25 2 A R T I L 
other mechanical contrivances. Thefe moveable towers 
were of an amazing magnitude. Hero diftinguiflies three 
kinds: the fmallefl, he fays, were of ten (lories; the lar¬ 
ger were of fifteen (lories; the greated, called double, were 
of twenty flages, they were larged at bottom, and decrea- 
fed every ftory. The towers or belfreys of more modern 
times were not fo large; they rarely exceeded three or 
four dages or dories, and were covered with raw hides, to 
proteft them from fire; in them was a bridge to let down 
upon the parapet, when the ramparts were to be (formed. 
T he lower dage or ground floor was occupied by a ram, 
and the upper dories by archers and crofs-bow men, who 
were to attack the ramparts, and icale the wails, as repre- 
fented in the Plate. 
The cattus, cathoufe, gattus, or cat, wasa covered (lied, 
■occafionally fixed on wheels, and ufed for covering the 
foldiers employed in filling up the ditch, preparing the way 
for the moveable tower, or mining the wall: it was called 
a cat, becaufe under it foldiers lay in watch, like a cat for 
its prey. See Artillery-Plate II. Some of thefe cats had 
crenelles and chinks, from whence the archers could dif- 
charge their arrows; thefe were called caflellated cats. 
Sometimes under the cover of this machine the befiegers 
worked a (mail kind of ram. The fow was alfo a covered 
machine for the fame purpofe, and much'of the lame con- 
flruclion, though probably lefs, as it derived its name from 
the foldiers lying under it clofe together, like pigs under 
a fow ; though another reafon is given for that appellation, 
namely, its being applied to digging and rooting up the 
earth. The former was alluded to by the countefs who 
defended the caftle of Dunbar againfl Edward III. when 
flie threatened, that, unlefs the Englifhmen kept their fow 
better, flie would make her cad her pigs. Camden, wdio 
mentions this circumflance, fays, “ The fow is yet ufed iu 
ireland.” Two machines, the one called the boar, and 
the other the fow, were employed by the parliamentarians 
in the liege of Corfe-caftle, Dorfetfhire. Among fonie 
.ancient drawings of the time of Henry VIII. preferved in 
the Britifh Mufeum, are reprefentations of covered war- 
carts, or waggons, filled with mulketeers. The top and 
fides of the waggon are pierced with loop-holes, and the 
horfes are placed under cover, beneath the waggon. Seve¬ 
ral of thefe waggons are there reprefented as Rationed in the 
centre of a ‘fquare battalion of halberdiers. One of them, 
•without its top and tide covering, to exhibit its conflruc- 
tion, with its horfes and foldiers, is (hewn at Jig. 5, and 
,’one with its covering is fhewn at jig .6, of the Artillery- 
Plate I. 
The Greek fire, a very dedruflive part of the ancient 
•artillery, was, as the original Greeks pretend, invented by 
''Calluncus, an architect of Heliopolis or Balbec, who lived 
in the reign of the emperor Condantine Pogonatus. That 
emperor, it is Paid, forbade the art of making it to be com¬ 
municated to any drangers, or others, except his lubjects ; 
it was, however, at length known, and in common ufe 
among the nations confederated with the Byzantines; the 
crufaders alfo poffeifed the fecret of preparing this won¬ 
derful eompolition. Anna Commena has given an account 
of the ingredients of which it was compofed: thefe were 
bitumen, fulplmr, and naptha. The Greek fire is much 
fpoken of in all the Hidories of the Holy Wars, as fre¬ 
quently employed with fuccefs by the Saracens againdthe 
Chridians. Procopius, in his Hidory of the Goths, calls 
it Medea’s oil, confidering it as an infernal compofition 
prepared by that forcerefs. It is faid to have been known 
In China in 917, three hundred years after Conllantine Po¬ 
gonatus, under the name of the oil of the cruel fire, and 
was carried thither by the Kitan Tartars, who had it from 
the king of On. By the following defeription of it, given 
by joinville, who was eye-witnefs, it has fomewhatthe ap¬ 
pearance of one of the iron rockets dill ufed in India : he 
pays it was thrown from the bottom of a machine called a 
petrary, and that it came forwards as large as a barrel of 
■verjuice, with a tail of fire ilfuing from it, making a noife 
like thunder, and (eeming like a dragon flying through 
ithc air, and, from the great quantity of fire it threw out, 
2 
L E R Y. 
giving fuch a light that one might fee'in the camp as if it 
had been day. The fire produced by this compofition is 
faid to have been inextingui(liable by water. Geoffry de 
Vinefauf, who accompanied Richard I. to the crufade, 
fays of it, “with a pernicious dench and livid flame, it 
confumes even flint and iron, nor could it be extinguifhed 
by water; but by fprinkling fand upon it its violence may 
be abated, and vinegar poured upon it will put it out.” 
From other deferiptions it appears, that this compofition 
•was of an undtuous and vifeid nature, flicking to the ob¬ 
jects againd which it was thrown; it was in land engage¬ 
ments and fieges projected by the machines of the rimes, 
and at lea by the hand, enclofed in veflels or phials, in 
which it was alfo kept and tranfported; it was likewife 
fometimes fattened to the heads of arrows; and fea-water, 
indead of extinguifliing it, feemed to give it greater vio¬ 
lence and activity. Father Daniel fays, this wild-fire was 
not only ufed in fieges, but even in battles, and that Phi- 
lip Augudus king of France, having found a quantity of 
it ready prepared in Acre, brought it with him to France, 
and ufed it at the fiege of Dieppe, for burning the Englifli 
veflels in that harbour. It was alfo ufed at feveral oriier 
fieges in France, and an engineer named Gaubert, a native 
of Mante, acquired the art of making it, which luckily 
for mankind has fince been lofl. A compofition fomething 
ot the lame nature was a few years ago invented by a che- 
mift in this country, who at prefent enjoys an annual al¬ 
lowance fo long as it (hall remain a fecret, our govern¬ 
ment being unwilling to encreafe the deftriuflion and cru¬ 
elty of war; a like difeovery was made in France or Hol¬ 
land, and for the like reafon fupprefled. The Greek fire 
was ufed long after the introduction of fire-arms, parti¬ 
cularly in fieges. When the bifliop of Norwich befieged 
Ypres in 13S3, the garrifon is faid by Walfingham to have 
defended themfelves fo well with dones, arrows, lances, 
Greek fire, and certain engines called guns, that they obli¬ 
ged the Englifli to raife the fiege with fuch precipitation, 
that they left behind them their great guns, which were 
of inedimable value. A great part of that army was foon 
after befieged in the town of Barburgh by the French, 
who threw fuch quantities of Greek fire into it, that they 
burned a third part of the town, and obliged the Englifli 
to capitulate. The invention.of gunpowder fuperfeded 
the Greek fire; aftd its application to fire-arms may be 
ranked among the mod important of all human difeoveries. 
For its hidory, preparation, and furprifing effedts, fee the 
articles Gunnery and Gunpowder. 
The invention of gunpowder was the introduction to all 
the various implements of modern artillery; as cannon, 
mortars, howitzers, peteraros, matchlocks, petards, par¬ 
tridges, bombs, carcafes, grenades, internals, &c. &c. 
Bombs appear to be among the mod early of thefe inven-' 
tions. Strada fays, they were tiled in the year 1588, at 
the fiege of Vakterdonc, a town in Guelders; but from 
bis defeription it appears, that what he calls a bomb was 
in reality a carcafs. Nothing, fays he, frightened the 
burghers more than certain hollow balls filled with powder 
and materials that could not be extinguifhed; thefe balls 
were thrown into the air by mortars, and had a match of 
a certain length, in order to let fire to the powder. Fall¬ 
ing on the tops of houfes, they broke through them, and, 
as foon as they had taken fire, they burfl, and fpread out 
on every fide a flame which was difficult to diflinguilh with 
.water. This infirument, which gave origin to grenades, 
fire-pots, and the like machines, was invented, it is faid, 
a few days before the fiege of Vakterdonc, by an inhabi¬ 
tant of Veulo, a maker of fire-works. The inhabitants 
of that town propofed with this invention to divert the 
duke of Cleves, who was on a vifit to them, and to whom 
they had given a grand repad ; they therefore were defi- 
rous of making the firfl trial of it before him, and it fuc- 
ceeded much beyond their expectation ; for the bomb fall¬ 
ing on a houfe beat in the roof and floors, and fet it 011 
fire, which, communicating with the neighbouring houfes, 
burnt two-thirds of the town, the fire being fo violent that 
it was impoflible to extinguidi it. I know, adds Strada, 
that 
