The Dickinson press., 1913-07-19

gumpses OF more powerful and COM
phcated devices to be seen among the
many forms in which the bow and ar
row were constructed.
A new weapon now came to the cen
ter Of the stage. 1t was the crossbow,
the first real hand shooting machine.
This was another big step toward the
day Of the rifle. The idea, was simple
enough. Wooden bows had already
been made as strong as the strongest
man could pull, and they wished for
still stronger ones-steel ones. How
could they pull them: At first they
mounted them upon a wooden frame
and rested one end on the shoulder for
q brace. Then they took to pressing
the other end against the ground and
using both hands. Next it was a
bright idea to put a stirrup on this
end in order to hold it with the foot.
Still they were not satisfied. Strong
q. stronger they clamored. Let us
try mechanical"
So they attached levers, pulleys,
ratchets and windlasses until at last
they reached Die size Of the great
Siege crossbows. weighing eighteen
pounds. There sometimes needed a
force Of 1000 pounds to draw back the
string to its catch, but how they could
shoot! Notice the pictures Of the
crossbows and You will see that. now
the weapons began to look a little like
guns as we know them. They had
shoulder pieces.
And Now For Chemistry.
Human muscle seemed to have reach
ed Its limit, mechanics seemed to have
reached its limit. but sti1l the world
clamored, Stronger, strongerr For
answer man unlocked one Of the re-
crets Of nature and took ont q terrible
force. It was 1 force Of chemistry.
GunpowderS was probably first dis
covered by the Chinese, though our
civilization had to work out the prob
lem for itself.
It is recorded that Roger Bacon, a
monk. discovered what wal practical.
ly gunpowder:a AZ far back. az the thir-
teenth century.
Berthold schwarts, a monk Of Fret
burg, studied Bacon's works and car
Red on dangerous experiments Of his
own, 80 that he 10 ranked with Bacon
for the honor.
And then began the first crude, clnm-
" efforts at SUMMARIZING. Firearms
were born.
It took centuries for guns to become
perfect enough to take the place Of
bows and crossbows.
The Coming Of the Matohloek.
Hand bombards and culvefns were
among the early types Some Of: these
were 20 heavy that a forked support
had to be driven into the ground. and
two men were needed, one to hold and
aim. the other to prime and IRE. Hsw
does that strike you for a duck shoot
ing proposition1
improvements kept coming, however.
Guns were lightened and bettered in
shape. Somebody thought Of putting
a fashspan for the powder by the side
OF the touchhole. and now it was de.
cided to fnsten the slow match In a
movable cock upon the barrel and ig-
mite. 1T with q trigger. These matches
were fuses Of some slow burning fiber,
like tow, which wonld keep spark fol-
q considerable time. Formerly they
had to be- carried separately, but the
new arrangement was a great conven,
ience and made the matchbox. The
cock, being curved like a snake. was
called the ''serpentine."
"a Nuremberg inventor In 1915 hit on
the wheel lock. In this q notched steel
wheel was wound up with q key like
a clock. 5s
Flint or pyrite was held against the
Jagged edge Of the wheel By the pres
sure Of the serpentine. You pulled thu
trigger, then-"whir'-the wheel re.
yolved. a stream. Of sparks few of into
the lash pan. and the gun was dis
charged
And Then Came ths Flintleek.
Everybody knows what the fintloci
J was like Ysou simply fastened 4 sdalkIs