Title: Gunnery in 1858: Being a Treatise on Rifles, Cannon, and Sporting Arms
Author: William Greener
Release date: September 23, 2013 [eBook #43799]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
By WILLIAM GREENER, C.E.,
INVENTOR OF THE EXPANSIVE PRINCIPLE AS APPLIED IN THE MINIE AND
ENFIELD RIFLES, AND AUTHOR OF “THE GUN,” ETC. ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 56, CORNHILL.
1858.
(The Right of Translation is reserved.)
The urgent need for practical information on the important subject of Gunnery is evinced by the numerous patents taken out during the last few years, most of which have fallen still-born, through deficient practical science on the part of the inventors. My aim in producing this book has been to point out the errors into which many ingenious inventors have fallen, and to show how similar failures may be avoided in future, by indicating the only right road to improvement in Gunnery,—the strict observance of scientific principles in every old process and in all new inventions: for it is to the ignorance or neglect of the principles of the science that failures in Gunnery are due.
The necessity for progress in the science of Gunnery is now rendered more than ever imperative on our Government by the prodigious energy and activity of foreign Governments in providing armaments for land and sea service, the efficiency of which is ensured by adopting all the newest improvements in fire-arms. But the obstinate reluctance which all our previous Governments have shown to enter upon the, to them unwelcome, duty of investigating and experimenting on warlike inventions, necessitates strong “pressure from without;” for it may be truly said that all great improvements in Gunnery in England have been forced upon the authorities by absolute necessity, and it is still a question whether we shall profit by our recent experiences, or, as before, allow war to find us unprepared. We have, doubtless, armaments of gigantic proportions, and mammoth vessels of war, capable of discharging an ordinary ship’s cargo of shot and shell at a broadside; yet while millions have been thus expended, the improvement of the Gun, without which they would be mere masses of wood, and targets for more skilful opponents, has been neglected.
The GUN and its PROJECTILE will decide the victory in future fights. Indeed, we are even now waging war with our neighbours,—not on the battle-field or the ocean wave, but in the foundry; engineers being our generals, and founders our admirals. The present able ruler of France is actively at work, while we are but looking on: he is casting cannon the like of which have never been seen, while we are spending thousands in experimenting on cast-iron and foundries; and by the time our officials have discovered the best cast-iron for heavy guns, the French batteries on sea and land will be bristling with Rifled Steel Cannon of tremendous range and endless endurance.
Woe betide this country if at the commencement of a war we should find ourselves just where we are.
The Emperor Napoleon, as is well known, is well versed, theoretically and practically, in everything relating to Gunnery. Keenly alive to the minutest points of progress he receives, investigates, and immediately adopts all inventions of value; having the ability to perceive, the sagacity to appreciate, and the liberality to reward merit wherever it is shown.
Compare his system with ours, where men are placed in official positions, and entrusted with power, not because of their ability to fulfil the duties of their office, but for very inferior and often unworthy reasons; where talent and fitness are not considered, and consequently a long routine of forms is made to serve as “a buffer” to resist the troublesome pertinacity of inventors, who are apt to disturb the serenity of reluctant or indifferent officials. And when at last a trial is granted, the invention is either rejected or approved by incompetent or prejudiced judges. While this practice prevails, England must ever be behindhand in Gunnery; for improvements in cannon and projectiles cannot be carried out by private enterprise.
In thus strongly expressing my opinion of the way in which progress is balked, I am not merely echoing a cry, but speaking from my own knowledge and experience. I am actuated by no feeling of disappointment, for my invention of “the expansive bullet” has been at last adopted here, after it had been copied in France. My object is to induce public investigation and inquiry, and to ventilate this important subject; and I trust that my antecedents, and the fulfilment of my predictions in matters of Gunnery, will give weight to this deliberate and disinterested expression of opinion.
The great favour shown by lovers of shooting to my former efforts to disseminate a better understanding of the principles of Gunnery, has been an additional stimulus to the production of the present work; and I have taken especial care that my observations should tend to the improvement of sporting arms, and the increased safety of the sportsman.
Nor has the ingenious mechanic been overlooked, for perfection of gun-manufacture must ever go hand in hand with scientific principle; and the desire to promote their combination has prompted my endeavours to elucidate the subject.
Leaving to the reader to determine how far I have succeeded in my efforts, I merely wish to add that I make no pretension to literary style, but have aimed to produce a practical work for practical men. I have drawn upon my previous works for such portions of information as were needful to give completeness to this view of the science of Gunnery, its present state, and probable future.
William Greener.
Aston New Town,
September 3rd, 1858.
| Plate | 1. | — | Laminated Steel Barrels—To face Title. | ||
| „ | 2. | — | Damascus and Fancy Steel Barrels | To face Page | 228 |
| „ | 3. | — | Stub Twist and Stub Damascus Barrels | „ | 234 |
| „ | 4. | — | Charcoal Iron and “Threepenny” Iron Barrels | „ | 241 |
| „ | 5. | — | “Twopenny” Iron and “Sham Damn” Iron Barrels | „ | 240 |
| Chapter I.—ANCIENT ARMS. | |
| PAGE. | |
| The bow—The sling—Crossbow—Field artillery of the Normans—Artillery of the ancients—Range of the crossbow and longbow—The ram of Vespasian—Guns first employed in 1327—Guns at the battle of Cressy—Cannon of 1390—Skill of English archers—Defensive armour—Portable firearms invented in 1430—Primitive hand-gun—Iron cannon recovered from the Mary Rose, wrecked in 1545—“Chambers”—Matchlock and wheel-lock—Fire-lock—Damascus gun-barrels—Birmingham guns—Spanish pistol with magazine—Percussion lock—The revolving pistol not a new invention—Colt’s revolver—Breech-loading guns | 1 |
| Chapter II.—ON GUNPOWDER. | |
| Origin of its invention—Roger Bacon’s recipe—Accidental discovery by a German monk—Gunpowder introduced by the Saracens—Its explosive and propellant properties—Composition of gunpowder—Nitre its essence—Properties of sulphur as an ingredient—Proportions and constituents of French gunpowder—Sulphur not always indispensable—Chemical principles of its composition—Component parts of different gunpowders—Source of its explosive force—Explosion at Gateshead—Variations in strength and quickness of fire—Granulation of sporting gunpowder and of artillery gunpowder—Importance of suitable granulation for different firearms—Large grain powder the more effectual expellant—Fine powder dangerous—Principle of granulation—Gun-cotton—Imperfect instrument for testing gunpowder—Charcoal—Operation of making gunpowder described—“Glazing” detrimental—Utility of granulation—Fine grain powder—Dr. Ure on the projectile force of gunpowder—Dr. Hutton’s calculations and experiments—Mode of controlling the destructive force of gunpowder—Experiments to test the velocity of explosive force of different granulations—The grain should be proportioned to the length and bore of the gun—Chlorate of potassa used by the French in making gunpowder—Similar powder proposed by Mr. Parr, and condemned by Sir William Congreve—Velocity in projectile force must be gradual—Curious experiment—Operation of blasting stone, &c., with gunpowder—English sporting gunpowder—Military and naval gunpowder—Fame of English gunpowder makers | 18 |
| Chapter III.—ARTILLERY. | |
| Definition of the term—Modern field gun—English artillery behind the march of science—Official obstacles to improvement—Various kinds of British artillery—Table of measurements, and range of iron ordnance—Brass guns—Their peculiar property—Firing of brass and iron guns compared—Range of brass ordnance—Paixhan guns—Traversing beds for ship guns—Ranges of Paixhan guns and howitzers—Mortars—Their uses and varieties—Monster mortar at siege of Antwerp—Table of English mortar practice—Carronades—Table of weights of guns and shot—Causes of Recoil—Guns of our ancestors—Metal required in rear of the breech—Results of Hutton’s experiments—Weight in fore-part of gun injurious—Firm base for a gun essential—Leaden bed for mortars suggested—New materials desirable for projectiles—Mr. Monk’s gun unequalled—Principle of its construction—Wilkinson’s opinion—Waste of explosive force in ordnance—The propellant force should be accelerative—This attainable by a proper granulation of powder—Government powder—Gunnery only in its infancy—Compound shot—Lead better than iron for cannon shot—Expenditure of shot at sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos—Hutton’s experiments—The shrapnell shell—Improvements in gunnery—The Greenerian rifle—Dangerous inefficiency of English artillery—Best metal for cannon—Increased range destroys guns—Cause of mortars bursting—The Lancaster gun—English cast-iron inferior—Mallet’s monster mortar—Wrought-iron unsuited to large guns—Reason why—Shaft of the Leviathan—New method of welding iron shafts—Railway carriage axles—Nasmyth’s monster cannon—Light gun-barrels stronger than heavy ones—Brass guns inferior to cast-iron—Defect of hoop and stave gun—Form and dimensions of Mallet’s monster mortar (with engraving)—Cause of deterioration of English cast-iron—Russian cast-iron more durable, and why—Krupp’s steel gun—Laminated steel gun-barrels—Captain Dalgren’s improvements in American ordnance—Russian guns—Reinforce rings and trunnions objectionable, and why—Rifled cannon essential—Range of steel rifled cannon—Best form of gun—Professor Barlow on the strength of iron—Our artillery not constructed on scientific principles—Russian 56-pounder, English 8-inch gun, English carronade, Monck’s 56-pounder, and 10-inch gun (with cuts)—Land and sea service mortars (with cuts)—Joseph Manton’s rifle cannon—Projectiles for rifled cannon—Rifle rockets—Mr. Whitworth’s improvements in rifled guns—His polygonal projectile—Experiments with Mr. Armstrong’s field-piece—Increased range and accuracy of rifled cannon with elongated projectiles—Table of comparative range of smooth-bored and rifled cannon—Shells for rifled cannon—Spiral motion of projectiles from smooth-bored guns—Breech-loading cannon useless and unsafe | 58 |
| Chapter IV.—MANUFACTURE OF IRON FOR GUN-BARRELS. | |
| Improvement in gun barrels depends on the iron—Continental manufacturers advance while English stand still—Cheap and inferior guns of “Park-paling”—Scarcity of horse-nail stubs—Importance of iron manufacture—Great value of steel in ancient times—Iron originally made with wood charcoal—Coal coke unfit for making best iron—British iron ore inferior—Mr. Mushet on steel-iron—English workmen employed abroad—English gun-makers’ names forged in Belgium—Indian Iron and Steel Company—Indian process of making steel—Hammer-hardening recommended—Difference of “Silver steel” and “Twist steel”—Method of making laminated steel—It is spoilt by over-twisting—Watering of Damascus barrels—Proportions of carbon in steel and iron—Damascus barrels often plated—Modern method of making Damascus iron (with cuts)—Objection to wire-twist iron—Figured barrels—Damascus barrels made in Belgium—Damascus iron inferior in strength—Use of old horse-shoe nails for gun-barrels—Stub iron alone insufficient—Prejudices of provincial gun-makers—Mixture of steel and stub iron—Importance of welding on an air furnace—Proportions of steel and stub iron—Efficacy of hammer-hardening and reworking iron—Improvements in superior iron owing to gun-makers—Explosions of steam-boilers owing to neglect or bad construction—Boiler iron improveable—Steel-Damascus barrel iron—Manufacture of “charcoal iron”—Imitation of “smoke brown”—Gains from using inferior iron—Frauds in barrel making—Advice of Edward Davies in 1619—“Threepenny skelp iron”—“Wednesbury skelp”—Test of a safe gun—“Sham damn skelp”—Base guns made to sell—Their injurious effect on the gun-making trade—“Swaff-iron forging.” | 146 |
| Chapter V.—GUN-MAKING. | |
| Barrel welding—Birmingham welders—Different twists of metal (illustrated with cuts)—Process of welding—Hammer-hardening—Belgium welders—Mode of plating barrels—Belgium method (with cut)—Profits of fraud—Qualifications of a good gun-barrel maker—Processes of boring and grinding—Proper inclination of double barrels—Elevation of barrels should be proportionate to charge and distance—Brazing of barrels detrimental—Mr. Wilkinson’s opinion—Solid ribs requisite—Advantage of the patent breech—Best shape of breech (with cut)—Gun locks—Their scientific construction—The Barside lock—Messrs. Braziers’ locks—The stock, fittings, &c.—Recipe for staining steel barrels—Birmingham method of browning—Belgian method—Varieties of iron for best barrels—Laminated steel barrels never known to burst—Base imitations of laminated steel—Cost of laminated steel barrels—Author’s method of laminating—Stub Damascus passed off for steel—Birmingham guns—Practice of forging names of eminent makers—Author’s offer—Improved metal for axles—Author’s imitation Damascus (with plate)—Joseph Manton’s merits—Prize medals awarded to author—Advantages of Birmingham for gun making—“London-made guns”—Foreign imitations of English guns—Periodical exhibition of guns recommended—Steel-twist and stub Damascus (with plate)—Barrels of charcoal iron—Inferior guns—Cost of skelp-iron guns—Cost of “sham damn iron” guns—Sham guns (with plate)—Cost of “park-paling” guns | 185 |
| Chapter VI.—THE PROOF OF GUN BARRELS. | |
| Proof-house of Gun-maker’s Company—Proof Acts of 1813 and 1815—Provisions of Gun Barrel Proof Act of 1855—Penal clauses—Schedule B—Proof marks—Scale of charges for Proof—Mode of proving (with cut)—Number of barrels proved in 1857 | 243 |
| Chapter VII.—THE SCIENCE OF GUNNERY. | |
| New principle—Improved rifles—Useless inventions—Scientific principles of gunnery: 1. The explosive power and its velocity. 2. The retarding agents. 3. Construction of the tube. 4. Form of projectile—Robins’s theory—Hutton’s experiments—Suitable velocity the germ of the science—Author’s experiments and their results—Penetrating power of bullets—Resistance of the atmosphere—Friction detrimental—Construction of the tube—The Cylindro-conoidal form best suited for projectiles—Jacob’s and Whitworth’s bullets—Lengthened projectiles tend to burst the barrel—Amount of heat needful to explode gunpowder—Advantage of unglazed powder—Percussion powder—Best form of nipple (with cuts)—Propellant velocity the grand desideratum—Why short guns shoot better than long ones—True science of gunnery—Cause of guns bursting—Mr. Blaine’s difference of opinion with the author on explosive force—Shooting powers of different gun barrels—Tables of strength and pressure—Colonel Hawker’s axiom—Mr. Daniel’s remarks on shot—Duck and swivel guns—The wire cartridge—Bell-muzzle guns—Mr. Blaine on long barrels—The just medium—Belgium guns will not stand English proof—Cause of their inferiority—French gun-makers behind the age—Author’s notes on the “Specimens by French Gun-makers at the Paris Exhibition”—On recoil in shooting—Causes and experiments—Mode of determining the size of shot suited to the bore of gun—Mr. Prince’s double gun | 257 |
| Chapter VIII.—THE FRENCH “CRUTCH,” OR BREECH-LOADING SHOT GUN. | |
| Breech-loading fire-arms unsafe and inferior—Objections specified—Trial of breech-loading against muzzle-loading guns—Danger from using breech-loaders—Excessive recoil | 329 |
| Chapter IX.—THE RIFLE. | |
| Robins’s prediction verified—Barrels first rifled at Vienna in 1498—Earliest elongated bullets—Captain Delvigne’s bullet—The author’s expansive bullet—His memorial to the Board of Ordnance—Report of its trial by the 60th Rifles in 1836—Decision of the Board of Ordnance—Progress of the author’s invention—Captain Delvigne’s patent of 1842—Captain Minié’s bullet of 1847—Unsuccessful attempts of author to have his claim to the invention of the expansive bullet recognised by Government—Secret report of Select Committee on his invention—His priority admitted by the Emperor Napoleon—The British Government award the author 1,000l. for his invention—Principle of the expansive rifle bullet—Projectiles may be lengthened with increase of range—Action of the expansive bullet—Defects of the Minié bullet—Colonel Hay’s improvement—Author’s experiments, and their result—Spiral curve of the rifle barrel—Failure of the “Pritchett bullet”—Captain Tamissier’s theory—Minié and Greenerian bullet contrasted (with cuts)—Author’s improvement of 1852 (with cut)—General Jacob’s bullet (with cuts)—Remarks of Lieutenant Symons—The Whitworth rifle—Its defects—Report of trial of the Whitworth and Enfield rifles—Author’s comments thereon (with cuts)—Importance of safety from accident—The expansive bullet can be made superior to the Whitworth—Fallacy of experiments—Comparative cost of ammunition for the Whitworth and Enfield rifles—Defective cartridges—Hints to obviate defects—Vital principle of elongated projectiles—A hollow bullet proposed, its defects—The Swiss bullet—Doubtful utility of the deepening groove—Government rifle, with sword bayonet—Double rifles—Hints on rifle shooting—Author’s expanding screw bands—Mr. Prince’s breech-loading carbine—Revolving rifles—French school of rifle practice—English school of rifle shooting at Hythe—Double rifled carbines recommended—Revolvers costly and fragile—Lieutenant Kerr’s opinion of the Enfield or Greener’s carbine—Government pistol and carbine—Efficient arms of the Irregular Cavalry of India—First use of greased cartridges in India—The three-grooved and poly-grooved rifle (with cut)—Spherical bullets indispensable to smooth bored muskets—Length and bore of military rifle—Elliptical bored rifle—Mr. Lancaster’s bullet superseded by the Greenerian bullet—Report of committee on Lancaster’s rifle—The oval bore not a new invention—Inferiority of the two-grooved or Brunswick rifle—The Prussian needle gun—Enfield rifles made for France, Russia, and other states of Europe—Trials of Whitworth and Enfield rifles—Unsatisfactory results of the Whitworth rifle | 338 |
| Chapter X.—REVOLVING PISTOLS. | |
| Immense demand for them—Their value—Best manufacturers—Colonel Colt’s repeating pistol described—Its double action discussed—Machine-made pistols not equal to hand-made—Dean and Adams’s revolver described—Its improvements on Colt’s—Tranter’s double trigger revolver—His lubricating bullet and other improvements—Webley’s revolver—Comparison of self-acting and cocking-lock pistols—Tendency of revolvers to foul—Lieut. Symons’s opinion—Other defects to be overcome—Author’s preference for double-barrelled fire-arms in warfare | 413 |
| Chapter XI.—ENFIELD RIFLES. | |
| The name explained, and weapon described—Its origin—Author’s share in its construction—American machinery for gun-making—Extent and products of the Enfield manufactory | 429 |
| Chapter XII.—THE HARPOON-GUN FOR WHALE-SHOOTING. | 432 |
| Chapter XIII.—SHOT, CAPS, AND WADDING. | 435 |
RIFLES, CANNON,
AND
SPORTING ARMS.
From the earliest ages of the world, the jealousies and bickerings of mankind have been fruitful causes of war. Sometimes, perhaps, justified by political reasons; at others, it may be, arising solely from a desire, on the part of ambitious chiefs, to extend their territories by multiplying their conquests; while, in too many cases, the struggle for religious ascendancy has led to the most sanguinary and cruel battles.
War has been considered as a science from the most remote ages, and the ingenuity of the talented has successively been taxed to render it as perfect as possible. It is true—
but these soon gave place to others, more calculated to decide unequal, and often protracted, conflicts.
Arms, in a general sense, include all kinds of weapons, both offensive and defensive; and amongst the earliest may be classed the bow and arrow, as it gave facilities to man to capture the wild animals for food, probably before their use was required for the purposes of war. The bow and the sling were the first means invented, and next only to the human arm for projecting bodies with an offensive aim: the great principle which, to the present day, reigns unrivalled, developing the ruling passion of man to injure, while remaining himself in comparative safety,—“self-preservation” being “the first law of nature.”
To the bow and sling were soon added spears, swords, axes, and javelins, all of which appear to have been used by the Jews. David destroyed Goliath with a stone from the brook. The invention of the sling is attributed, by ancient writers, to the Phœnicians, or the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands. The great fame that these islanders obtained arose from their assiduity in its use; their children were not allowed to eat until they struck their food from the top of a pole with a stone from a sling. From the accounts left us (probably fabulous), it appears that the immense force with which a stone could be projected, can only be exceeded by modern gunnery. Even at that early age, leaden balls were in use as projectiles; though we cannot put much faith in Seneca’s account of the velocity being so great as frequently to melt the lead. The use of the sling continued over a long period of time, even as late as the Huguenot war in 1572.
The bow is of equal, if not greater, antiquity. The first account we find of it is in Genesis, 21st chapter and 20th verse, where the Lawgiver, speaking of Ishmael, says, “And God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.” The arms of the ancient Greeks and Persians were such as we have described, with the addition of chariots armed with scythes, in which the chiefs sometimes fought; though their main dependence was upon their heavy-armed infantry. Elephants were afterwards used as adjuncts in their military operations, but their use does not appear to have been very great or very permanent.
The Romans were armed much in the same manner as the Greeks, with a slight difference in the form of their weapons; and the arms of the early Saxons were similar; those of the Normans were only altered in their construction, except that to them appears to be awarded the invention of the cross-bow, an instrument which afterwards became of great repute in England and elsewhere. It has also been asserted, that the Normans were the first to introduce a species of field artillery, from which stones and darts were thrown, and arrows, headed with combustible matter, for firing towns and shipping.
The artillery-proper of the ancients, as the engines for projecting masses of stone and such like materials may be termed, reached to wonderful perfection; and the velocity with which missiles of every description could be thrown from them, attest the skill and ingenuity exercised in their construction: indeed it is quite evident they are only excelled by the more portable, and simply constructed, artillery of our own day.
The great artillerist of the Sicilians, Archimedes, seems to have made some of the most powerful engines; but he, considering any attention to mechanics as beneath the philosopher, has not left us an account of any one of them.
It is said of the cross-bow that a quarrel could be projected from them 200 yards, so that we may imagine the force with which one of these lumps of iron would strike even the strongest armour,—as the velocity, to range that distance, would not be far short of 900 or 1,000 feet per second; nearly equal to the effect of a ball from one of our old imperfectly constructed muskets.
We are told incredible stories of the abilities of some of our bygone archers. Should it be true, as stated, that an arrow could be shot nearly 700 yards, we can easily conceive the immense velocity with which it must have left the bow; this range being quite equal, if not superior, to that of the late unimproved rifles. Though we must bear in mind, that the peculiar shape of the arrow fits it to cut the atmosphere with less resistance then the half sphere of a bullet; and hence one reason of its obtaining an extensive range. There is a story told of the famous Robin Hood, and Little John, “who could shoot an arrow a measured mile.” We suppose the mile was the reverse of an Irish one, or they had the advantage of a precious stiff gale of wind. Historians sometimes “draw the long-bow” as well as archers. Many statements have descended to us of the power of the battering rams of old; but we have a much more ready method of blowing open gates by a single bag of gunpowder; and a 68 lb. shot has all the force that could be given even to that famous ram of Vespasian, “the length whereof was only fifty cubits, which came not up to the size of many of the Grecian rams, had a head as thick as ten men, and twenty-five horns, each of which was as thick as one man, and placed a cubit distance from the rest; the weight, as was customary, rested on the hinder part, and was no less than 1,500 talents; when it was removed, without being taken to pieces, 150 yoke of oxen, or 300 pairs of horses and mules, laboured in drawing it, and 1,500 men employed their utmost strength in forcing it against the walls.”
With these remarks we shall proceed to introduce the invention of Gunnery.
Barbour, in his life of Bruce, informs us that guns were first employed by the English at the battle of Werewater, which was fought in 1327, about forty years after the death of Friar Bacon; and there is no doubt that four guns were used at the battle of Cressy, fought in 1346, when they were supposed to have been quite unknown to the French, and tended to obtain for British arms the victory. Froissart gives an excellent representation of a cannon and cannoneers, in 1390, a cut of which we give in the following page.
The use of guns in warfare is, therefore, comparatively of modern date, and the early specimens which are still extant, of which we have drawings and descriptions, must have been of very little service compared with those of the present day. The English musqueteer was formerly a most encumbered soldier. “He had, besides the unwieldy weapon itself, his coarse powder for loading in a flask, his fine powder for priming in a touch-box, his bullets in a leathern bag, with strings to draw to get at them, whilst in his hand were his musket-rest and his burning match; and when he had discharged his piece, he had to draw his sword in order to defend himself. Hence it became a question, and was so for a long time, whether the bow did not deserve a preference over the musket.”[1]
[1] Grose’s “Military Antiquities.”
The mention of the long-bow is frequent in English history, and its use contributed, in no mean degree, to many important victories. Perhaps it might be that our forefathers were more skilful in the use of their weapons than their adversaries.
In our wars in France, in the reign of Edward III., thousands suffered by the English archery; and the brilliant success which attended them was, at that time, attributed to their “superior skill, combined with the valour of the Black Prince.” So highly was this practice esteemed, that many statutes were enacted in successive reigns to encourage or enforce it.
Archery furnished matter for oratorical display, both in the senate and the pulpit; the palace and the cottage alike bore testimony to the great importance which was attached to the art; and it was at once the study and pastime of the whole nation. Thus, long after the introduction of fire-arms, the long-bow was held in great esteem; and it is no wonder that this favourite instrument should have been reluctantly relinquished, after obtaining such universal popularity, and becoming so intimately connected with many national and important events. It is now superseded by the gun, a more potent and destructive engine. The bow, so much valued, has vanished from our ranks by slow gradations, to make way for the musket; and the quivers of cloth-yard shafts have been supplanted by bristling bayonets. These things are now practically unknown as military weapons, though they contended for superiority with fire-arms during two centuries.
At this period, and for a long time previously, more attention was paid to the fabrication of defensive armour, than to the invention of weapons of an offensive character; hence the perfection that was attained in the manufacture of mail, of every variety, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The splendid manner in which some of the chivalrous knights of that age chose to have their armour constructed and ornamented sometimes proved fatal to themselves. Froissart relates that Raymond, nephew to Pope Clement, was taken prisoner, and put to death by his captors, in order that they might become possessed of his magnificent armour. Those gorgeous and costly fabrications were likewise doomed to give place to the advancing knowledge and skill of succeeding generations; being now only known as matters of history, and regarded as valuable curiosities. So late, however, as the latter part of the sixteenth century, armour formed part of the military equipment; and the French cavalry, called carabins, are described as having the cuirass sloped off the right shoulder, that they might the more readily couch their cheeks to take aim, while their bridle arms were protected by an elbow gauntlet.
The invention of portable fire-arms is awarded to the Italians by Sir Samuel Meyrick, and, in a memoir in the Archæologia of the Society of Antiquarians, he has named the year 1430 as the precise period of their introduction.
We have already stated that cannon, or heavy ordnance, was in use in the English army in 1327, more than a century before that time. It is not improbable, however, that the Italians were the originators of small fire-arms, for they had for many years been celebrated as skilful in the art of making armour—Milanese armour being considered the most valuable, and it is natural that their attention should be directed to the construction of offensive weapons of a different description.
The invention of the portable fire-arm, in its primitive state, was one of extreme simplicity; the gun consisting merely of a tube fixed to a straight stock of wood, about three feet in length, furnished with trunnions, cascable, and touch-hole: the latter was, in the first instance, at the top, like a large cannon, but was afterwards altered to the side where a small pan was placed to hold the priming, and lessen the liability of its being blown away by the wind. This contrivance was the first step to the gun-lock.
Before the adoption of the match-lock by the English, cannon, as I have before shown, had been in use, though they were of a clumsy description.