The first fire-arms appear to have consisted of two kinds; a larger one for discharging stones, called a bombard, ([plate 18], fig. 3) and a smaller for propelling darts and leaden balls, Used by the Black Prince, 1356.both of which were used in 1356, by the Black Prince, to reduce the castle of Romozantin; At St. Valery, 1358.and two years later, the artillery of St. Valery did great execution among its besiegers.
Cannon made in England, 1377
Cannon were made in England in the fourteenth century, and Richard II. commissioned Sir Thomas Norwich to buy two great and two small cannon in London, or in any other place; and also 600 balls of stone for cannon and for other engines, to be sent to the Castle of Bristol.
Cannon at St. Malo.
When the English unsuccessfully besieged St. Malo, 400 cannon are said to have been used, but these are supposed to have been of the smaller kind, called hand cannon, or culverins, which were carried by two men, and fired from a kind of tripod or rest fixed in the ground.
Cannon general.
From this period, cannon were used in all the offensive and defensive operations of war; though a considerable time elapsed before it became a really serviceable arm for field operations. The earlier kinds of cannon were called bombards or bombardæ. Those first employed were clumsy, ([plate 16]) and ill contrived, wider at the mouth than at the chamber. Bombards made of iron.They merely consisted of bars of iron, arranged in such a manner that their internal aspects should form a tube. The bars were not welded together, but merely confined by hoops. They were also made of iron bars over a cylinder of copper, strengthened by iron hoops, driven on red hot, and others were entirely composed of copper. Bronze.Bronze was also employed in the manufacture of artillery, as well as thin sheets of iron rolled together; Leather, rope, &c.and guns made of leather, and coiled rope, over a cylinder of copper or gun metal, were also introduced, and continued in use for a considerable time. Wood.Guns also appear to have been made of wood.
Rope mortar at Venice.
In the arsenal at Venice there is an ancient mortar, constructed of leather and rope, used in the siege of the island of Chioggia, near Venice, against the Genoese, 1380. The shot is of stone, 14in. in diameter.
Cannon of paper.