Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/342

 328 GUNPOWDER tion are buried in obscurity. Sebastian Miin- ster (1544) wrote concerning it that tradition and literature generally ascribed the discovery of " the dreadful cannon " to the year 1380, and that the majority believed the inventor to have been a monk ; adding that " the villain who brought into the world so mischievous a thing is not worthy that his name should re- main in the memory of men." This allusion refers to "the black Barthel," or Berthold Schwarz, a monk of the Hartz or the Rhine- land, concerning whom there is much dispute. The following condensed extract from a long chronological statement, compiled by Rziha, shows the controversy about Schwarz to be of subordinate importance : SO. The Chinese (according to tradition) had already ob- tained from India a knowledge of gunpowder. 215. Julius Africanus (according to Meyer) described its preparation. 663. Callinicus of Hcliopolis introduced Greek fire to the Byzantines. This was probably a mixture like gun- powder, with resin and petroleum ; it was certainly no fluid, and according to one author was used to project stone balls from pipes. It may nevertheless nave been a rocket mixture or a bomb filling. 690. The Arabs used firearms against Mecca, bringing the . knowledge of them from India. 811. The emperor Leo employed firearms. 846. Marcus Gracchus, a Greek author (MS. said to be at Oxford), described a mixture of 1 Ib. of sulphur, 2 Ibs. of charcoal, and 6 Ibs. of saltpetre. 830. Leo the Philosopher made rockets for the army of the eastern empire. 1078. King Solomon of Hungary bombarded Belgrade with cannon. 1086. In a naval battle near Toledo, the ships of Tunis shot " fiery thunder." 1098. The Greek ships used artillery against the Pisans. 1282. The Tartars employed " fire pipes" against the Chinese. 1288. Don Jaime threw into Valencia fiery balls which burst. 1247. Seville was bombarded with artillery. 1249. Damietta was defended against St. Louis with bombs, which on this and other occasions were much dreaded by the crusaders. 1250. Death at Cologne of Albertns Magnus, a preaching monk, said by some ancient writers to have invent- ed " bombardam, bombardulam et scolpum ma- nunlem.' 1  1-294. Death of Roger Bacon, in whose works the destructive qualities of saltpetre, and the production of terrible thunder and lightning from its compounds, are al- luded to as well known. 1803. Reported date on an ancient cannon, now in the arsenal of Amberg, Bavaria. 1303. The Spaniards had artillery before Gibraltar. 1811. Henry VII. bombarded Brescia with "thunder guns." l:il-J. The Arabs had cannon before Baza. 1 '.-i. Martos was attacked with artillery. 1380. Berthold Schwarz is said to have discovered gunpowder Different authors say 1320, 1864, and 18SO. MSS. in the monasteries perhaps informed him. From this time on, the allusions to the use of gunpowder become far more numerous and au- thentic. Plainly, its military use was revived in Germany, and carried thence to Italy. There is record of a powder mill at Augsburg in 1340 and in 1344 (or 1357, or 1366) Petrarch de- scribed the terrible effects of the newly invent- ed but already widely used powder and can- non. They are said to have been employed at Alicante in 1331, at Pui Guillaume in 1338, at Salado in 1340, at Algeciras in 1342, and at Crecy in 1346. In 1378 the English had 400 cannon before St. Malo. In 1397 mines were exploded with powder before Herat ; and the same tactics were employed on a larger scale at Belgrade in 1441, at Milan in 1523 (with poor success), and by the Turks in 1529 at Vi- enna, and in 1565 at Malta. England import- ed gunpowder from Sweden and elsewhere until 1560, when its domestic manufacture be- gan. The employment of gunpowder for blast- ing rocks is far more recent than its military use. The following dates and memoranda will convey an epitome of its history in this re- spect: In 1613 Martin Weigel, chief superin- tendent at Freiberg, proposed boring and blast- ing in the mines. Traditions of an earlier use in Germany have probably arisen from con- founding the ancient method of building fires in the mines, to crack the hard rocks, with that of blasting. It was about 14 years before the new method was successfully introduced in Germany. Reckoning from 1613, the pro- cess was carried to England by German mi- ners after 57 years, to Sweden after 111 years. For 72 years the bore holes were closed with solid plugs, instead of clay tamping; for 83 years the practicability and advantage of small holes were unknown ; and for more than a century the operation of blasting was consid- ered as merely auxiliary to the work of the pick, gad, hammer, and chisel. (See BLAST- ING.) The manufacture of gunpowder has been greatly improved from time to time in mechanical details, affecting both the safety of the process and the quality of the product. The first step is the preparation of the ingre- dients. The original impurities in a solution obtained by leaching saltpetre earth are nitrates of soda, lime, and magnesia ; chlorides of po- tassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium; sulphate of lime, various salts of ammonia, and organic substances (humus) partly held in solu- tion by carbonate of ammonia. By the pro- cesses of the saltpetre manufacture these im- purities are reduced to two principal ones, the chlorides of potassium and sodium, which are still contained in the commercial saltpetre. These salts, which if allowed to remain would attract moisture and deteriorate the powder, are removed by a simple process of refining, based upon their relative solubility at different temperatures. The proportions that will be dissolved by 100 parts of water at various tem- peratures (centigrade) are as follows : SALTS. 0* 12 16 18 45 97 100* 400 67-6

Saltpetre Chloride of potassium Chloride of sodium 18-8 29-3 85-5 34 : 5 36-0 85 : 6 29-0 74-6 286

It will be seen that the solubility of chloride of sodium does not greatly increase with tem- perature. If desirable, the chloride of potas- sium can be altogether transformed into chlo- ride of sodium by the addition of nitrate of soda, which by a double decomposition yields both chloride of sodium and additional salt- petre. A crude material, containing say 4.800 Ibs. of saltpetre, 360 Ibs. of chloride of potas-