In the first half of the 14th century, gunpowder was first used in Europe in a vase/bottle-shaped cannon which fired a kind of stone arrows.Buffalo armament

At the rear was a vertically drilled hole which will be called the zundhole.
A load from the Hook Bus consisted of +/- 5gr. BK nudged and sealed with a felt gag.
Well-fitting round pebbles were initially used as projectiles.
Later replaced by the cast round lead ball.

The problem with these firearms was the ignition of the main charge, in the case of the aforementioned Hook canister it was done by sprinkling very finely ground gunpowder (powder) in and on the sinkhole and then igniting it by means of a tinderbox. For a Cannon, they used a glowing splinter of wood.
At some point the tinderbox was replaced by a wick (think of the wick used to light fireworks). A piece of wood was attached to the underside of the hook canister, which grew into a rifle butt, thus the first rifle. And that was called a “wick-lock rifle” (bottom right). A modern firing rifle, for the time, can be seen, among other things, in Rembrand’s painting the “Night Watch.”

The ignition of the powder charge remained a source of misery until the invention of the central firing system, the cartridge. Due to the pressure released by the ignition of gunpowder, +/- 1000 bar and a temperature of 1000 degrees C, it was not possible to use the rear of a Cannon/Gun, pistol to load the weapon. One simply could not manufacture a good seal for a good gas seal.
From 1350 to 1600, ignition is by wick/flint. The period from1600 to 1820 only flint.

The last quarter of the 17th century saw the invention of popping powder, also called popping mercury or percussion mercury(German alchemist Johan Kunckel 1630-1703), which was many times more potent than BK.
A Scottish minister, Alexander Forsythe managed in 1805 to place this powder in a solid form, the “percussion ash,” in a tube/canister and ignite it by tapping it with a hammer. The percussion cap, percussion cap was born. Forsyth hit the ground running with his invention, but strangely, commanders saw nothing in the percussion cap, including Napoleon. Consequently, the battle of Waterloo was fought with flintlock rifles by the armies of Napoleon and the Allies.
After 1815, opinions on ignition had changed dramatically and pistols, rifles and cannons were converted en masse in favor of percussion ignition.

Which led to the invention in 1847, by William Colt, of the percussion revolver that placed six loaded bullets in a rotating cylinder. This invention and the experiments with shooting cotton, +/- 1882 provided rapid innovations of guns, shells and ammunition.
But still loaded with gunpowder, which had the disadvantage for a revolver that due to the enormous pollution from the ignition of gunpowder, the cylinder stopped turning after six shots.
It was now only a matter of a few years before the central fire pattern saw the light of day. A cartridge is a composite assembly of a shell with the percussion cap in the bottom. In the casing powder charge and bullet.

Buffalo armament:

Buffalo’s weapons, starting with the small stuff: single-shot Snider rear-loading rifle, with a caliber of 17.5 mm. Entered 1867 (of which 40 st.).
Beaumont M71 similarly single-shot rear-loading rifle with a kal.11.5 mm. Introduced 1870.
“——–” Vitali M71/88 rear-loading rifle with a 5-shot magazine same caliber.
Introduced 1888. These few lines need some explanation.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, a committee was appointed to hurry to replace the preloading rifles/pistols. I will try to write it down as briefly and simply as possible. Purchasing new weapons is too costly. Then we are soon talking about numbers of +/- 40,000. So that leaves, converting the percussion weapons to back-loading weapons, which could fire the all-metal cartridges.

The modification to a rear-loading rifle was fairly easy to accomplish.
At the rear of the barrel, near the location of the chimney piece, a piece of +/-8 cm was cut off. A system was placed in the resulting space where the cartridge fitted, and fired by means of a firing pin and through the hammer. Nothing needed to be changed about the so-called percussion lock with the hammer lying outside.

Now it was not only our country that was modernizing its arsenal. Numerous inventions were patented. The difficulty was to achieve a good gas seal at the rear of the weapon and could absorb the rearward force realized during the delivered shot, 1000 bar.
The body, the Normal Shooting School (NSS), was in charge of trials and modifications of the weapons, the execution of which took place at the “Geweerwinkel,” both in Delft.

Now one wonders, why does anything need to be changed if they are good working patents?

Well, the changes made must be suitable for all army units and weather conditions. Also the action of sand, mud, high outside temperature (Dutch East Indies) rain and sea water, the weapon must always function properly. High long-range accuracy also belongs in this row and a simple way to remove the empty shell for fitting a new cartridge.

And the Generals, as is usually the case, disagreed. But then a few modifications emerge, the preferred one being the Snider System.

As can be seen with some imagination, the fired shell has to be removed manually which is why people considered the “Snider Rifle” a stopgap solution. Numerous manufacturers provided guns for review. A few as examples. Remmington with the Rolling Block, Winschester Lever Action(empty sleeve is ejected). Cooper an English bolt action rifle. (which also ejects the empty shell). This was very well received at the NSS but, on reflection, they did not think it was solid enough.
Now, as one of the last, the Maastricht gunmaker Eduard De Beaumont comes to offer a bolt-action rifle. And this needs no further explanation.

This rifle will be replaced again in the next few years. There has been a strong need for more shotguns. The Beaumont rifle is adapted by Italian rifleman Vitali. The modification involves a 5-shot magazine for cartridges of the same caliber.
The rifle was introduced in 1888 under the brand name: Beaumont-Vitali M71/88.

Fistfire weapons.
The acquisition of the fistfire weapons has been a headache file.
They wanted a multi-shot firearm which could load the centerfire cartridges with a caliber of 12 mm made by the factory J.F.J.Bar in Delft.

Briefly, the replacement in the armed forces of preloading pistols which began about 1856.
The Navy begins with the trial of(left) the Adams(percussion) revolver and (right) the Lefaucheux(pinfire) revolver. To the commander of the ss Merapi were issued 2st.Lefacheux and 2st.Adams revolvers, who reported on the tests taken with both revolvers after a trial period. The percussion revolver performed well but was laborious, requiring the same actions to load the cylinder of the revolver as the percussion pistol.
The Lefaucheux did not have that problem, this weapon used Pinfire cartridges. But these again were too fragile.

Eventually, the basis for the weapon was the Adams Revolver, manufactured by Francotte at Liege. In 1868, the unit cartridge appeared on the market(the all-metal made central fire cartridge) and that was the ultimate goal. To make the Adams-Francotte Revolver suitable for this purpose, the revolver was reconstructed by Van Welij. The most significant change was the addition of a loading port on the side of the cylinder.

It eventually became this coat of arms and was introduced in 1873. The cylinder holds 5 cartridges with a caliber of 11.2 mm.

The Artillery

In the Tower 2pcs. Armstrong Cannon front loaders, drawn barrel, with a caliber of 23cm. On the pit deck were further arranged on both sides of the ship 2 30-pound front loaders, the pound indicating the weight of the bullet .(English measurements).
The artillery placed at the time of construction was essentially already obsolete. However, small caliber firearms were modern at the time.

After the introduction on the history of the 1st firearm to the construction of the Buffalo, it is understandable that the firing of front loaders was stressful.
The Armstrong cannons were loaded with +/-25 kg BK packed in a so-called cardstock. The cardstock was inserted at the front and placed in the back of the barrel followed by a prop (primed) and the grenade.

The four 30 pounders were loaded in a similar manner, but with a lesser powder charge +/- 15 kg and the projectile was a round iron bullet. Round iron bullets were effective in the days of wooden ships but on an armor of iron it only caused a dent.
These cannons were replaced as early as 1880.

The ignition of the powder charge was done, by the invention of the aforementioned minister by means of a percussion nozzle. This installation can be seen on the SB cannon of the tower.
But what doesn’t change is the huge smoke while firing, and the work it entails in reloading the whole stuff.

The contamination of ignited gunpowder is enormous so that, for safety, after each shot, the barrel had to be cleared with water to ensure that no glowing residue was left in the back of the barrel. The ignition of gunpowder needs only a spark.
It should be noted that the cannons in the tower were equipped with a rifled barrel which became clogged with dirt, making it increasingly difficult to place the next shell.
Consequently, 45 men were permanently on duty to operate the artillery.

The ship’s arms were modernized in 1887. The 23 cm guns in the tower were replaced for 28 cm guns (rear loader) from Krüpp. Four 3.7 cm plus two 7.5 cm guns were additionally placed on deck. Two more pieces of so-called Revolver guns were installed in 1889.
And all these weapons use the Scottish minister’s invention, ignition by percussion cap/primer. What actually follows this whole story is the invention of the Shooting Cotton/Cordite smokeless gunpowder.(1886) But that is no longer relevant to the Buffalo.