THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
287 
ANCIENT CANNON IN EUROPE. 
PART I. 
FROM THEIR FIRST EMPLOYMENT TO a.d. 1350. 
BY 
LIEUT. HENRY BRACKENBURY, R.A. 
MEMBER OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN: ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR 
V IN ARTILLERY, ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY. 
The researches of antiquaries have as yet failed to bring to light any con¬ 
temporary voucher, establishing the date of the first introduction of 
gunpowder as a propelling agent into European warfare. Many sup¬ 
positions, and many confident assertions have been made as to the individual 
by whom, and the country in which gunpowder was invented. The Asiatic 
races in general, the Chinese and Arabs in particular, have been most 
frequently regarded as the inventors of this great power of modern 
war. Among Europeans, Marcus Grsecus, Albertus Magnus, Berth old 
Schwarz, the German monk, and our own Roger Bacon, each in turn has 
been hailed as its discoverer. 
It is not, however, in the province of this paper to discuss the merits of 
these various claimants, or to trace the apparently gradual manner in which 
the Greek fire, and the combustible compounds, thrown from the mediaeval 
warlike engines, became developed, whether by accident or design, into that 
mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, which, from almost its earliest 
employment in war, bore the name in this country which it still bears, 
“ gunpowder ". 
We have only to deal with the application of this mixture to purposes 
of warfare, in relation to the tube or instrument from which, by its agency, 
the missiles were thrown. 
These tubes we shall find under the names of “ cannon/'’ “ bombards/' 
“ tubes of thunder/' &c.; and at this stage we must observe how much the 
difficulty of tracing their first employment is increased by the fact that, 
even as late as the middle of the fifteenth century, we meet with tubes, pro¬ 
jecting balls by the action of gunpowder, called by the names of those engines, 
[vol. iv.] 88 
