About the same time the Duke of Brunswick substituted lead bullets for the small stone balls previously used in his artillery. There is very little doubt that the British used cannon or large hand guns (metal tubes 12 to 18 inches long, one and five-tenths to'two inches in di ameter secured to the end of an iron rod) at the battle of Crecy in 1346. Edward III, in 1347, used hand guns or very small cannon at the siege of Calais; their power and size can be judged from the fact that the daily allow ance of powder for eachwas about three ounces and the daily supply projectiles for 20 guns was 204 lead shot and 12 pieces of lead.
During the period 1250-1350 A.D. the history of maritime affairs is most unsatisfactory. The Venetians, Genoese, Turks, Moors, Greeks (Eastern Empire) fought many battles but the use of guns is not mentioned in the accounts of them. If cannon were used they contributed little to the result. We may, therefore, con clude that any which may have been employed were weak and ineffective. In the year 1350, however, in a sea fight between the Moorish naval forces of Tunis and Seville, cannon played a leading part; and soon afterward are found on all war vessels. In 1372, short guns of a calibre of several inches were used by the French galleys at the battle of Rhodes. Dur ing the latter half of the 14th century the new weapons grew rapidly in size, especially those used for siege and defensive purposes. While the smaller ones continued to be made as breech loaders for 200 years more, guns of large size were almost invariably designed for muzzle loading. These pieces were at first built up of iron staves arranged around the bore in one or two concentric layers, welded together, and banded with iron rings shrunk on. In some pieces these were a considerable distance apart; but in most of them the rings were close to gether. Such are the Dulle Griete and Mons Meg, guns of the period that are still in exist ence. The former is sometimes called the °great bombard of Ghent" where it was built about 1382 and where it is still preserved as one of the city's chief treasures. It is 16 feet 5 inches long, weighs about 13 tons, and fired a granite ball of 700 pounds. The diameter of the bore is 25 inches. In rear of this is the slightly conical powder chamber, 10 inches in diameter at the front end and six inches at the rear. The part of the gun containing the chamber is smaller than the front part of the gun and is believed to form a separate section screwed to the other. The Mons Meg in Edinburgh Castle is of very similar design but smaller, having a calibre of 20 inches and firing a granite shot of 330 pounds. About the end of the 14th century or early in the 15th, machine (i.e., multiple-tube) guns began to ap pear. In Germany they were called "death org-ans° and were made of a number of barrels placed side by side; Weigel mentions one which had 33 barrels or °pipes.° While most of the large pieces of the 13th and 14th centuries were built up of iron bars and rings, cast bronze guns grew steadily in favor. The first one of which we have information was cast at Augs burg in 1378. During the early part of the 14th century many others appeared. In 1451 Ma hornet II, cast some very large bronze pieces for the attack on Constantinople. The size of the
first three is not exactly known as the descrip tions are inaccurate and confusing. One is said to have had a calibre of 25 inches and to have fired a stone ball of more than 600 pounds weight; the other two were nearly as large. They were, therefore, about the size of the Dulle Griete. Much larger guns of similar pattern were afterward installed in the defenses of the Dardanelles. They fired stone shot of 1,100 pounds and had a calibre of about 30 inches.
Guns of widely diverse types appeared in the 15th century. Mortars of three or four calibres length and long breech-loading guns of 60 calibres were used side by side. The charges of powder used in each were ridiculously small though the powder chambers of muzzle-loading bombards were of such size as to indicate a low density of loading— probably to facilitate com bustion of the charge as the powder used in the guns of the 14th and 15th centuries was usually of very inferior quality. The ingre dients were often impure, imperfectly prepared, and, being commonly mixed on the spot, were unevenly combined. The proportions used varied within wide limits. Sometimes they were one part saltpeter, one part charcoal, one part of sulphur. Even when the designed pro portions were correct, the ingredients were measured by guess and mixed without care: Each substance was supposed to be carefully powdered in a mortar so that the resulting product was of the same consistency. The term "serpentine)) was applied to these so-called °mated° powders and, after granulation became common, to any mealed powder. The granula tion of early powders was effected by mixing the ingredients in a moist condition and then drying. The grains were irregular in size and shape but all were small. Granulated or powder, as it was first called, came slowly into use during the 15th century, being employed in some hand-guns as early as 1429 at least. In charges of some size it burned more rapidly than the closely packed or °serpentine) powder and was not much used in large cannon until they had been increased in strength and both gun and powder adopted to each other. Spherical cast-iron, cast-brass and cast-lead shot were used to some extent in guns of moderate or small calibre before the projection of arrows and bundles of arrows or stones were given up. Stone shot continued in use in very large guns until the 17th century when the construction of pieces of excessive calibre was abandoned. Cast-iron shot came into general use for medium and small calibres about 1450 and by 1500 had displaced stone entirely in guns of that character. Incendiary shell fired from mortars soon became explosive shell, hut it was not until late in the 17th cen tury that they were made self-igniting— that is, ignited by the flame of discharge. Bundles of bullets, bolts and metal fragments of all sorts, pieces of chain, iron bars and the like were fired from long or short guns whenever they seemed likely to prove effective. As an ade quate quantity of such material was not always at hand, bar-shot, double-headed shot, chain shot, case-shot, grape, etc., were designed and made a part of the projectile supply for large guns.