High Middle Ages · East Asia · Technology
1047
Song engineers improve gunpowder bomb design
1047
Imperial arsenals experimented with ceramic and iron casings for gunpowder charges, creating fragmentation bombs whose shrapnel could wound at a distance. The weapons were deployed against Tangut frontier strongholds and pirate fleets on the southeastern coast. Each iteration brought Chinese military engineers closer to the explosive projectiles that would eventually transform warfare worldwide.
In context
Also in 1047 (3 other events on record)
- William II of Normandy crushes rebellion · Europe · War
- Ouyang Xiu leads literary renaissance at Song court · East Asia · Culture
- Suryavarman I dies after half a century of rule · Southeast Asia · Politics
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in Technology
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.