Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-13
2 FIREARMS.
The Invention OF Gunpowaer Not Moaer1
as Is Claimed.

The Invention OF 0uuI'o""
There is no GOOD reason to doubt nat
t.1e invention of gunpowdcr was prior;
to the Christian era, AND rsany reasons
for believing that it WAS in actual use;
mono the Chinese in the age OF Moses.
The earliest mention OF it Ill wfl'leh
documents is in the Gentoo laws, Writ
ten at the time of Moses. The quota
ton is: 'The magistrate shall not make
wal with any deceittul machine, or
with poisoned weapons. or with cannon
or guns. Or any Kind of firearms IL
is, indeed, quite possible that IN ms
Eastern campaign Alexander the Great
did actually contend with firearms III
India, as has often been conjectured
from a passage in Curtius. However
tins NAV be, gunpowder was introduced
into Europe bv the Moors, and there Is
a treatise in the Escurial library dated
12to, upon the best method OF making
it. From this book Roger Bacon, who
spcnt some time II Spain, gained his
ideas and gave them to the world in his
book. dated ,2G7. The book was stud
led by Bertbo]d Schwartz, who gained
the credit of Introducing gunPo"der
into European warfare, his first public
announcement of the discovery being.
about 1920. But some time before
Monk Schwartz announced his discov-
cry, the Moors of Spain had made prac-
tical use of cannon in their wars with
Christians. Cannon throwing stones
were used at the siege of Seville in l247,.
also in 1878 at the siege of Sidgilmessa,.
and artillery of various kinds is fire.
%n1ently referred to in the wars of the
Spaniards and Moors, the a%llusion to it.
being so much y matter OF course:
chat they furnish a good rea-'
son for believing that cannon were
not uncommon. The early cannon OF
Europe were known by different James
In Italy they were called bombards,
from two words signifying noise and
| heat; the French called them qucnon,
the Germans buchscn or boxes; there
being besides many other names de-
noting the different kinds, but it was
not until the fifteenth century that can
non were classified according to their.
| size. The first We're OF wrought iron.
but in 1873 a founder of Augsburg cast
! thirty of a compound of copper and tin
In 14l3 Mahommed II. at the siege of
Constantinople had an enormous cast.
cannon, the bore being forty-two inches
in diameter and the stone bullet weigh
ing GOO pounds. One of the French
museums has q wooden cannon from
China, made Of three pieces OF wood
and fourteen iron rings. Besides wood,
leather and rope have been used in the
manufacture OF cannon. In the arsenal
of Venice there is a large mortar made
of several thickncsses OF coiled hempen
rope covered with Il strong casing Of
leather. This weapon was captured
from the Turks and fired a shell about
eighteen inches in diameter. The ar
senal at Malta contains several mortars
of paper, very strong and covered with
leather. These curious weapons were
used by the Crusaders and We're of
Eastern manufacture. One odd feature
of TIL" early cannon was found in the
fact of the metal at the muzzlc being
always much thicker than at the hreech,
the idea being to prevent the muzzle
jumping up at the moment of the dis.
charge, and, mechanical knowledge not
being sufficiently far advanced, there
was the additional notion that the gun
was in more danger OF bursting at the
muzzle than at the brecch.-Cor. Lon--
don Telegraph.