HISTORY OF GUNPOWDER.
The History of Gunpowder may well form a prelude to that of Fire Arms, as the existence of the latter is wholly dependent on the discovery of the former. Of all the discoveries which have been made, there is, perhaps, none which has produced more important consequences to mankind than the discovery of Gunpowder, as by introducing fire-arms, and a new method of fortifying, attacking, and defending Towns, it wrought a complete change in the whole art of war.
Knock’s opinion.
The invention of Gunpowder is completely involved in obscurity, and this very fact is one great proof of its antiquity. Knock observes that the invention of Gunpowder comprises several discoveries, which it is necessary to distinguish from each other.
Order of discovery.
1st.—The discovery of Nitre, the principal ingredient, and the cause of its detonation.
2nd.—The mixture of nitre with sulphur and charcoal, which, properly speaking, form gunpowder.
3rd.—The application of powder to fire-works.
4th.—Its employment as a propelling agent for throwing stones, bullets, &c.
5th.—Its employment in springing mines and destroying fortifications.
All these discoveries belong to different periods.
Mr. Duten’s account.
Mr. Dutens carried the antiquity of gunpowder very high; and refers to the accounts given by Virgil, and others, of Salmonens’ attempt to imitate thunder, presuming from hence that he used a composition of the nature of Gunpowder.
Known in China, A. D. 85.
It has been said that it was used in China as early as the year A. D. 85, and that the knowledge of it was conveyed to us from the Arabs, on the return of the Crusaders to Europe.
Known in India, A. D. 250.
The Brahmas and Indians, whose practice is recorded by Philostratus, in his life of Appolonius Tyanœus, written about 1600 years ago. “These truly wise men,” says he, “dwell between the rivers Hyphasis and Ganges; their country Alexander never entered, their cities he never could have taken, for they come not out to the field to fight those who attack them, but they overthrow their enemies with tempests and thunderbolts, shot from their walls.”
This is a most striking illustration of the antiquity of Gunpowder, for if some such composition be not implied in the foregoing quotation, it must remain for ever perfectly unintelligible.
Saltpetre, which is the principal ingredient of Gunpowder, is found in its natural state in the East, and from this it seems highly probable they were acquainted with the composition of Gunpowder before the Europeans.
Powder at siege of Mecca, A. D. 690.
The Arabs are said to have employed Gunpowder at the siege of Mecca, A. D. 690.
Oldest book on gunpowder A. D. 900.
There is a manuscript book still extant, entitled Liber Ignium, written by Marcus Græcus, who lived about the end of the eighth century, and the composition there prescribed is 6lbs. saltpetre, 2lbs. charcoal, 1lb. sulphur, to be well powdered and mixed in a stone mortar.
Work on gunpowder in Escurial Collection A. D. 1249.
There is in the Escurial Collection a treatise on Gunpowder, written in 1249.
Roger Bacon on powder, A. D. 1267.
Our countryman, Roger Bacon, who was born 1214, and published works at Oxford 1267, expressly mentions the ingredients of Gunpowder, not as any new discovery, but as a well known composition, used for recreation. He describes it as producing a noise like thunder, and flashes like lightning, but more terrible than those produced by nature; and adds that it might be applied to the destruction of an army or a city. Bacon, in his treatise “De Secretis Operibus,” says that from saltpetre, sulphur, and wood coals, we are able to make a fire that shall burn at any distance we please.
Tradition of Schwartz, A. D. 1320.
The common tradition of Bartholdus Schwartz having invented Gunpowder and Artillery, about 1320, is without the slightest foundation, but he might possibly have suggested the simplest application of it to warlike purposes, in consequence of some accidental explosion while mixing the ingredients in a Mortar. mortar. Indeed, the name, as well as the form of the old species of artillery, which was employed to throw large bullets at an elevation, strongly corroborate this conjecture; but Schwartz cannot lay any claim to originality of invention.
Powder made in the reign of Richard II. 1378.
Gunpowder was made in England in the fourteenth century, as Richard II. commissioned Sir Thomas Norwich to buy, in London, or in any other place, certain quantities of “sulphur, saltpetre, and charcoal,” for making Gunpowder.
Tartaglia on Powder, A. D. 1500.
Tartaglia, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, sets down twenty-three different compositions, made use of at different times, the first of which, being the most ancient, consists of equal parts of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal.
Ancient gunpowder weak.
Gunpowder, for some time after the invention of artillery, was of a composition much weaker than what we now use, or than that ancient one mentioned by Marcus Græcus; but this, it is presumed, was owing to the weakness of their first pieces, rather than to the ignorance of a better mixture.
Graining.
The change of the proportion of the materials composing it was not the only improvement it received. The invention of graining it is doubtless a considerable advantage to it; for powder, at first, was always in the form of fine meal, such as it was reduced to by grinding the materials together. It is doubtful whether the first graining of powder was intended to increase its strength, or only to render it more convenient for the filling into small charges, and the charging of small arms, to which alone it was applied for many years, whilst meal-powder was still made use of in cannon. But at last the additional strength which the grained powder was found to acquire from the free passage of the fire between the grains, occasioned the meal-powder to be entirely laid aside.
Tartaglia wrote, 1537.
That powder was first used in meal, and continued in its old form for cannon long after the invention of graining it for small arms, are facts not to be contested. Tartaglia expressly asserts that in his time cannon-powder was in meal, and the musket-powder grained. William Bourne, 1577.And our countryman, William Bourne, in his “Art of Shooting in great Ordnaunce,” published forty years after Tartaglia, tells us, in chap. I, that serpentine powder, (which he opposes to corn, or grained-powder) should be as fine as sand, and as soft as flour: and in his third chapter he says that two pounds of corn-powder will go as far as three pounds of serpentine-powder.
Tartaglia on the proportions.
We learn from Tartaglia, that the cannon-powder was made of four parts saltpetre, one part sulphur, and one part charcoal; and the musket-powder of forty-eight parts saltpetre, seven parts sulphur, and eight parts charcoal; or of eighteen parts saltpetre, two parts sulphur, and three parts charcoal. These compositions for musket powder are very near the present standard; the first having, in one hundred pounds of powder, about one pound of saltpetre more than is at present allowed, and the second three pounds more.
Nye’s treatise on the proportions.
Nye, in his treatise on fireworks, gives the proportions of the ingredients, and the dates when they are used, thus in 1380 equal parts of each were employed. This would be about as efficient as a common squib of the present time. In 1410, three parts saltpetre, two sulphur, and two charcoal. In 1520, for the best powder, four parts saltpetre, one sulphur, and one charcoal, and afterwards, five saltpetre, one sulphur, and one charcoal.
Early gunpowder mere mixture.
In fact, Gunpowder was merely those substances, combined, with little or no purification. It was not at first corned or grained, as at present, but remained in its mealed state, and was called “serpentine powder,” in several accounts of stores in the time of Edward VI., and Elizabeth.
Two kinds.
Soon after this two kinds of powder were used for the same gun, one in its mealed state (for priming only) as being more readily ignited by the match, the other, corned or grained, for the charge in the gun barrel.
Powder first used to explode mines in 15th century.
The application of powder to mines, and to the destruction of fortifications, does not appear to have been in practice before the end of the fifteenth century.
Elizabeth had powder made, 1558 to 1603.
Camden, in his life of Queen Elizabeth, says that she was the first who procured Gunpowder to be made in England, that she might not pray and pay for it also to her neighbours; but it has been stated that it was previously made in the reign of Richard II.
Charles I. from A. D. 1625 to 1649.
Sir Henry Manwayring, in his Seaman’s Dictionary, presented to the Duke of Buckingham, in the time of Charles 1st, under the word powder, tells us, “There are two kinds of powder, the one serpentine-powder, which powder is dust (as it were) without corning. The other is “corn-powder;” though he informs us the serpentine-powder was not used at sea. Indeed, when that book was written, it is believed powder was usually corned, for the foreign writers on artillery had long before recommended its general use.
Causes which checked the progress of Fire-Arms.
Various circumstances tended to check the progress of fire-arms, and the improvement of artillery, for a long period after the invention of gunpowder. Custom made most people prefer the ancient engines of war. The construction of artillery was very awkward and imperfect; and the bad quality and manufacture of gunpowder, so that it could produce but little effect; Fire-Arms supposed to extinguish bravery, and to be contrary to humanity.and there was a general aversion to the newly invented arms, as calculated to extinguish military bravery, and as being contrary to humanity; but above all, the knights (whose science was rendered completely useless by the introduction of fire-arms) opposed, with all their might, this invention, Fire-Arms expensive and powder difficult to procure.to which may be added the great cost and difficulty of procuring gunpowder.
Rockets in India.
It is known that iron rockets have been used in India as military weapons, time out of mind. (See [plate 4], fig. 3.)