578 Romocki, ii. 21.
579 “Haec vocatur scientia experimentalis quæ negligit argumenta, quoniam non certificant, quantumcunque sint fortia, nisi simul adsit experientia conclusionis.... Sola experientia certificat hic, et non argumentum.” Opus Tertium, c. 13.
580 Daniel’s Hist. de la Milice Française, 1724, i. 240.
581 Major Ralph Adye, R.A., “The Bombardier,” &c., 1802.
582 “Annals,” &c., p. 584, for the year 1543. Stow died in 1605. The 15½″ mortar, under Firemaster Thomas Wright, which accompanied a small force sent by Cromwell in 1651 to reduce the Royalist castle of Elizabeth in Jersey, may have been one of Bawd and Collet’s. Between five and ten rounds were fired daily for several days without any damage to the piece, although the carriage broke down completely on two occasions. The range was 1540 yards, and the shooting accurate. The first round, we may feel certain, was laid with extreme care. “I proffered to lay a wager of ten pounds with Captain Dover,” says the Firemaster, “that my first shot should strike the Castle, ... and by God’s providence it did strike one side of the great Tower, where the Granado brake” (i.e. exploded). The second shell “brake verie kindly,” and for the third he “altered (the) degrees of elevation.” Captain Dover may have paid his bet, but the Ordnance Office forgot to remit Wright’s pay; hence the “Perfect Narrative of the Particular Service performed by Firemaster Thomas Wright,” &c. &c., 1651. The word explode is not found before the seventeenth century—see Dr. Murray’s “New English Dictionary”—and was sparingly used in Wright’s time.
583 “Italus a Parmensi ad Foederatos perfugiens, inauditam artem jactabat parandi vasa, cavatosque e ferro aut lapide globos, qui in obsessas urbes adigerentur, impleti ejus naturæ materiâ, ut simul ignem concepissent, in innumeros quasi acinos dissilirent.”
584 See the accounts of the bailiffs of St. Omer in 1342, in Napoleon III., iii. 77.
585 Ib., p. 149.
586 Reinaud and Favé, p. 158.
587 Whitehorne, c. 25.
588 Portfires go back to about 1700. Muller’s “Treatise on Artillery,” p. 202.
589 The battle of Uddevalla in Sweden, 1677, was decided by armes blanches, a prolonged storm of rain having put a stop to all firing. Crichton and Wheaton’s “Scandinavia,” p. 109.
590 Père Amiot, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 183.
591 Hassan, ib., 37.
592 Nye, p. 68 bis, where it is called “priming.”
593 “Quickmatch,” in official “Treat. on Ammunition,” p. 430.
594 Muller’s “Treatise on Artillery,” 1768, p. 203.
595 General Sir Howard Douglas, “Naval Gunnery,” 1860, p. 458. Sir Charles Douglas also introduced into his ship (at his own expense) the quill tubes he had invented for naval use, and flannel cartridge cases which at that time were used “for artillery cartridges of all sorts.” Captain G. Smith, “Univer. Mil. Dict.,” 1779; “Laboratory.”
596 “Artillery Equipment,” Colonel F. Miller, V.C., R.A, Pt. II., p. 84. It is uncertain to what extent flint-locks were adopted for the Artillery. “Ammunition,” by Sir V. D. Majendie, i. 192.
597 “Naval Gunnery,” as before.
598 The above facts are chiefly taken from the “Treatise on Ammunition,” by the late Colonel Sir V. D. Majendie, R.A., 1867; and the work on “Artillery Equipment,” by the late Colonel F. Miller, V.C., R.A.
599 “Elementary Lectures on Artillery,” by Major C. H. Owen and Captain T. L. Dames, Woolwich, 1861.
600 Reinaud and Favé, p. 44.
601 “Quand tu voudras attaquer ton adversaire, mets le feu à la rose,” ib., 38. “Tu mets le feu aux roses et tu lances la marmite,” ib., 43.
602 “Inventions and Devices,” 1578, p. 39.
603 For instance: “Adviserez que le trou d’icelle (the shell) soit du costé de la bouche dudit mortier.” Modelles, Artifices du Feu, &c., 1598, p. 163.
604 As happened centuries afterwards with Shrapnel’s fuzes when cut “short.”
605 “Art of Shooting in Great Ordnance,” p. 13.
606 Ib., pp. 30, 31.
607 Among the stores detailed by Firemaster T. Wright in his “Perfect Narrative,” &c., of his expedition to Jersey, 1651, are found “1000 Fuzes for shels, 600 hand Fuzes.”
608 “Invention die bishero noch nit ist gebraucht worden.” Archeley, 1621, p. 119. The Spanish Tratado de Artilléria, 1613, I have not seen and rely upon the French and German translations, both by J. T. Brey, the former entitled Artillerie, &c., the latter Archeley, &c. Either of them has been carelessly executed—perhaps both of them.
609 “La bouche du tuyeau sur la poudre de la charge de la ditte pièces.” Artillerie, p. 119.
610 “150 schritt”—geometrical paces, I presume: 1 geom. pace = 5 ft.
611 Wachthaus. The French translation has corps de garde.
612 Blom’s Kristian d. IV.’s Artilleri, p. 277.
613 P. 63 bis.
614 Pr. Lieut. W. Ritter von Breithaupt, Der Entwicklungsgang und die darauf gegründete Systematik der Zünderwesens, &c., 1868, p. 18.
615 “Gegen das Ende des 16 ten Jahrhunderts fiel man darauf, Granaten aus Kanonen zu schiessen. Da aber die ersten Versuche nicht mit gehöriger Vorsicht, und überhaupt mit zu starker Pulverladung angestellt wurden, so misslangen sie, und man behielt die sicherere Art, sie aus Haubitzen zu werfen, bei.” Major C. von Decker, Geschichte des Geschützwesens, &c., 1822, p. 74.
616 In firing against buildings, “ist es nicht eben von nöthen auf das Tempo genau Achtung zu geben.” Mieth, Artill. Recent. Praxis, Leipsig, 1683, lib. iii. c. 34.
617 In firing against troops, “the fuze must have such a length as ... to set fire to the powder as soon as the shell touches the ground.” “Universal Mil. Dict.,” Captain G. Smith, R.A., 1779; “Laboratory.”
618 A Chinese shell was thrown from the deck of one of our vessels into the sea, I forget by whom, in the attack on the Peiho Forts, 1860.
619 As was done more than once during the dynamite outrages in London some years ago.
620 At the siege of Gloucester, during the Great Rebellion, a grenado fell near Southgate; “but a woman coming by with a pail of water, threw the water thereon and extinguished the phuse thereof, so that it brake not.” Vicars’ “Jehovah Jireh,” 1646, i. 402.
621 “Per tempus quo quispiam non festinanter Symbolum Apostolorum recitare possit,” p. 174. Watches were invented by Huygens in 1674, and independently by Hooke in 1675. Ball’s “Mathematical Recreations,” 1892, p. 216.
622 Zur Geschichte der Artillerie, by Hauptmann C. Schneider, in Oesterreichische Mil. Zeitung, Wien, 1863, No. 79.
623 Theoria et Praxis Artill., Nürnberg, 1682, Part II., p. 62.
624 “Brände von Holtz, Papier oder Eisen,” ib.
625 “Man das Tempo entweder durch einen perpendicul oder nach einem perfecten und gewissen Tacte erkundigen muss,” ib.
626 “Das rechte Tempo nun zu finden, kan auf keine audere Weise, als aus den ersten Würffen erlernet werden.” Artill. Recent. Praxis, l. iii., c. 34, p. 45.
627 “Treatise on Artillery,” 1768, p. 204.
628 Ib., p. 203.
629 MS. letter kindly lent to me by Col. F. Whinyates, late R.H.A.
630 Gen. Piobert’s notes, communicated to Prof. Turquem and Capt. Favé, the translators of Gen. C. von Decker’s Expériences sur les Shrapnel, Paris, 1847, p. 320.
631 “Ammunition,” by Col. Sir V. D. Majendie, i. 235. The Prussians had a similar series of fuzes about the same time; Breithaupt, Der Entwicklungsgang ... der Zünderwesens, p. 21. On the 21st Nov. 1808, Shrapnel proposed to carry the bored fuzes in canvas bags painted different colours. Ord. Sel. Com., “Shrapnel Shell.”
632 Hasans er-Rammah in Reinaud and Favé, p. 25. This composition was called “priming,” and belonged to the “slow receipt” family.
633 Napoleon III., iii. 275.
634 Nye, p. 63, bis.
635 Spak’s Öfversigt öfver Artilleriets Uppkomst, &c., p. 157.
636 Muller’s “Treatise on Artillery,” 1768, p. 203.
637 J. G. von Hoyer’s Allgemeines Wörterbuch, Tübingen, 1804.
638 5″ fuze, official “Treatise on Ammunition.”
639 Beitrag zur Gesch. d. Artillerie, Haupt. C. Schneider, Wien, 1864.
640 See plate in Romocki, i. 343.
641 Art. Mag. Artilleriæ, &c., pt. i. bk. 4, c. 3. They were called “blind shell” because they gave out no light in their flight.
642 “Wer ein wenig Vernunft hat und nicht gar tumm ist, wird klar sehen dass dieselbe Invention einen sehr bald in die andere Welt schicken kan.” Artill. Recent. Prax., c. xi. p. 13.
643 Theor. et Praxis Artill., pt. i. p. 68.
644 “Cutting the Rigging,” Proposition iii.
645 MS. in Royal Library, Berlin, q. in Romocki, i. 347.
646 Cap. 48.
647 See his Patent, No. 3032, 11th April 1807.
648 We are told by Mr. Greener that “all the gunsmiths in England” laid claim to the invention of the cap: “The Gun and its Development,” 3rd ed., 1859, p. 110. How many of them, if any, established their claim I do not know; but it is absolutely certain that the notion of a copper cap struck Colonel Hawker in 1818. He gave a sketch of what he wanted to the celebrated Joe Manton, who made him some caps and adapted a gun for their use. “Instructions to Young Sportsmen,” by Col. Peter Hawker, 11th ed., 1859, p. 76.
649 The concussion fuze was set in action by the shock of discharge; the percussion fuze by the shock of impact with the target.
650 Reinaud and Favé, p. 180.
651 Marcus Græcus, recipe 33.
652 Hassan er-Rammah in Reinaud and Favé, p. 24.
653 1, 2, and 3 oz. rockets in Nye, p. 82.
654 Signal rocket, official “Treat. on Ammunition.”
655 Hassan, as above.
656 Official “Treat. on Ammunition.”
657 Hassan, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 27.
658 Kentish’s “Pyrotechnist’s Treasury,” 1878, p. 187, No. 13.