The Shasta courier., 1866-11-10
SHASTA COURIER.
Cannon and Cannon Balls.

We find an allusion to cannon as early as
the Spanish Chronicle of Alfonso VI,
written by Pedro, Bishop of Leon. In de-
scribing sea- fight in the llth century, be-
tween the Emirs of Seville and Tunis, he
saws: "The vessels of the King of Tunis
had on board number of iron pipes, out of
which volumns Of laundering fire (tonenos
de fuego) were discharged" The first can.
non cast in England, are said to have been
made by John Owen, in 1921, but the art
appears to have been introduced in a high
state of perfection. Two large brass guns,
recovered in 1885, from the Mary Rose,
were sunk at Spithead in l544-one a 6S
FOUNDER and the other a 24-pounder-in
beauty of design and workmanship are
equal to anything produced in the present
day. The largest gun ever make IN Eng.
land. up to 1843, was one weighing Is tuns,
cast in that year for Mehemet Ali, Pasha
of Egypt. The bore of the gun was within
netenth of an inch of l6 inches ID 9lO
inchesl. The weight of its solid shot was
ass pounds, and of its she'll, 300 pounds
This gun was II feet long, and had an i'm
mense quantity of metal at the breech
A story is told of cannon ia Bejapoor.
India. which weighs 40 tuns. A seat in the
interior accommodates five persons, without
much crowding 1t is formed of mixed
metal in which there is said to be a consid-
erable quantity Of silver, and is very sono-
rons. II was the work of Chuteby Coomy
Khan, an officer in the service of Hoosseim
Nizam Shah, Ahmudnugger. In giving
description of it, Col. Sykes says:
ION the visit of Sir. John Malcolm dur
ing period of his Viceroyship at Bombay,
the Sattorah Rajah, who holds the sur
rounding territories under the British Gov
ernment, directed that this gun should be
fired off as an appropriate salute. Though
not charged with more than half the weight
of powder which its chamber could contain,
the conclusion was awful it shook many OF
the buildings to their foundations, and the
terrified inhabitants, as the reverberation
rolled along, expected to see the domes and
towers survivors of the former shocks, come
tumbling about their ears.
At the siege of Antwerp, in 1880, Gen.
Paixhans, of the French artillery, proposed
to King Leopold to shorten the siege by
means of mortar, the shells of which would
weigh 900 pounds, and contain each 100
pounds of powder. The proposal was thought
to be inhuman, and it was not until alter
$4,000 cannon balls and shells had been
spent in a vain bombardment, that the
monster mortar, charcoal casting made
at Leige, was brought out. Nine shells
were fired, huge flying masses, one of which
burst in the air, and eight descended into
the citadel. Two days after the first shell
was fired the Dutch surrendered.
The artillery used at the siege of Baza, IN
the war of Granada during the siege OF Fer
dinand and Isabella, were called bombards.
They are still to be seen in that city. where
they long served as columns in the public
market place. The largest are of about L
feet in length, consisting of iron bars two
inches in BREADTH held together by bolts
and rings of the same metal. These were
firmly attached to their carriages, incapa-
BILE of either vertical or horizontal movement.
The balls thrown from these engines were
sometimes of iron, but more usually of mar
BILE. Several hundred of the latter have
been picked up on the hills around Baza,
MANY of which are II inches in diameter
and weigh l75 pounds. At the siege Of
Balagner at the beginning of the 18th cen
tury, according to Zurita, stone balls were
discovered which weighed not less than $50
pounds. A gun recovered from one of the
Turkish ships destroyed at Tohesme in l77C
was IA feet inches in length, feet in cir.
cumference 90 inches bore, aud 30 cwt., OF
% ,526 pounds weight.
The first instance of horizontal she'll firing
on record is that at the siege of Gibraltar
in 1779, where Capt. Mercier of the 39th
regiment, suggested that fve-and-a half
inch shells, with short calculated fuses,
should be fired from guns. This practice
answered so well that it became general
Red hot balls were first used by Stephen
Bathor, King of Poland, at the siege OF
Dantzig, 1916.
Pistols were first used by the Germans
Bellay mentions them in the year l544. In
the time of Francis /, and under Henry
H. the German horsemen, des roiters, were
called pistoliers.