "handgun" and "pistol". The fire lance was a "handgun" because it was fired from the hands, not brought to the shoulder like a rifle, musket or shotgun.

[Viking]

Thread necromancy!!!!!


What is the modern name of Diopolis Megale?

[The Brain]

Nicki Minaj.