THE EOYAL AETILLEIiY INSTITUTION. 
213 
Thus it appears that towards the end of the siege these great cannon 
discharged 16 shots a day each, a number which indicates a very tolerable 
degree of manageability. At the risk of being tedious, I cannot but 
remark on two other points. First, the immense supply of gunpowder 
required, and its sources. We are not precisely informed of the charges, 
nor is the precise constitution of Turkish gunpowder at this period known; 
but we know the proportions of European gunpowder a little later, it 
consisted of— 
Saltpetre. 4 parts. 
Sulphur. 1 „ 
Charcoal.. 1 „ 
and I take the charge at one-fourth the weight of the shot; on this estimate 
nearly 250 tons of gunpowder must have been consumed, requiring for its 
manufacture about 167 tons of saltpetre. Montecuculi, speaking of the 
Turk as he knew him about 1660, remarks, “He works incessantly at the 
production of gunpowder in every place on the frontier. He gets it from 
Cairo and Egypt; he buys it of the Christian, and he has such an abundance 
of it that he consumes more in useless firing and display than we do in 
necessary services. When he is conducting a siege, or in a campaign, they 
cry every evening during the hour of public prayer Halla , Ilalla (Allah), 
and after this cry they fire a general salvo of what ordnance is to be found 
in the trenches, in the lines of approach, and in other parts of the camp. 
This occurs every day. It is easy to see what a consumption there must be 
of ammunition. Eor the rest, their powder is excellent, as appears by the 
noise of the report, the force, and the reach of the shot (longueur des coups)”* 
A similar barbaric abundance, and doubtless waste, must have characterized 
their employment of gunpowder from the very first. I imagine that this 
supply must have been obtained, as the Turks have obtained it at later 
periods of their history, by levying a tax to be paid in saltpetre over whole 
provinces. Nitrate of potash is produced in an impure state pretty exten¬ 
sively in warm climates, and the production may be augmented by artificial 
means. It would be interesting to discover how the receivers discriminated 
between this salt and others very like it. 
The other observation I have to make, relates to the provision of stone 
shot. Upon the supposition that the guns all fired alike and in total pro¬ 
portion to the number of days they were in battery, the expenditure will be 
about as follows :— 
Shot of 19*8 inches or 878 lbs. 310 
Shot of 26*3 inches or 871 lbs. 190 
II 
21*8 „ 
498 „ 
580 
a 
29-0 „ 
1182 a 
190 
II 
24-9 „ 
747 „ 
420 
a 
31-4 ,, 
1494 „ 
400 
II 
25-6 „ 
810 „ 
230 
a 
32-4 „ 
1640 „ 
214 
Total 2534. 
The whole weighing about 1000 tons; now the transportation of 1000 
tons of stone shot with the army, is out of the question. They must have 
been cut on the spot, and one is lost in astonishment at the prodigious 
% Memoires, &c. Montecuculi, I. Bk. n. Ch. ij. 
