Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/717

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 HE modern term Artillery is used in two senses,—firstly, to designate the matériel of artillery, i.e., the guns, &c.; secondly, the personnel and organisation by which the power of this arm is wielded. The word itself is derived by some from &quot; arcus,&quot; a bow; by others from &quot; ars telaria,&quot; signifying bows, arrows, and all implements of projectile warfare. The earliest forms of artillery were the &quot; engines invented by cunning men to shoot arrows and great stones,&quot; of which we read in the Old Testament; these developed, with the progress of military art, into the more elaborate machines used by the Romans under the names of catapulta, balista, battering-ram, (fee.; and under various forms and names this &quot; mechanical artillery &quot; con tinued in use, until the discovery of a propelling agent so powerful as to supersede all others and revolutionise both the implements and the art of war. The history of artillery proper may be said to date from the discovery of gunpowder. This is popularly attributed to the two monks, Roger Bacon and Bartholdus Schiraz, about the end of the 13th century (see ); but there is ample evidence that substances of somewhat similar composition and powers had been known and used for purposes of war in the East at far earlier times. The Chinese seem to have been the first discoverers of explosive compounds as engines of war, and to have used them for several centuries before the Christian era; and their &quot; thunder of the earth,&quot; produced by filling a huge bombshell with some such compound, and exploding it at the proper moment, is spoken of as early as the 3d or 4th centuries of our era. According to Father Amyot, stone mortars, projecting stone balls, were used by them in the 8th century; and although they were first in structed in the scientific casting of cannon by mission aries in the 17th century, there is evidence of large cannon and wall pieces of rough construction having been in use as early as the 12th century. The inhabitants of India seem to have possessed fire-arms of some sort as early as the time of Alexander; but the information is too meagre to admit of more than the merest speculation as to their nature. The celebrated Greek fire, of which we have ample accounts, was usually in a liquid form, and vomited through long copper tubes, with which the bows of vessels of war were provided, or projected in fire-balls, or by means of arrows and javelins around which flax was twisted. It was used by the Romans of the Eastern empire with much effect, especially at the defences of Constantinople (668-675 and 716-718 A.D.), and the secret of its manufacture was preserved with a superstitious care for nearly 400 years; but it afterwards passed into the hands of the Mahometans, and was much used by them in their wars with the Chris tians. The Moors first introduced fire-arms in western Europe; according to Conde&quot;, they used artillery against Saragossa in 1118 A.D., and a little later they defended Nicbla by means of machines which threw darts and stones through the agency of fire. The application of gunpowder to projectile warfare, and the use of cannon, became general in Europe during the 14th century. Mention is made, however, of isolated in stances of their employment at earlier periods, especially among the Moors. Artillery is also said to have been used by Henry III. of England during the rebellion of the Duke of Gloucester in 1267, and by the Spaniards against Cordova in 1280 and against Gibraltar in 1306. But it is held _ by those well qualified to judge, that the first unquestionable testimony of the employment of cannon is in 1338 under Edward III. of England. The substitution of the new engine for the old mechanical artillery was gradual, and was not effected without opposition; and in the 1 3th and early part of the 1 4th centuries, we still find various machines, such as the trebuchet, onazer, scorpion, and espringal, whose action was dependent on the elasticity of twisted cords, used to hurl stones, Greek fire, &c. The earliest trace of an artillery organisation, such as now plays so important a part in all great armies, is found in the middle of the 14th century. In 1344 Edward III. formed an artillery train and an ordnance establish ment, numbering 340 men; but of these only twelve were termed artillerymen and gunners, the remainder consisting of waggoners, engineers, and artificers of various kinds. The ordnance establishment at the siege of Harfleur, in 1415, included twenty-five master gunners and fifty &quot; ser- vitour gunners.&quot; The gunner of those days seems to have been the captain of the gun, and to have had general charge of the guns and stores, with the especial duty of laying and firing the piece in action. The manufacturing establish ments, now maintained on so gigantic a scale, do not seem to have sprung up till considerably later. Piobert states that gun-foundries were established in France in 1377; but we have no trace of them in Germany till 1440, and record of them is wanting in England until 1521. The guns of the 14th century were of the rudest make, cumbrous and inefficient, and though an advance on the earlier machines, and useful in sieges, still played but little part in battles. Whether Edward III. used them at Creci or not (a point which has been much debated), it may safely be affirmed that they had but little to do with the result of that day. Progress, however, began to show itself in the 15th century; the &quot;bombards&quot; were replaced by brass guns, and the cumbrous beds, upon which the earlier ordnance were transported, gave way to rude artillery- carriages on wheels; and iron was substituted for stone in the manufacture of projectiles. The first step towards a better organisation and some tactical system appears to have been made towards the end of the 15th century by Charles VIII. of France, who used a numerous artillery in his Italian campaigns; and Louis XII. largely owed his successes in Italy to this arm. Francis I. still further increased its mobility, adopting a lighter construction for field-guns, and having them drawn by the best description of horses; and in the defeat of the Swiss in 1515, &quot;the French artillery played a new and distinguished part, not only by protecting the centre of the army from the charges of the Swiss phalanxes, and causing them excessive loss, but also by rapidly taking up such positions from time to time during the battle as enabled the guns to play upon the flanks of the attacking columns.&quot; In England also considerable attention was bestowed on ordnance matters during this period, though the progress was not so great. In 1456 it is stated that a commission was issued to John Judd, as master-general of the ordnance; and in 1483 (Richard III.), Rauf Bigod was appointed master of the ordnance, an office which continued down to 1852. These early masters of the ordnance personally commanded the artillery in expeditions and wars, besides being responsible for the general administration of the personnel and materiel of such artillery as then existed. Henry VII. and Henry VIII. did much to advance the progress of artillery. Tartaglia gives tables of the different cannon in use about this time. The heavy pieces, i.e., advcrins, &c., were drawn by oxen, and corresponded to those now in use for 