Strictly speaking, the table ought to have included all the ammunition in use between the introduction of cannon and the introduction of rifled arms in the middle of the last century; but the principle has not been pushed to its limit, nor was it necessary to do so in order to enable the reader to form a clear notion of the broad divisions of ammunition. Machines lingered on for some time after the invention of cannon: in fact they were used at the siege of Constantinople in 1453. Their stone balls and pots of Greek fire are not formally included, because what is said of stone shot for guns in Chap. XIII. applies equally to stone balls for machines, and all that it was considered necessary to say about Greek fire has been said in Chap. III. Electric fuzes, and some few species of ammunition of little interest or value, have been also omitted, because their inclusion would have increased the size and complexity of the table without any counterbalancing advantage.

Ammunition for rifled guns has not been included, because it is for the most part an adaptation and development of smooth-bore ammunition.

TABLE IV

AMMUNITION┌
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
└		Hand ──────────────────────────────┌Fire Arrows, &c.
│Grenades, Incend.
└and Explos.
Automatic ───────────────────────────[ Rockets, War
Cannon ──┌
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
└		Charge ─────────────────────[ Gunpowder
Projectiles ─┌
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
│
└		Shock ────┌
│
│ Round
│ Shots ──
│
│
│
└		 Darts, &tc.
┌Stone
│Iron
│Bronze
└Lead
Case
Shrapnel
Incendiary ─────────┌Hot Shot
│Fireballs
│Shell
└Carcasses
Explosive ─────────┌Fireballs
└Shell
Igniters ───────────────────────┌
│
│
│
│
│ Fuzes ──
│
└		 Hot Wires
Priming Powder
Matches, Slow and Quick
Portfires
┌Tubes
│Time
│Percussion
└Concussion
signals ──────────────────────────────┌Rockets
└Fixed Lights

CHAPTER X
HAND AMMUNITION

Fire-Arrows and Fire-Pikes

The system of attaching incendiaries to arrows, lances, &c., survived the introduction of gunpowder and died a lingering death. In November 1588 the Government ordered the purchase of “20 Slurr Bows at 25s. each, and 20 doz. of firework arrows for the said slurr bows at 5s. the doz.”[380] From a list of naval stores for the year 1599, it would appear that fire-arrows were discharged from long-bows as well as slur-bows:—