Invention: The Master-key to Progress

by Bradley A. Fiske

The period from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the fourteenth century was almost destitute in the matter of inventions that can be distinctly named: though the conception and carrying into effect of Mohammedanism in the seventh century, the campaigns and governmental systems of Charlemagne in the ninth century, the invasion of England by William of Normandy in the eleventh century, and the Crusades in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as well as all the numerous wars and campaigns that succeeded each other so rapidly, indicate a mental and nervous restlessness which sought relief in action, and which received guidance in seeking that relief from the suggestions of invention.

During the interval, paper is supposed by some to have been invented, or at least the art of making it from rags. Paper itself, however, had been invented long before in China.

The early part of the twelfth century opened a new era in Europe with the introduction of one of the most important inventions ever made, the gun. It is often said that gunpowder was invented then. Gunpowder, of course, had been invented or discovered many centuries before.

There is much obscurity about the invention of gunpowder. It is usually supposed to have been invented in China, and to have crept its way first to the western Asian nations, and afterwards to Europe by way of the Mediterranean. There can be little doubt that gunpowder was known to the Romans in the days of the empire; and some accounts of Alexander's campaigns declare that he used mines to destroy the walls of Gaza.

It is supposed by many that the Chinese had cannon, from certain embrasures in some of their ancient walls; but there seems to be no absolute proof of this. It seems fairly well established that the Moors used artillery in Spain in the twelfth century; though some writers hold that what were called firearms in Europe before the fourteenth century were only engines which threw fire into besieged places.

It seems probable that the gun was invented as the result of an accident that occurred while some man was pounding the (gunpowder) mixture of charcoal, saltpetre and sulphur in a receptacle of some kind. According to one story, the mixture exploded and threw the pestle violently out of the mortar. From this incident, the man who was handling the pestle, or a bystander, is supposed to have conceived the idea that the powder could be used intentionally to throw projectiles, and he is supposed also to have actually proved that it could be done at will, and to have produced a concrete appliance for doing it. From the history of the case, it would seem that the first gun was what we still call a "mortar."

It may occur to some that (conceding the story to be true, which it possibly is, in essentials) the gun was not an invention so much as a discovery. It may be pointed out, however, that while the fact that gunpowder would blow a pestle out of a mortar might be truly called a discovery, yet the conception of utilizing the discovery by making a weapon, and the subsequent making of the weapon constituted an invention of the most clean-cut kind.

Let us realize the extreme improbability that the phenomenon of the expulsive force of gunpowder was then noted for the first time. It seems probable that accidental ignition of the mixture had often occurred before, and missiles hurled in all directions in consequence. But, as happens in the vast majority of all incidents, no one imagined any possible utilization of the facts disclosed by the incident; and if the man who invented the gun, after witnessing the expulsion of the pestle from the mortar, had not been endowed with both imagination and constructiveness, he would have treated it as most of us treat an incident—merely as an incident. But the imagination of this man must at once have conceived a picture of what we now call a mortar, which should be designed and constructed so that projectiles could be expelled from it at will, in whatever direction the mortar were pointing; and then his constructive faculty must have taken up the task that imagination had suggested, and developed the conception into a concrete thing.

Into the long, elaborate and exciting history of the development of the gun, that has been carried on with enormous energy ever since, it is not necessary at this point to enter. Since the sixteenth century, its history is accurately known, and many large books are filled with descriptions and diagrams and mathematical tables and formulæ that recount its progress in detail; while the histories of all the nations blaze with stories of the battles in which guns have been employed. Of all the inventions ever made, it is doubtful if the development and improvement of any other has enlisted the services of a greater number of men and of more important men, than the gun. It is more than doubtful if a greater amount of money has been expended on any other invention, if a greater number of experiments have been made, or if more mental and physical energy has been expended. Certain it is that no other invention has had so direct and powerful an effect on human beings; for the number of men it has killed and wounded must be expressed in terms of millions.

This phase of the influence of the gun on history is clearly marked. Not so clearly marked, but really more important, has been its influence in deciding wars; for the ways in which wars have been decided have been the turning points in the march of history. The issue of Alexander's wars, for instance, had decided that Greek civilization should not perish, but survive; the issue of Cæsar's wars in Gaul had decided that Roman civilization should extend north over Europe, and that the western incursion of the savage Germans should be stopped; the issue of the wars between the vigorous Goths and degenerate Rome had decided that Rome must die; and so forth, and so forth. So, after the invention of the gun, the issue of every succeeding war supplied a new turning point for history to follow. Naturally, those nations that took the most skilful, prompt and thorough advantage of the power, range and accuracy of the new invention gained in almost every case the victory over their opponents.