DEVELOPMENT OF ARMs. Dy 
about 1500; the wheel-lock, 1575; the trigger, 1543; the 
arquebus, or early musket, 1550; and in later centuries, the iron 
ramrod in 1730, and the needle-gun in 1827. 
Among the early forms of cannon were the mortar, the can- 
non, the cannon on wheels, the culverin, falcon, and serpen- 
tine. This last consisted of a number of barrels grouped on wheels, 
or on a chariot—even as many as forty barrels—and in others the 
chariot made more dreadful, though hardly more effective, by the 
addition of spears and pikes. From the early cannon of hoops an1 
rods, to the modern breech-loading death-dealer, capable of throw- 
ing hundredweights for miles, is a long journey, which has been 
covered slowly and gradually, every generation seeing some small 
change or development, although the quickest strides have been 
the latest. 
The advantages of placing the smaller cannon tubes on sticks 
or movable supports, so as to give better and more varied aim, 
must have been early apparent. Indeed, all the early muskets 
were supported on crutches, swivels, or rests. The first trace of 
hand firearms is to be found inthe 14th century among the Flemish, 
and their power in personal contests became apparent in the 15th, 
when it was found that even the strongest armour was unable to 
withstand their bullets. These hand cannon were rudely made, 
and supported on a piece of wood, so that they could not be 
brought to the shoulder, with the touch-hole on the top. The 
next development was a rough stock, so as to enable the weapon 
to be fired from the shoulder ; then came the arquebus, which had 
a match-holder and a trigger. This was a great advance; as was 
the wheel-lock arquebus, which was not fired by a match, but by 
sulphurous pyrites, which ignited when caught by the cogs of the 
wheel, and fired the charge. The uncertainty of the action of the 
pyrites prevented this form from long continuing, and about 1640 
the flint lock gun was invented by the French. To this Vauban, 
the great general, added a bayonet. The pistol, the diminutive of 
the hand gun, was first made at Perugia, in 1364, where were 
constructed “‘ hand cannons the length of a palma,” or hand, about 
9 inches. The broad barrel blunderbuss, and the short carbine for 
cavalry use, were later developments, while the percussion cap 
gun, like the many improved weapons we now know and use, 
belong to the 19th century. What the future holds in store, 
whether electricity is to play its part as an agent of war, or ter- 
