596 
WHO INVENTED THE LEATHER GUNS P 
The evidence in favour of Colonel Wemyss, Master Gunner of 
England under Charles I, rests upon the authority of a few writers 
who took part in the Great Rebellion, and who had no opportunity of 
verifying their statements. Sir Richard Bulstrode, for example, in 
speaking of the action at Copredy Bridge in 1644, says that Wemyss 
was taken prisoner by the Royalists, and with him some guns of his 
invention. He had had “ a good sum of money given him for the In¬ 
vention of making those Leather Cannon”. 1 That Wemyss, owing to 
the office he held, had superintended the manufacture of these guns, 
is beyond a doubt; but there is no tittle of proof that he had invented 
them. In fact, as will be seen when we come to speak of Scott, the 
evidence we possess makes it quite certain that he did not invent them. 
We learn from the Swedish Biographical Lexicon already quoted 
that, after the outbreak of the Thirty Year’s War, Freiherr M. von 
Wurmbrandt resigued his post at the Court of Vienna from religious 
scruples; joined the Swedish Army; and presently invented the leather 
guns. These statements are fully corroborated by a loug series of 
writers, from Mauvillon a Frenchman who wrote in 1764, 2 down to 
Captain F. A Spak, of the Swedish Artillery, whose book was publish¬ 
ed recently. 3 The invention dates from 1627. The first trials of 
Wurmbrandt’s leather guns, says Geijer, were made at the camp of 
Hirschau (near Dantzig) in September 1627 4 Rango, whose work was 
published about the same time as Geijer’s, states that they were first 
used at the siege of Wormditt, October 1627 5 ,—as an experiment it 
may be presumed. The experiment was of course most unsatisfactory, 
as we gather from Dr. Salvius’ letter to the Swedish Chancellor, Oxen- 
stjerna, relative to a bullet wound the king had received in the shoul¬ 
der, dated, Wormditt, 15 October, 1627 :—“ depuis quelques jours (le 
Roi) a ete un peu contrarie par de mauvaises nouvelles, et par les can¬ 
ons de petit calibre qu’il a avec lui et qui ne produisent pas d’effet sur 
les gros murs”. 6 Inventors, as a rule, are not wanting in con¬ 
fidence in their own productions; but great indeed must have 
been Wurmbrandt’s assurance when he adventured his guns be¬ 
fore the walls of Wormditt. What makes the incident all the more 
surprising is, that their usual projectile was case. They were not 
equal to the strain of a prolonged discharge of round shot. The value 
of case, in fact, was first clearly shown after their invention. Case 
aud grape had probably been known since the end of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, but their use was only occasional until the introduction of the 
leather guns. 7 Whatever the true explanation, Wurmbrandt received 
a reward from the King for his invention, 8 a large part of which he lost 
1 Memoirs Sfc. of the reign of Charles I. (posthumous), London, 1721 ; p. 100. 
2 Hist, de Gustave Adolphe, par M.D.M .; p. 124. 
3 “Ofversigt ofver Artilleriets Uppkomst och Utveckling &c”, Stockholm, 1878-81. 
4 Svenska FolJcets Historia, Orebro, 1832-6; III, 143, note. 
5 Geschichte Gustav Adolfs, Ronneburg ; anbang, p. 61. 
6 Lettres fyc. de Gustave Adolf, by Lindblom, trans. by Grimoard, Paris, 1790; p. 144. 
' Spak, as before ; p. 162. 
8 “ Biog, Lexicon ,” as before. Wurmbrandt received 12,000 dal. (£960), and a grant of land. 
