The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gunpowder and Ammunition, by Henry W. L. Hime.

300 This word, which Diez (Etymolog. Wörterbuch) derives from μάγγανον, betrays the western origin of the machine. It was well known in England:—

“Set Mahound at the mangonel, and millstones throw.”

—“Piers Plowman,” C text, cir. 1393, passus xxi.

301 Howorth, i. 125.

302 Yule, in “Marco Polo,” ii. 152.

303 “The Chinese,” &c., ii. 181.

304 Howorth, i. 129.

308 Reinaud and Favé, p. 254.

309 Ency. Metropol., art. “China,” p. 593.

310 Incarville, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 259.

311 These Fathers were strangers to the “doute méthodique” of MM. Langlois and Seignobos, and they certainly did not scan the pages of their vast Chinese Encyclopædias with the doubting eye of Heine:—

“Augen gab uns Gott ein Paar,
Dans wir schauen rein und klar;
Um zu glauben was wir lesen,
Wär’ ein Auge gnug gewesen.”

312 Sir Henry Yule, in Ency. Brit., v. 628.

314 Gibbon, iv. 230, and Appendix 12, by Dr. Bury.

315 Reinaud and Favé, p. 201 n.

316 “Golden Prairies,” Paris ed., i. 308.

317 Elliot, iv. 103.

318 Incarville, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 254.

319 Sir J. Davis, “The Chinese,” &c., ii. 182. “Ils ne sont point envieux de rien faire de nouveau,” Incarville, as above, p. 259.

320 Incarville, as above, p. 252.

322 Father Amiot, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 181.

323 Incarville, as above, p. 247.

326 Mayers, as before, p. 91.

327 Amiot, as before, p. 183.

329 Hoang-chao-li-ki-thou-chi, trans. by Pauthier in his edition of “Marco Polo,” p. 475 n.

330 E. H. Parker, “China,” &c., 1901, p. 83.

332 Professor R. K. Douglas, “China” (“Story of the Nations” series), p. 74.

333 “Decline and Fall,” &c., vii. 11 n (Bury’s ed.).

334 “Roger Bacon,” in Ency. Brit., by Professor Adamson.

335 “Quand le sens littéral est absurde, incohérent ou obscur ... on doit présumer un sens détourné.”—Langlois et Seignobos, Introd. aux Études Historiques, p. 127.

336 “Vulgus (arcana sapientiæ) capere non potest, sed deridet et (abutitur) in sui et sapientum dispendium et gravamen. Quia non sunt margaritæ sapientiæ spargendæ inter porcos.”—Compendium Studii, p. 416.

337 “Vulgus deridet sapientes, et negligit secreta sapientiæ, et nescit uti rebus dignissimis; atque si aliquid magnificum in ejus notitiam cadat a fortuna, illud pervertit et eo abutitur in damnum multiplex personarum et communitatis.”—De Secretis, cap. viii.

338 “Insanus est qui aliquid secretum scribit nisi ut a vulgo celetur, et ut vix a studiosissimis et sapientibus possit intilligi.”—Ib.

339 “Multa mala sequuntur eum qui revelat secreta.”—De Secretis, cap. viii.

340 Jonson’s “Alchemist,” Act II.

341 “Cipher” in Rees’ “Cyclopædia” and Klüber’s Kryptographik Lehrbuch, Tübingen, 1809. In a note to these chapters in the Theatricum Chemicum, Zetzner says: “Hic tamen jacta esse Steganographiæ fundamenta certissimum est.”

342 “Tonitruum et coriscationem.”

343 Æneas Tacticus adopts the same mode of expression, Table II.

344 That is, supposing we knew the subject of his letter, or had evidence which made it probable that it was so and so.

345 To lull suspicion he calls natural saltpetre chalk, a verbum figurativum. Other MSS. read “sal.”

346 “Tere ipsum fortiter cum aqua salis communis.... Ablue in aceto acerrimo.” The section “Nitri Separatio” of “Aristoteles, de Perfecto Magisterio,” in the Theatrum Chemicum, ed. by Zetzner; a collection of alchemical tracts of the Middle Ages, iii. 68.

347 Almost literally translated by Whiteborne: “clarified and from earthe and grosse matter diligently purged.” See A, p. 21.

348 i.e. the lapis Assius = saltpetre. We have here unmistakably a verbum œnigmaticum. The efflorescence of the stone of Assos, which was unknown to the crowd, was of course “not a stone,” although called so. The philosopher’s stone, which was well known by name to the crowd, was likewise “not a stone,” although called so:—

“... ’tis a stone
And not a stone; a spirit, a soul, and a body.”
—Jonson’s “Alchemist.”

Bacon avails himself of the ambiguity of the phrase, “stone which is not a stone,” to support the delusion created by the title of the chapter, and confirm the unwary in the belief that the philosopher’s stone is under discussion, instead of saltpetre.

349 He passes suddenly from chalk to cheese—yellow cheese, laughing openly in his reader’s face.

350 i.e. the cleansed natural saltpetre.

351 “Put the jar on a gentle fire.”—Hassan, A, p. 24.

352 “The mother liquid is boiled until the scum ceases to rise.”—Waltham Abbey process, C, p. 19.

353 “Clear and fair and of an azure colour.”—Whitehorne, F, p. 21.

354 i.e. the scum and impurities.

355 i.e. “to drie throughly.”—Whitehorne, I, p. 22.

356 This repetition corresponds with Whitehorne’s second process; beginning at F´, p. 22.

357 i.e. the crystals just obtained.

358 A powder to purge, or to purify and clarify. “Prenez de la chaulx vive et de l’eau de pluye ... et les brouïllez bien ensemble, et puis le laissez reposer ... et se fera forte lexive.... Prenez de la lexive dessus dicte, et mettez vostre salpetre dedans,” &c. “Livre de Canonnerie,” &c., which although not published until 1561, appears to belong to the end of the fifteenth century.—In Reinaud and Favé, pp. 146-7.

359 Bacon does not name the two substances he alludes to, but Whitehome names two and prescribes the same proportions: “Two parts of unslacked lime and three of oke asshes.”—See A, p. 21. Did Whitehorne have access to Bacon’s MSS.?

360 Treating ostensibly on gold, Bacon is obliged to use resolve for dissolve.

361 The alchemical preparation of gold had much in common with the refining of saltpetre. In the “Nitri Preparatio” of Bernard’s and Penoti’s Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 78, we read: “Fac postmodum de eo per omnia ut dicam in preparatione auri, id est, destilla per alambicum et congela,” &c.

362 i.e. to the laxative.

363 A verbum œnigmaticum. The Phœnix is a singular animal, as Bacon justly observes, inasmuch as it springs from its own ashes. Its name, therefore, may be figuratively used with perfect propriety to denote animal charcoal, an efficacious agent in clarifying solutions of impure saltpetre.—Bloxam’s “Chemistry,” 8th ed., p. 488.

364 Bacon appears to have poured the hot solution upon the laxative, precisely as Clarke directs in his “Natural History of Nitre,” London, 1670, p. 42: “Pour the hot liquid on ashes ... ’tis no matter how soon you let it run off the ashes again.”

365 i.e. the removal of the insoluble impurities.

366 “Then pour it into the other jar.”—Hassan, A, p. 24.

367 i.e. into a crystallising jar.

368 “The solution is kept in constant agitation by poles while cooling.”—Waltham Abbey Regs., H, p. 20.

369 “The mother liquid, from which the saltpetre flour has been deposited, is boiled down and crystallised.”—Bloxam’s “Chemistry,” 8th ed., p. 488.

370 Salit petræ is the reading of Zetzner’s Theatrum Chemicum, 1613, v. 962, which is adopted by Reinaud and Favé, p. 123; of Manget’s Bibliotheca Chemica, 1702, i. 624; of the Verosimilia Sacra et Profana of Hoven and Molfenger, 1732, ii. 93; and of the copy used by Romocki, i. 93. Prof. Brewer’s MS. reads sal petræ.

371 “Atque mala vites incidere falce novellas.”—Vergil, “Bucol.,” iii. 11. The word, however, may be simply novæ.

372 “Maltha, quæ est genus bitumenis.”—Opus Majus, London, 1733, p. 474.

373 “Possumus artificialiter componere ignem comburentem, scilicet, ex sale petræ ... ex oleo petroleo ... ex maltha et naphta et consimilibus.... His vicinus est ignis græcus et multa comburentia.”—De Secretis, cap. vi.

374 “Maltha ... projecta super hominem armatum comburit eum.... Ignis comburens fit ex eo qui cum difficultate potest extingui, nam aqua non extinguit.”—Op. Maj., as above.

375 “Sunt alia stupenda naturæ. Nam soni velut tonitrua et coruscationes fieri possunt in aere; imo majori horrore quam illa quæ fiunt per naturam. Nam modica materia adaptata, scilicet ad quantitatem unius pollicis, sonum facit horribilem et coruscationem ostendit vehementem.”—De Secretis, cap. vi.

377 “Quaedam vero auditum perturbant.... Nullus tonitrui fragor posset talibus comparari. Quædam tantum terrorem visui incutiunt, quod coruscationes nubium longe minus et sine comparatione perturbant.... Experimentum hujus rei capimus ex hoc ludicro puerili, quod fit in multis mundi partibus, scilicet ut instrumento facto ad quantitatem pollicis humani ex violentia illius salis qui sal petrae vocatur, tam horribilis sonus nascitur in ruptura tam modicæ rei, scilicet modici pergameni, quod fortis tonitrui sentiatur excedere rugitum, et coruscationem maximam sui luminis jubar excedit.”—Opus Majus, London, 1733, p. 474. “Offenbar ist hier das Schiesspulver verstanden.”—L. Schneider, “Roger Bacon,” 1873, p. 110. Two centuries before, when referring to Bacon’s remarks on the destruction of the Midianites by Gideon, Borrichius had said: “Hic apertissime loquitur Bacon de nitrato illo sclopetorum pulvere.”—De Ortu &c., Chemiæ, 1668, p. 126.

378 This is M. Berthelot’s view; Sur la Force des Matières Explosives, Paris, 1883, ii. 358; and it is probably the right one.

379

... δυσμαχώτατον τέρας·
ὁς δὴ κεραυνοῦ κρείσσον’ εὑρήσει φλόγα,
βροντάς θ’ ὑπερβάλλοντα καρτερὸν κτύπον.
—Æschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, 921.

380 “State Papers,” Domestic Series, 1581-90.

381 “Archæologia,” xiii. 27, 397-400. The term slur-bow is, I presume, akin to the German schleuderbogen.

382 “The Book of Archery,” London, 1840, Pl. xvii., No. 5.

383 “The Cross-bow,” 1903, fig. 84, p. 129.

384 Rupert’s Diary, in Warburton, “Prince Rupert,” iii. 163.

385 Napoleon III., iii. 261.

386 Ὀστράκινα σκεύη—earthenware vessels. J. Cameniata, p. 527.

387 Reinaud and Favé, in Jour. Asiatique, 1849.

388 Froissart’s “Chronicles,” ed. Bouchon; ii., ch. 181, p. 235.

389 St. 65, ed. Robson.

390 According to Sir Walter Scott, the Scotch in the beginning of the last century still called crow’s-feet calthrops, a word which goes back to “Piers Plowman,” cir. 1393:—“The Rev. Dr. Heavysterne from the Low Countries sustained much injury by sitting down suddenly and incautiously on three ancient calthrops” (“Antiquary,” ch. iii.).

391 “Fictili globo incendiarii pulveris.”—P. Jovii, Hist. sui Temp., i., c. 18.

392 Mém. de Castelnau, ed. Bouchon; xiii., p. 154.

393 Mém. de Messire du Bellay, ed. Bouchon, vii., p. 632.

394 Fol. 41. These brazen grenades of Whitehorne’s correspond to the “Kobber-Granater” shown in the books of the Copenhagen Arsenal at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Blom’s Kristian d. IV.’s Artilleri, pp. 268-69.

395 “The Bombardier,” 1802, p. 147.

396 Danduli Chronicon, Muratori, xii. 448, in Elliot, vi. 469.

397 In Elliot, vol. iii.

398 In Elliot, vii. 125.

399 In the war of Chiozza. During the attack on the Torre della Bebbe, “furono tirate molte rochette.”—Muratori, xv. 769.

400 “Ecce quidam adolescens ... quid Græcus ignis potest experiri vellet ... fusum sulphure ignitum ... ad quamdam domum, stipula et stramine coopertam, maximo impetu traxit. Iterum, alium et alium transjecit. Acriori incendio edes accense concremantur.”—Œuvres de R. Blondel, pub. by “Soc. de l’Hist. de Normandie,” ii. 74. Little is known of Blondel’s life, but he was alive in the year 1460. I believe fusus to be the fusée de feu of the Livre de Canonerie, Paris, 1561 (Reinaud and Favé, p. 140), and this incendiary was not a rocket.

401 “Hist. of Tipu Sultan,” by Husain Kirmani, trans. by Col. Miles, p. 145.

402 “Hist, of Tipu Sultan,” by Husain Kirmani, p. 109.

403 “Narrative of the Conquest of Mysore,” Hull, 1804, p. 50.

404 “Narrative of the Campaign with Tippoo Sultan,” London, 1793, p. 209.

405 “Narrative of the Conquest of Mysore,” p. 52. Their charge was 1 lb. of powder, and their range about 1000 yards. “Description of Indian and Oriental Armour,” by Lord Egerton of Tatton, 1896, p. 32.

406 “Ammunition,” pt. ii. p. 174, by Capt. C. O. Browne, R.A.

407 Sir W. Congreve’s “Concise Account of the Rocket System,” London, 1807, p. 42. He held his commission in the Hanoverian army.

408 Jähns, p. 523; Romocki, i. 69 n.

409 Congreve, as above, p. 1.

411 “In dieser Hinsicht standen also die Feuerwerker der Zeit des Caligula wol schon auf derselben Höhe wie Congreve, dessen ‘Geheimnis’ zu Anfang des 19 Jahrhunderts so angestaunt wurde!” (p. 516.)

412 “Furchtbare Wirkung.” Decker’s Gesch. des Geschützwesens, &c., 1822, p. 79.

413 “Capt Bogue and the Rocket Brigade,” by Col. F. A. Whinyates, late R.H.A., in “Proceed. R.A. Institution,” vol. xxiv.

414 “Ammunition,” as above, pp. 175-76.

415 Sloane MSS., 335, 795; and Freind’s “Hist. of Physick,” 1758, ii. 325.

416 “Bombardes, basilics, jettans boullets de fer, de plomb, de bronze.”—Rabelais (d. 1553), iv., c. 61.

417 Recipe 13. Extracts from Arderne’s MSS. given by Hewitt, “Ancient Armour,” ii. 284, leave little doubt that Arderne was acquainted with the Liber Ignium of Marcus Græcus.

418 In the Peninsular War, our men could fire over 100 rounds, the French only 50, without washing out the barrels of their muskets. Marquis de Chambray, Œuvres, v. 293-4.

420 “Certain Discourses ... concerning Divers Weapons,” p. 20.

421 Sir H. Nicolas, “Hist. of Royal Navy,” ii. 479.

422 “Pro tribus petris cere ... ad cerandum canubium ad arificiendum pulveris bumbardorum in castro de Edinburgh,” &c. “Chronicles of Scotland,” published by the Deputy Clerk-Register, vi. 495-97. In these documents a cross-bow is called, “arcus cum circulo.”

423 “Acts of (English) Privy Council,” N.S., xvii. 392.

424 “Seaman’s Dictionary,” under “Powder.”

425 “Chemical Essays,” 1781, ii. 10. This led to a Parliamentary inquiry.

426 “A Statement of Facts,” &c., by General Sir W. Congreve, 1811, pp. 18-19.

427 Brackenbury, iv. 292.

429 “Art of Shooting in Great Ordnance,” p. 2.

431 Mieth mentions glazing in 1684; Artilleriæ Recentior Praxis, Franckfurt, pt. ii. c. 55.

432 This is the only reason given by Clarke for the introduction of corned powder. “Natural History of Nitre,” 1670, p. 88.

433 “Das knollen bullfer ij pfund mer tud denn gereden bullfer iij pfund.” Firebook, 1400-50, in Romocki, i. 182.

434 “‘Of a verity the shooting of the foemen doth begin to increase,’ exclaimed the Rev. Gabriel Kettledrummle; ‘peradventure some pellet may attain unto us even here. Lo! I will ensconce me behind the cairn, as behind a strong wall of defence.’ ‘He’s but a coward body after a’,’ said Cuddy; ‘he’s but a daidling coward body.’” “Old Mortality,” chap. xvii.