This article is part of a short seminar for fourth grade elementary students studying Pennsylvania culture and history. This article gives background and history on the origins of the Pennsylvania Rifle. To better understand the significance of the Pennsylvania Rifle, we first need to understand the context of it's time.

The gun, or firearm is only one of a long line of throwing machines man has developed over thousands of years. Early on, man discovered the principle of throwing an object to cause an action at a distance, but the limiting factor until recently was the technique — most throwing machines simply imitated an arm throwing a ball or rock. Larger versions of these throwing machines were used in the midieval ages to hurl huge stones against castle walls and other large targets. Since the throwing arm adds significant mass to the thrown weight, a lot of energy is wasted pushing the arm and basket.

Early 'Gonne' from midieval manuscript.

A simple child's toy held the solution, the straw. The straw and pea, or peashooter is deceivingly simple: an object close to the diameter of the straw is placed inside near one end and blown out through the length of the tube. It's extremely efficient since no mechanical object other than air pressure pushes against the pea, or projectile. It's limited by the pressure human lungs can develop, which is about 2 pounds per square inch. The highest performance weapon developed from this appears to be the blowgun, which usually requires some type of poison or venom since the dart rarely has enough power to inflict serious injury alone.

The blowgun or peashooter probably appeared anywhere tall reed-like grass produced smooth, even shutes that dried to a rigid tube. The peashooter (straw and spitball, if you prefer) remained unchanged and almost harmless for thousands of years until Franciscan Monk Roger Bacon had a laboratory accident, and discovered gunpowder in the process. No one really knows who exactly invented gunpowder, Roger Bacon is credited with it's invention even though the Chinese had a similar compound years before.

It didn't take long before someone tried using gunpowder in the blowgun, since raising the tube pressure causes the pellet or projectile to come out significantly faster, and at dangerous speeds. The earliest guns were simply a tube with one end sealed, and a small touch hole in the sealed end. The best process for making a tube with one end sealed that could contain the pressure of burning was bronze, and the primary users of bronze were the foundries that made the ten ton church bells. Back then, bells were called gonnes, and thus the name gonne stuck with the firearm. And so, the gun was born. These early guns were more a novelty, since the established weapons of the 15th century had already matured. The longbow had just become the dominant assault weapon at the Battle of Crecy in 1346, starting the mass-firepower tactic that would remain until this day.

The earliest gonne was mounted on a wood pole, sometimes referred to as tiller guns by historians.These hand-fired weapons were known as the hand gonne and, had more problems than solutions. First, it required a tightly fitted ball as a bullet. Materials that were suitable were also hard to make into a ball shape in the numbers that would make a hand gonne a viable weapon. Next was the powder, called serpentine powder, was loosely mixed when dry. It easily separated if shaken or agitated. The result was a powder that burned inconsistenly, giving erratic performance. The extremely poor metallurgy of the day no doubt caused more than a few hand gonnes to become accidental grenades. Finally, the process of ignition was touching a piece of burning string ember (which had been treated with potassium nitrate) into the touch hole making aimed fire very difficult.

Later, a downward spike appeared to act as a brace to counter recoil and became the harquebus. The next innovation was mounting the barrel in a club-shaped stock that allowed three-point contact with the shooter, significantly increasing accuracy potential. The slowmatch was attached to a tiller mechanism that allowed the shooter to concentrate more on aiming, and the matchlock was invented.

In Colonial-era Pennsylvania, life was simpler but much harder. We didn't have many of today's conveniences like running (pressurized) water, grocery stores or electricity. Since we didn't have electricity, we didn't have electric refrigerators, computers or games. Most toys were handmade by the parents or a relative. Since there weren't any refrigerators, most food was either grown or hunted locally.

In early Pennsylvania, most of the ground was woodland. The main source of food was game that settlers hunted. Pennsylvania also had local Indian tribes, who also hunted this region. Pennsylvania's government was much smaller and law enforcement wasn't always available. Lacking Federal government, outlaws could simply cross state lines to avoid capture.

It wasn't always a peaceful region. in the 70 year region between 1750 and 1820, no less than three wars rolled through Pennsylvania. In the 1750's, the French-Indian war crossed through this region, followed by the Revolution twenty years later. Less than thirty years later, the War of 1812 erupted. Historic battles in Pennsylvania:

• French & Indian War (1757)
• American Revolution (1775-1783)
• War of 1812 (1812-1815)
• Civil War (Gettysburg, July 1863)

In Chester County, there were three major events in the US Revolutionary War: The Battle for Brandywine, the Paoli Massacre and Valley Forge. In addition to these wars, several other conflicts erupted affecting the entire nation:

• Quasi War with France (French Naval War 1798-1801)
• War with Tripoli or Barbary Pirates War 1801-1805
• Battle of Twelve Mile Swamp (Florida) 1812
• Battle of Quallah Batto (Sumatra) 1832
• Florida Indian War 1836-1847
• War With Mexico 1846-1847

Chester County in 1777, as drawn by a British cartographer. Original is on display at the Brandywine Battlefield. Davis Family Archives

Lacking strong law enforcement, local disputes between landowners could seriously escalate. Sometimes people "settled" these matters under the guise of war. If two neighbors had previously fought and there was a battle nearby, they would ravage the other's homestead with the intent of making it look like it was part of the battle.

Disputes could be levered, depending on the region or occcupying force. When British troops camped in a town, the loyalists could (and sometimes did) lever the British military influence against the rebels. If the nearby military force was the Continetial Army, the loyalists would receive the "payback".

So, firearms (sometimes called "firelocks") were important for both food and protection. The most common firearm in Pennsylvania was the musket. Muskets were brought ashore by the earliest settlers, and later during the French-Indian War (also called the Seven Years War). Scores of thousands were brought into colonial Pennsylvania by the British, followed by French assistance during the American Revolution (1776-1783). Following these events, the War of 1812 rolled through Pennsylvania with musket-carrying troops (particularly around Erie, Pennsylvania).

Muskets and rifles are almost the same except for one important detail. A rifle has spiral grooves inside the barrel that spins the bullet when it's fired. A musket lacks these grooves, so muskets are somtimes called "smoothbores". Also, muskets generally could accept a bayonet (a sharpened point), turning it into a spear or pike.

(Top) British musket, 75 caliber with bayonet. Sometimes called "Brown Bess". (Bottom) French musket, 69 caliber pattern 1763 issued to the Continental army, marked "U. States".

Each type has an advange: the rifle can fire further and more accurately, the musket can fire faster. So, rifles were generally used for distance shooting and muskets for close range. Muskets had an additional benefit -- they could fire several different types of bullets. The musket fired a single, large round lead ball but could fire several smaller round balls like a shotgun, making it a very good general-purpose firearm. Homeowners and other frontier folks often had a battlefield pick-up musket as a general purpose firearm.

The earliest firearms came from Europe. These early models were mostly muskets, and there were a few private hunting rifles called "Jaegers" (German, pronounced Yay-ger, literally "hunter"). Many of the early settlers in Pennsylvania were German-speaking people from Austria, Switzerland and what is now Germany. They brought steelmaking and gunsmithing skills with them, along with the "Jaeger" rifle. These Jaegers were shorter, heavier and fired a large diameter bullet. Early US gunmakers changed the Jaeger's design to make it lighter and more accurate. Around 1710, gunsmiths made the barrel bore smaller, and the barrel longer. This made the rifle more accurate and cheaper to shoot. These early gunsmiths, located in Lancaster, gave birth to what is now called the "Pennsylvania Rifle".

Jaeger heavy rifle

Along with the technology, these Germanic people brought the earliest traces of the "gun culture" with them. Most European gun owners belonged to formal gun clubs, or "Schützenverein" (google result) complete with uniforms, flags and clubhouses. The european Schützenverein bear a very strong resemblance to Pennsylvania.