26 Develoi'ment ftF Arms. 



Like so many other notable inventions, tlie origin of gun- 

 powder is sln'ouded in obscurity and doubt. The Chinese, that 

 pecuhar race who acquired civilisation so soon, and whose progress 

 as strangely ceased, knew and used it for centuries before it made 

 its way in Europe. The great wall of China (200 B.C.) has 

 embrasures for cannon. It seems very doubtful whether, as an 

 explosive and incendiary agent, it was not used both by the (Greeks, 

 Eomans, and Arabs, and it is now believed that the secret came 

 westward from India, and it is on record that firearms were used 

 in 690 A.D., at the siege of Mecca. A receipt for making g-un- 

 powder is to be found in the writings of Marcus CTra?cus, 84G A.D., 

 and in the 13th century it was not only used regularly in the war 

 between the Chinese and Tartars, but also at the siege of Seville 

 in Spain by the Moors. This effectually does away with the bogus 

 claims of Rog-er Bacon and of his predecessors, the monks of 

 Friberg, to whom the credit of the invention was at one time 

 widely given. 



As can be readily understood, the mortar, or bomb-shell, was 

 the earliest, as well as the simplest, means of throwing stones into a 

 besieged city, or into the camp of the enemy. Following this, 

 several guns or mortars were made of bars of wrought iron, and 

 joined together by hoops. A notable and early example is to l)e 

 seen in Vienna, 3 ft. 7 ins. in diameter and 8 ft. 2 ins. in length. 

 The first cannon was, doubtless, a tube of wrought iron, open at 

 both ends, the charge being inserted at one end, which was then 

 plugged with wedges of wood and metal. Engines such as these 

 are first mentioned in 1301, when the town of Amberg-, in Germany, 

 had constructed a large cannon ; in 1313 Ghent, in Flanders, had 

 stone-throwing guns, and it would probably lie from here that 

 Edward III. oljtained his cannon, iirst used against the Scots in 

 1327. During that century it is undoubted that many wooden 

 cannon were used, as also tubes of copper cased in leather. 

 Muzzle-loading and cast-iron guns gradually supplanted the old 

 breech-loading, wrought-iron tubes ; and leaden bullets are said to 

 have first been used in 1340, iron balls coming into use about 1401). 

 Tnmnions. to sujiport and balance the gun on its carriage, were 

 first used in Germany in the ir)th century, and it must be stated 

 that nearly all the most important improvements in firearms are 

 due to the Germans, who, in the Middle Ages, were also the best 

 makers of arms and coats of mail. These include the I'ifled barrel. 



