The fire lance is the earliest type of hand-held firearm and appeared between the 10th and 11th century during the conflicts opposing the Jurchen Jin dynasty and the Han Song dynasty in modern-day China.
As their name suggests, fire lances were at first nothing more than spears to which a bamboo tube opened at the front and filled with black powder was attached. A match protruded from the back of the tube for ignition, and when lit the weapon would spew fire at short range for a couple seconds.
The Li Hua Qiang ‘Pear Flower Gun’ as depicted in the Huolongjing ‘Fire Dragon Manual’ c.14th century based on earlier documentation.
After the powder charge was spent, the user still had a spear to fight with - much like a bayonet with a rifle - although it was made unwieldy by the weight of the firearm - much like a bayonet with a rifle. As more emphasis was put on the gun part of the weapon, increasing its size and powder charge, the spear head was often discarded altogether.
By this point bamboo tubes had been largely replaced by metal ones, and the fire burst was supplemented with shrapnel, making the fire lance the first firearm to use bullets and a clear predecessor to the tiller gun in its small form and the bombard in its larger, stand-fired form.
The fire lance made its way to Europe through the Middle East via the Silk Road and was quickly adopted on the local battlefields, seeing on and off use as cavalry weapons from the 14th to the 16th century, described for instance in De la Pirotechnia c.1540 as petards mounted on cavalry lances.
c.1396 representation of a fire lance used by a European knight.
Although in the field the fire lance was completely eclipsed by its successor the handgonne in a very short amount of time, in siege battles it stuck around in an upgraded form known as the bombastic Sturmspiesz/Sturmspiess or ‘assault pike’.
Described in details in Hans Georg Schirvatt’s 1622 book on incendiary weapons, the Sturmspiess consists of a thick polearm base with a long barbed head on which is stuck Brandballen, incendiary devices themselves consisting of wooden barrels covered in linen fabric and an hemp net and filled with pitch, saltpeter and whatever would turn them into a raging inferno. This was complemented with iron spikes and gun barrels filled with shot that would increase and focus the amount of damage caused by the weapon, while a wooden or metal shield stood under the whole mess to protect its wielder. The device was lit using a linstock and pointed or launched at enemy troops or buildings during a siege.
Part-flamethrowers part-shotgun, it too gave way to safer alternatives like regular cannons around the end of the 17th century. Much like the grenade, it was far too unwieldy a weapon for early modern battlefields until they both reappeared in their contemporary forms in the trenches of World War 1.
Feuerballen, Leucht- or Sturmfässer: Literally ‘fireballs’ and ‘light/assault barrels’, various names designating Brandballen in their various uses as projectiles.
Eruptor: A fire lance loaded with pellets, be it lead shot or porcelain fragments.
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