Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-10-04
The History of Cannon.

The following extracts from Mr.. Head
ley's article in Harpers for October are
just now of great interest;
q There is great discrepancy among wri-
ters as to the time in which artillery was
used. The word cannon is evidently
derived from the French word came, "a
reed; and they we're first made of wood
wrapped in numerous folds of linen, and
secured by iron hoops. Some say the Chi
nese used them eighty years after Christ,
and that deserter from Heliopolis intro
duced them into Greece in 676. Conde in
his history of the Moors of Spain, says
they used them,in attack and defense of for
tilted places as early as 118; and so on down
till we have Cordova, in Spain, besieged
BY artillery in 1880 Ferdinand ". is
said to have taken Gibraltar from the
Moors by artillery in 1903. There seems
to be good reason for believing that Spain
and Italy used artillery about this period.
Many doubt these statements, and assert
that there was not ten years difference in
the time in which artillery was used by
the principal powers of Europe. Taking
this view, they place its introduction in
the commencement of the fourteenth CEN
tury.
"Louis Napoleon seems to find no author
ity for their being used in France till
1909, in which year five hundred little
cannon of a paine de I0Hgeur were made in
the town Of Perouse. Others say that
there is found in the archives of Tournsy
a statement that, in 1916, the town council
having heard that & worker in tin, named
Peter Bruges, knew how TO make an en-
CINE named cOHnoiLeS which could throw
leaden balls, ordered him to construct one.
He did so, and presented for their inspec
ton hollow tube weighing two pounds.
This, at their request he fired off, and
though, to their surprise, they could not
see the flight of the ball. they found that
it had killed a man beyond the second
wall of the town. This so frightened
Peter that he fed to a church for safety.
In view, however, of all the circumstances
he was granted a free pardon. This seems
good authority; and other circumstances
render it probable that the general intro
duction of artillery into Europe could not
have been much antecedent to this. 1t is
hardly credible that in a military age,
when the art of war was the chief study of
all European princes, two centuries could
have elapsed after its introduction into
Spain and Italy before it was used by the
bordering powers. The knowledge of such
an invention must have travelled fast in
those war-like days when might made
right This also seems probable from one
of the letters of Petrarch, who was born in
1904 He says Il am astonished that
thou also dost not possess those brazen
globes, which, impelled by fire, start off
with a horrible noise. Was it not sufi-
cient that the anger of an immortal God
should thunder from the sky, but must
fragile being thunder in the earth This
scourge, till lately, was so scarce as to be
looked upon as a prodigy; but now that
mems minds are apt for the most wicked
deeds, it has become common
In contrast to this may be mentioned.
THE LATEST ARTILLERY INVENTION,
"The Warrior, it is said, has an inven-
ton on board, which it is claimed will give
her an advantage Independent of her shot
proof sides, that will make her Overwhelm-
ingly superior to any vessel that ever
foated By it she is enabled to throw
molten iron into an enemy's ship. A Gu
pola furnace is constructed on board for
melting iron, which is poured into thin
shell which breaks in pieces on entering
a ship, leaving the molten mass imbedded
in the timbers, Several apparently insu-
perable objections sugges themselves to
the practicability of this strange scheme
and we predict its abandonment. Still it
might be q success; if so, it is a horrible
one for no wooden vessel could Withstand
many broadsides of such shot. 1t would
hardly have begun to fight before it would
be in flames"