The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-02-11
EARLY FIREARMS,
The Invention of Gunpowder Not Modern
as Is Claimed.

The Invention of Gunpowder Not Modern
as Is Claimed. !
There is no good reason to doubt that
The invention of gunpowder was prior
to the Christian era, and many reasons
for believing that it was in actual use
among the Chinese in the age of Moses.
The earliest mention of it in written
documents is in the Gentoo laws, writ
ten at the time of Moses. The quota
ton is: 1.-The magistrate shall not make
war with any deceitful machine, or
with poisoned weapons, or with cannon
or guns, or any kind of firearms. 1t
is, indeed, quite possible that in his
Eastern campaign Alexander the Great
did actually contend with firearms in
India, as has often been conjectured
from passage in Curtius. However
this may be, gunpowder was introduced
into Europe by the Moors, and there is
a treatise in the Escurial library dated
1249, upon the best method of making
it. From this book Roger Bacon, who
spent some time in Spain, gained his
ideas and gave them to the world in his
book, dated 1867. The book was stud
led by Berthold Schwartz, who gained
the credit of introducing gunpowder
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-
teal use of cannon in their wars with
Christians. Cannon throwing stones
were used at the siege of Seville in 1247,
also in 1878 at the siege of Sidgilmessa,
and artillery of various kinds is fire.
quently referred to in the wars of the
Spaniards and Moors, the allusion to it
being so much matter of course
that they furnish a good rea-
son for believing that cannon were
not uncommon. The early cannon OF
Europe were known by different names.
In Italy they were called bombards,
from two words signifying noise and
heat; the French called them quenon,
the Germans buchsen 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 were of wrought iron,
but IN 1873 founder of Augsburg cast
thirty of compound of copper and tin.
In 1413 Mahommed III. at the siege of
Constantinople had an enormous cast
cannon, the bore being forty-two inches
in diameter and the stone bullet weigh
ing 600 pounds. One of the French
museums has 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 thicknesses of coiled hempen
rope covered with a strong casing of
leather. This weapon was captured
from the Turks and fired 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 were of
Eastern manufacture. One odd feature
of the early cannon was found in the
fact of the metal at the muzzle being
always much thicker than at the breech,
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 breech. Cor. Lon
don Telegraph.