THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
215 
(3) In the date of the year eight hundred sixty eight.=a.d. 1464. 
The extremely intricate character of Turkish caligraphy, introduces some 
uncertainty into the proper name. Mr Redhouse, who at first read it 
Muner, was then inclined to prefer Minbir, a word which signifies Pulpit. 
His excellency Halil Pasha, Grand Master of Artillery, reads Munir, and 
Efflatoun Pasha, on recently examining the gun, was equally positive that 
it cannot possibly be so read, but may be Mener. 
The gun is made in two parts, which screw together, each weighs 8 or 9 
tons; no description can do justice to the massive character, the grand 
simplicity which belongs to this great piece of ordnance. The external 
form is a cylinder, the muzzle being as large as the breech; but either half 
is relieved by a boldly projecting moulding at each end, which is divided 
transversely by 16 cross bars into as many recesses. Considered only as 
ornaments, these have the happiest effect, but they were made with a design. 
They answered beyond doubt the purpose of the holes in a capstan head, 
and were used to give a purchase to the levers employed in screwing the 
two parts together. A precisely similar provision of capstan holes has 
often puzzled observers in Mons Meg, and in the great bombard at Ghent. 
I have no doubt that those pieces also are made in two parts, and screwed 
together, and although the oxidation of the iron might make it more 
difficult to unscrew the former than it was found to be to unscrew 
Muhammad’s gun, it might be done. 
There is nothing new in the fact of the gun being screwed together, 
similar examples are referred to by General Fave y Artillerie } Tom. 3, p. 168, 
and engraved by St Remy ; but a very considerable degree of mechanical 
skill and precision was required to cast two screws of 23 inches diameter, 
which should fit one another, and so to unite such ponderous masses. 
There is no appearance of tool work; in fact, a tool could only smooth 
away minor inequalities of surface, and could not alter the distance or pitch 
of the threads, on which the fit depends. We can only suppose that 
moulding pieces were first cut in wood and nicely fitted and then applied to 
the clay moulds. 
We have a palpable application of moulding pieces in the ornamentation, 
called by Dr Pococke, Fleur de luce , which will be noticed at each end ; 
the marks where the moulds joined are still to be seen. The only other 
ornament attempted is the subdivision of the cylindrical part by bold rings 
or mouldings about 14 inches apart. There is a modern inscription of 
considerable interest in the neighbourhood of the vent, for a translation of 
[vol. vi.] g9 
