GUNS, History and Development. The early history of guns is involved in the mists of legend, doubt and conjecture. Their evo lution necessarily followed the development of gunpowder from the point of its ascertained capabilities as a propellant. According to reli able testimony, incendiary compositions pos sessing some explosive force were in use thou sands of years before the Christian era. Rockets, using an explosive closely resembling gunpowder, were used by the Chinese 1.000 to 2,000 years n.c.; and others carrying blazing arrows were employed in the time of Alexan der the Great. Greek fire, a fiercely burning incendiary composition, was used by the naval vessels of tie Eastern Empire from the 7th century onward and did much to defend it against the Turks and Italian states. Its com position seems to have varied or else the name was often applied to substances which were not justly entitled to the designation. The various compounds passing under the name were com posed of pitch, oil, salt, charcoal, sulphur and other substances. The pitch was an inflam mable resin; the oil in many cases was un doubtedly crude petroleum or crude naphtha; the salt of the real Greek fire was probably crude nitrate of potash or soda. Sulphur ap pears as an ingredient in Chinese powder and in some compositions made in Italy, but whether it was an ingredient of genuine*Greek fire is uncertain.
In the course of time, as the use of Greek fire became extended and its composition im proved, tubes were placed in the bows of the war galleys and the flaming material discharged through them upon the deck of the enemy when the vessels were in contact favorable to this operation. In the later types of tubes at least, the charge was placed in a brass cup or charging piece, resembling a beer stein, which was inserted in the inboard end of the tube. It is a significant fact that the earliest guns (ex cept hand-guns) of which we have cognizance were loaded in the same way, the powder charge being held in a charging-piece of the beer stein pattern. Marcus Grxcus, in his
work (A.D. 846) entitled (Incipit LiberIgnium a Marco Graeco prescriptus, cujus virtus et efficacia est ad comburendum hostes, tam in marl, quarn in terra,) describes several methods of making and launching fire upon an enemy, among them the following:— one pound of live sulphur, two of charcoal of willow, six of saltpeter, reduced to fine powder in a marble mortar and mixed together; a certain quantity is to be put in a long, narrow and well-com pacted cover and then discharged into the air. Apparently, the "cover" is a rocket tube. There is a receipt for gunpowder in the library of the Escorial which was written about 1250. It is believed that about this time the Arabs or Moors made hand grenades or bombs and fired small balls from tubes carried in the hand or attached to lance-heads. Mr. Joseph Ander son, a former secretary of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, states that large cannon were used in Europe in siege operations as early as the beginning of the 14th century but gives no details as to size of the pieces or to the places where used. The first English record of guns is a picture and description of a vase-shaped hand gun for firing an arrow; its date is 1326. In the same year the Florentine government appropriated money for the manufacture of guns which were intended for the defense of the city. In 1327, acralcys of warp were used by Edward III, in his campaign against the Scots. No description of these weapons is ex tant. aCralcys° were used by the French in 1338 and in the same year cannon are referred to in English documents. In 1339, cannon were used by the English at the siege of Cambrai; and Froissart alludes to their use in 1340. At this time experiments were being made at Tournay with long, pointed projectiles. This was not the wonderful innovation it might appear to be at first glance, for round stone balls had not long been in use and bundles of arrows were still fired from many light pieces.