THE SHOT-GUN. 



By ALFRED M. MAYER. 



WHEN the great amount of energy pent up in gunpowder 

 had become generally known in Europe, during the four- 

 teenth century, men began to exercise their minds in the 

 invention of cannon and hand-arms that could withstand and direct 

 this tremendous force. It is quite interesting to find that the can- 

 nons of the fourteenth century were breech-loaders. In the sixteenth 

 century both breech-loaders and muzzle-loaders were in general use. 

 Hand fire-arms were also used in the fourteenth century. They 

 were called bombardes. The bombarde was simply a barrel fixed to 

 a stock, and fired from the shoulder. Later, this arm was supplanted 

 by the hand-culverin, a rather heavy arm weighing from ten to fifty 

 pounds. Its bore was about three-fourths of an inch. It was fired 

 from a forked rest. Two men were required to use the piece ; one 

 to hold and aim it. the other to apply the fire to the touch-hole and 

 to help to carry and load it. During the fifteenth century these 

 arms appear to have been extensively used, for at the battle of Morat, 

 1476, the Swiss were armed with 6000 culverins. 



The gun retained the form of the culverin till the early part of 

 the sixteenth century, when the Spaniards invented the arquebus. 

 This gun had a longer barrel and smaller bore than the culverin. 

 In the forepart of the stock was hinged the "serpentine," which 

 carried a slow-match. The latter was lighted at a match burning on 

 th<- top of the barrel, and then, on depressing the neck of the serpen- 

 tine by pulling (what was the counterpart of) the trigger, the pow- 

 der was s(ft fire to in the side flash-pan. Later, the serpentine was 

 divided into two parts, the lower part forming a trigger, the upper a 



