Mitrailleuse
A mitrailleuse (; from French "mitraille", "grapeshot") is a type of volley gun with multiple barrels of rifle calibre that can fire either multiple rounds at once or several rounds in rapid succession. The earliest true mitrailleuse was invented in 1851 by Belgian Army captain Fafschamps, 10 years before the advent of the Gatling gun. It was followed by the Belgian Montigny mitrailleuse in 1863. Then the French 25 barrel ""Canon à Balles"", better known as the Reffye "mitrailleuse", was adopted in great secrecy in 1866. It became the first rapid-firing weapon deployed as standard equipment by any army in a major conflict when it was used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. A steel block containing twenty-five 13 mm (.51 calibre) centre-fire cartridges was locked against the breech before firing. With the rotation of a crank, the 25 rounds were discharged in rapid succession. The sustainable firing rate of the Reffye mitrailleuse was 100 rounds per minute. The maximum effective range of the Reffye "mitrailleuse" was about 2000 yards; a distance which placed their batteries beyond the reach of Prussian Dreyse needle rifle fire. Reffye mitrailleuses were deployed in six gun batteries and were manned by artillery personnel. They were not infantry support weapons, but rather a form of special artillery.
History of weapons
The invention of gunpowder weapons revolutionized siege warfare, Gunpowder is said to have been conceived in China. It was when the Mongols, after invading China, went on to subdue Japan. Their ships sunk from being hit by a typhoon, resulting in half of their army drowning at sea. Marine archaeology has revealed that the Mongols were carrying gunpowder in ceramic pots, similar pots with ignited fuses had been shot from mechanical artillery against the Japanese defenders. Even the old Japanese paintings show the Japanese samurai defending themselves against bombs and rockets hurled by the invaders.
Some historians have observed that only 14 percent men in Europe owned guns,
over half of those guns were unusable during the later Middle Ages. The invention of gunpowder weapons replaced only catapults and onagers, the change was slow. Buying guns in those days was a costly affair, the cost of one gun was the equivalent of two months pay for a skilled artisan. By 1450, inventors improved the make of the gun and introduced the matchlock gun. Though inventors came with new technology, the process of reloading after every shot was very time consuming, by the time they were reloading the gun, the cavalry would charge and annihilate the entire unit of shooters.