Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-15
FIRST MENTION OF HAND GUNS
Earliest Ordnance Small, With Novel
Methods of Eirina Used.

fIHS5 MENtION SF 1ANO 1ONS'
Earliest Ordnance Small, With Novel
Methods of Firing Used.
Very early ordnance was small,
some of it so small that many of the
guns could be either mounted on wood
en- blocks as cannon or attached Ia
slaves for use as hand guns; but 1t is
impossible to say how early the last
named form Of their application was
put in practice, and this partly owing
to the fact that the same nomenclatrre
Is freely employed to express both
classes of weapons in the written rec
ords of the period. '.a
The first clear mention Of hand guns
that has descended to us occurs in Ital-
ian records and ''un hand-gone" 's
scheduled in an English inventory Of
1888. The metal portions Of very early
hand guns are cylindrical in form and
usually about a span long, e. inches
but they begin to lengthen about the
end of the fourteenth century; they
are cast in bronze or brass or made OF
wrought iron.
Though the use of iron, leaden and
even brass bullets at this very early
period in the history Of firearms is re-
corded, says r. Coltman Cleppae, in the
Antiauary, the favorite lrojectile, as
shown by illuminations in manuscripts
would seem to have been a garrot-i
e., a bolt or arrow feather with brass
(garros a feu), sometimes called quar-
rel. missile for the crossbow. Quarrel
guns. quarriaube gonnes) are mention
ed in the treasury accounts of Hem !:
Nv. of England, (13sS-141S) and such
missiles were still being employed with
firearms up to the end Of the sixteenth
century, as shown in a tower inventory
Of 1899.
The early history Of firearms, in the
sense of tubes from which missiles are
thrown by the action Of detonating
compound of the nature of gunpowder
Is wrapped in obscurity; though 1t may
be safely inferred from the first early
records that have come down to us
that such weapons were first employed
in warfare soon after the commencement
of the fourteenth century, If not some
time before. The country of their or
igin remains uncertain, but we may
gather that It was most probably Italy
though the Flemings were early In the
field.
A Byzantine record Of the eleventh
century, and one of China Of the thir-
teenth (1259) refer to tubes respectively
of bronze and bamboo, from which ar
infammable compound was projected
with the object Of setting fire to ships
or buildings, and the material so en-
ployed was probably Greek fire, OF
which there were many varieties, some
of which would seem to have been
slightly decorating in character; but
ordnance and hand guns require a mix
ture strong enough to propel a project
lie from a tube with considerable mo-
mentum.
i
or where this epoch making compound
was invented. 1t is also stated that
there is a reference in Chinese annals
of 1882 to q fiery mixture having been
employed in that country and year In
what would seem to have been bombs
but the statement, resting as 1t does
on the reputed copy Of an older record
should be received with caution.
Prior to the invention Of the match
both ordnance and hand guns were fir
ed by a red hot iron bar or a live COAL
Figures of guns shown in illuminated
manuscripts or on the rather later en-
cravings are often fanciful and at the
best give merely the outline Of the
pieces, but fortunately few very early
actual specimens have been preserved
some of which have chambers, while
others are without them. The touch
hole is on the uppermost side OF the
barrel, and the muZZle strengthened
with an outer thickening or ring. This
metal part is socketed into a staff, to
which 1t Is firmly attached by iron
rings, though sometimes the stock it.
self Is of wrought iron.
Among these weapons, the wooden
stocks of which have mostly rotted
away, there is but a single example
furnishing any reliable data as to the
time it was used in warfare, and this
piece was found when excavatine
among the debris of the fortress Vesta
Tannenburg, a castle in Hesse, taken
by assault and dismantled A. D. 1889
The weapon is now deposited in the
Germanische National Museum at Nu-
remberg, where there is a large and
comprehensive collection of arms and
armor.