Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/159

Rh pounds of powder. For some of these ancient Turkish cannon the diameter of the stone shot was as much as a yard, while the length of the gun was only five yards.

It is not therefore so much in the size of heavy ordnance as in its efficiency that we of to-day are warranted in claiming much superiority over our ancestors. The plan of hooping iron staves together gradually gave place to that of molding guns, sometimes in cast iron, sometimes in bronze. Wrought iron also came extensively into use for the purpose of gun construction. The gun was made up of a succession of short forged tubes jointed together. Over each joint a ring was shrunk on while hot, for the sake of strengthening the whole. Many guns made in this way during the sixteenth century are still to be seen in European museums.

The use of breech-loading cannon is of considerable antiquity, despite the great difficulty that has been experienced in securing safety in their use. Among the earliest breech-loading devices was that of a short movable tube or chamber, closed at one end. This was loaded to its muzzle and then inserted into the breech of the large tube. It was propped behind with a heavy block of wood or iron, and firmly wedged into position before firing. It is readily seen that with such loose fittings much of the force of the powder was wasted. None of these guns were provided with any facilities for adjustment in aiming. The stone projectile was but poorly fitted to the size of the bore. Not only did much of the expanding gas escape without doing useful work, but the strength of the gun was never sufficient to warrant a charge of powder large enough to send the projectile more than a few hundred yards.

In course of time it became evident that greater efficiency was attainable by the use of smaller cannon and more accurate fitting. The clumsy and unmanageable heavy guns were discarded, and their places supplied by guns many of which were small enough to be carried by a single man. The introduction of the musket was merely one phase in the fluctuation of the waves of custom, a reaction after many unhappy experiences in the use of large cannon which had been inefficient and often more dangerous to the user than to the enemy. The musketeer with his burdensome flintlock became more important than the cannoneer in field work. A variety of forms of small cannon came into use, all of which were, like the muskets, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading arms, made of cast metal of one kind or another. Iron balls were substituted for those of stone, and about the beginning of the present century a weight of eighteen or twenty pounds was deemed best for most artillery purposes. War ships were equipped with armaments sometimes in excess of a hundred small cannon. Custom had