The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-05-21
Il III L DISPATCH
4 Chapter ON Gunpewder

u'-ha'ufea enough 10 say they are withou,
Tue cement OF an unless" vast numbe,
OF people on the other side of the A,lan,;,
are at this moment engaged in the inter
esong occupation of burning gunpow
der" That precious material, seems in
mar way 10 supplant those other engines O
e.Vilization, the sabre and bayonet as i, Ions
s'acs supplanted the bow aud quiver. Iti
net altogether malapropos, therefore, to ente
into an enquiry with regard to its origin
ana to correct certain erroneous opinion:
with respect to it.
Ii mas been usual to ascribe the invention
OF gunpowder to a German name Schwartz
ana TO hx the date of the invention about
the year 1920. English writers, indeed
assert that it was made before by theil
countryman Roger Bacon, better known al
Friar Bacon, from the fact that he was q
monk, and they prove this by quoting
words used IN one Of his essays about fifty
years before the date of Schwartzs alleged
discoVery-that is, in l370. A careful ex.
animation of what Bacon actually says, will
shew that neither he nor Schwartz was the
inventor, and that, so far as he was con-
cerned, he did not claim to be. He express
~ tells US that it is an amusement in which
children IN many parts of the world in
duige, to make up a roll about as large as
mans thumb, fill it with the salt called
saltpetre, and set it on fire; and that the
comousuon produces a sound louder than
thunder, and light brighter than lightning
Ii was evidently therefore well and widely
known before his time, and neither he nor
Schwartz could claim the honor of the dis
coyery. Dutens asserts that Bacon got his
idea from the MS. works OF Magnus Gallus,
which existed in his day, and to which be
probably had access; but it is not at all neces-
sary to make use OF such an hypothesis, in
order to prove that Bacon did not make the
discovery, since he speaks of it as well
known. Tae title of the work of Gallus,
proves, indeed, that in his day, "a century
before Bacon,) the military uses of gun
powder were understood for besides giving
directions how to make a rocket, he even
goes so far as to say that willow is the best
material for the charcoal to be employed in
the manufacture; a fact we'll known to
modern chemists. The book in question
purports to be "a treatise on that descrip-
ton of fire which has virtue and efficacy for
burning up enemies and fleets" 1t is in
other words a treatise of military pyrotech-
ny.
1t is evident, then, that.neither Gaul,
Britain, nor Germany, neither Gallus, Ba-
con, nor Schwartz, can lay any claim to the
honor of this most humane invention. The
question is, who can? Ascending the
stream Of antiquity, the enquiry becomes
more perplexed at every step taken in ad-
vance. 1t is said, upon what authority We
know not, that gunpowder was in use, for
military purposes, among the Chinese, long
anterior to the Christian era, and it is very
certain that they employed it intockets and
fireworks, many ages before it began to be
used IN Europe, for any purpose whatever.
The earliest recognized date is 35s before
Christ; but the circumstances under which
it was then employed, prove that it
must have been known long before, for it
was then used for warlike purposes. In
deed, in the code of Hindoo laws, its dis
covery is referred to a period, which in the
opinion Of the best oriental scholars and
antiquarieS, corresponds with the Age OF
Moses. In the life of Apollonius of Tyana,
by Philostratus We are told that Alexander
the Great was deferred from attacking the
Oxydrycal, nation whose country lay be-
tween the Hyphasis and Ganges, by report
that they were defended by their gods, who
overwhelmed their enemies with thunder
and lightning shot from the walls of their
towns. If there be any truth IN this story,
it seems possible that these nations, between
whom and the Chinese it is probable that
an intercourse was kept up by means of The
caravans, which from the remotest antiqul-
" seems to have conveyed the merchandise
of the East from one country to another,
had derived from the Chinese knowledge
of the virtues of gunpowder, and had used
it with such good effect as to inspire the
neghboring tribes with wholesome awe.
The next remarkable occurrence Of anti
guilty, in which the agency of gunpowder
may be suspected, is the destruction of the
Roman feet before Syracuse, by Archime-
des, B. C. 2l2. Vitruvius, an engineer
of great celebrity, who had wrote under
under Julius Caesar, and who served
Augustus, tells us that this was effected by
means of engines, which hurled huge stones
to vast distance, with noise resembling,
and louder than thunder. Now it is certain
that no mechanical engine of that day an
swered to this description, which is perfect
ly applicable to cannon of large calibre.
Authors who reject the claims of Schwartz
and Bacon, seem agreed that knowledge
of gunpowder was first brought to Europe
from the East by the Arabs. Uffano, an
Italian author of the l4th century, says it
was known to the Chinese al least as early
as IS, after Christ, and doubtless, if the
Arabs knew any thing about it, they im-
ported the knowledge from China. The
Tartars, in their invasion of China, 1000
after Christ, are said to have used it. If
they did, they doubtless got their know
ledge of it from the Chinese, for they were
not themselves sufficiently advanced in the
arts of life to have any chemists among
them. The first writer who says any thing
definite about it is Escerial, an Arab, who
wrote about l249, twenty years before Ba-
con, and who seems to have been acquainted
not only with ordinary gunpowder, but
with the detonating material also. Artil-
ery is said to have been used at The battle
Of Cressy, (l346.) This has been denied,
upon what ground we do not understand,
since the probabilities seem to be in
its favor. Froissart, we think, said no.
hing about il, but he was not in the battle,
and only got his information at second
,and. But to say nothing of the Chinese,
Jasiri speaks of it as having been in use in
3l2: and Barbor describes it as having
,een employed by Edward Ill, in his Scot
ish Campaign (l327) Father Daniel says,
rtillery was used by the French in 1888,
nd the venetians were. certainly acquainted
rith it much earlier.
Byron came to the conclusion, after ex-
mining the question thoroughly, that the
uthor of the Letters of Junius was "nobo-
y at all" That is exactly the conclusion
'e have arrived at, with regard to the in
entor of gunpowder. ~ RB
SuppEN DEATH --Alaxander M. MQntg0m0ry.