1872.1 Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. 335 
forging “‘ could not have been made in Europe before the 
introduction of steam machinery, nor, indeed, before the 
invention of the Nasmyth hammer.” There is an inscription 
on the pillar which leaves no doubt that the pillar must 
have have been erected in the third or fourth century of our 
era. Mr. Fergusson leaves it ‘‘to those practically skilled 
in the working of metals to explain how any human being 
could work in close proximity to such a mass heated to a 
welded heat, or how it was possible without steam machinery 
to manipulate so enormous a bar of iron.” If Mr. Fergusson 
considers that it was necessary to heat at one time the whole 
pillar to a white heat it was doubtless a difficult task to 
manipulate it, although a man need not be a human sala- 
mander to approach it closely ; and when cooled to the cherry- 
ved heat requisite for forging it could easily be approached 
without inconvenience. But in all probability this pillar 
was built up, being formed in lengths placed from opposite 
sides in the furnace, and welded under a huge stone or metal 
hammer, which was probably lifted and dropped after the 
style of a pile-driving monkey. Indeed among the Chinese 
there is in use (and among the Chinese that means also has 
been in use for the last thousand years) a hammer or stamper 
not dissimilar to the *‘ Schwartz hammer” or ‘‘ belly-helve” 
of modern days. A colossal hammer of this description 
could readily be erected and used by artificers unacquainted 
with steam machinery.* 
The earliest authentic record of the existence of cannon 
in Europe is found in a document dated 11th February, 
1326 A.D., and fifty years afterwards we read of cannon 
throwing projectiles of 200 Ibs. weight at the seige of Odruik, 
and a contemporary chronicle also gives an account of a 
450-pounder gun being used by the Duke of Burgundy in 1377, 
the diameter of whose bore must have been at least 21 inches. 
In Italy, however, the manufacture of cannon developed 
most rapidly. Capt. H. Brackenbury gives an interesting 
account of the performances of two huge Venetian bombards 
in 1380 at Brondolo. One named the “ Tvivisana”’ was 
* Capt. C. B. Brackenbury, R.A., describes the endurance of the men at 
Mr. Krupp’s Essen establishment as being severely tested when large steel 
castings aremade. He says, ‘‘It has occurred that some of them have shaken 
their heads about undergoing so terrible an “ordeal by fire” during hot 
weather, but the energy of Mr. Krupp has carried all before him, and by extra 
pay for heavy work, and exciting their undoubted esprit de corps, they have 
been brought to face anything, although many of them have fainted under 
the trial when large castings have necessarily been made in hot weather.”— 
Vide Report of a Professional Tour of Officers of the Royal Artillery under 
Col. A. C. Pigou, R.A., 1865, p. 116. 
