involved in the Construction of Artillery. 313 



Note A. — (Sect. 1.) 



Discovery of Gunpowder and Cannon. 



At the first thought it seems strange that some of the most remarkable discoveries, and 

 which have had the greatest influence upon the progress and destinies of mankind, are 

 amongst those of which the least is known concerning their authors. Such is the case 

 with respect to gunpowder and artillery, which, next to printing and steam power, have 

 had perhaps the greatest material effects upon man's condition and progress. 



This very obscurity is, however, a proof of the antiquity of the knowledge, and is 

 common to almost all the great and important discoveries by means of which our daily 

 wants are supplied. Who can tell when leavened bread was first baked ? — where animal 

 power was first made to aid man in subduing the earth by the plough ? — whore woven 

 fabrics, and twisted cordage that preceded them, — where the use of calcareous cements in 

 building, — were discovered ; still less, to whom individually these great improvements were 

 due? Nor was the early want of printed books or records the cause of this uncertainty, as 

 the history of invention in our own day proves, where it often happens that a discovery 

 essentially of the highest interest or importance is not recognised at once, and yet, after a 

 time, when these are seen, it is found impossible to award the palm of discovery to any 

 individual. 



The electrotype and daguerrotype' are examples known to all ; and this, apart from 

 that wide class of human advances which have formed the base of so much controversy in 

 modern times, such as, who was the inventor of steam navigation, or as will, doubtless, be 

 hereafter asked, who invented the locomotive? — the true answer to which is, no one. These 

 are the conjoint results, the coalesced product of the separate inventions of innumerable 

 minds. Indeed, the history of human invention presents little that can be attributed with 

 absolute certainty to individuals, beyond the salient discoveries of exact science, and of a 

 late period. Perhaps even tliis ground is not without dispute, as Newton and Leibnitz 

 may witness. 



It is with rather a narrow appreciation of the subject, as well as in neglect of much 

 historical information, that, with most authors, either Bacon or Schwartz has been assumed 

 as the inventor of gunpowder. Another class of archaeologists admit the knowledge of 

 gunpowder to have been of extreme antiquity in the East, but at once grant the honour 

 of separate, though subsequent, original discovery to the European monks. Yet the ground 

 for this seems to be no more than that, in their writings, the earliest recorded mention of 

 the great discovery is made in any European language. Roger Bacon, unquestionably 

 antecedent to his German rival, was born 1214, and died 1292; and his work, "De 

 Nullitate Magias," appears to have been written about 1270, while Kircher's account gives 

 1354, or the date of the discovery by Schwartz. 



